Detailed, colorful watercolor illustrations enhance this story of a dinosaur-loving family.  Son Carl wants to be a dinosaur and the entire family gets involved with choosing a dinosaur with particular qualities or characteristics.  Twelve dinosaurs that walk, fly, or swim are emphasized as each family member tries to make a decision.  The artwork is large, ample, and vibrant.  The last pages provide additional facts about each dinosaur in the story.  An interesting feature is a timeline of periods from the Permian to the Cretaceous so one can see in which period each dinosaur live.  This is a great mix of fact and fiction.

At first glance, I was impressed with the illustrations that accompany the text.  It’s almost a cross between a middle grades book and a graphic novel, which makes it a great option for students to bridge that gap.  The main character, Dexter Drabner, has an active imagination, and I think students will connect with him.  The story begins with a dream sequence and continues with Dexter filling in for one of his favorite superheroes, Toby Falcon, who is a skateboard-riding spy!  An accident in Dexter’s science classroom causes a large, mutant rat to be on the loose.  The only turn-off was the emphasis on “rat gas power” (flatulence) to produce electric power.  Overall, though, this is an engaging book designed for students grades 2-5.

This informational text about the Hubble Space Telescope covers how the telescope works, what missions it is has been apart of and what it is. Informational text features complement the text and add to the learning. There is even a diagram of the Hubble Space Telescope. The end of the book includes a section of books and websites to learn more about it.

The illustrations and simple text were the first things that attracted me to this book. It starts out with a view from space and the words, “The world is full of great big things:”. It goes on to show really big things: a canyon, billions of stars, the wide desert. And then it focuses on one mouse who travels throughout the book in the wind, on a massive train, through a forest, with only a crumb and at the end reaches another mouse and gives them the crumb. The message is that great big things are very small when you go through them for someone you love.

A fox sees a snowflake floating through the air and wonders what he should do because winter is coming. Each animal that the fox meets gives suggestions based on what they do to get ready for winter. The squirrel gathers, the bat hangs by its toes and goes to sleep, and the snowshoe hare turns white to match the snow. Each time the fox says, “That won’t do for me.” At the end, the fox meets another fox and they dance in the snow. The text is engaging as well as informative about animal behavior. The illustrations are beautiful and work with the text to create a soft tone reminiscent of winter snowfall.

A Nosy Fox opens a box to find robot parts inside. Different characters come along to try to make to robot work, but are not successful. “the Eager Beaver pulled the lever, the Wicked Witch flicked the switch…” After each character does something to the robot, the robot makes a noise. Finally a child comes along and takes charge, directing the animals what to do to create the robot.

The text is cumulative and rhyming. The onomatopoeia and illustrations contribute to the chaos that is going on. The confusion and chaos continues, as the last line states “and the robot went.” and he walks off into the sunset.

This text gives an overview of how chocolate is made. Two to three sentences are on a page and each two page spread includes a photograph related to the text on the page. The text includes many informational text features including words in color, a map, glossary, and an index. There is also a code for abdokids.com which has a video, activities and links to other information about how chocolate is made.

As a young girl goes over the rules and manners for attending a tea, she is continuously interrupted by a toot. They go through the suspects and the reasons why they could not of tooted. “Owls don’t toot, they hoot.” She decides to cancel her tea party since no one will tell her who keeps tooting and as she walks back to the house, she discovers that it is the teakettle. They decide to have the tea and then the young girl toots. There is an afterword about how to make tea and what to include at a tea party.

Plankton happens upon Mussel and says hello. Mussel does not reply and Plankton feels that Mussel is being rude. Plankton goes on to explain that Mussel should reply, yet Mussel remains silent further frustrating Plankton. When Mussel finally opens, Plankton can’t hear him, so he gets closer and closer until… SNAP! Mussel closes over Plankton. The entire story is told as a one sided conversation and from the point of view of Plankton. The illustrations give us clues to how Plankton is feeling.

Written in the third person point of view, The Lost Causes tells the story of five teens who are just that: lost causes. Or so their parents, teachers, and counselors describe them as such. One is a rich depressive, another has OCD, one is a hypochondriac, another a drug abuser, and there is athlete with serious anger management issues. All are chosen for intensive group therapy because other options have been exhausted. The reader is surprised when they are tapped by the FBI to help with a murder investigation and help find the killer whose grisly crime has turned their small town upside down.

The teens think they are assigned to a therapy group, but in fact, the beverage the therapist (actually an FBI agent) gives them is a dangerous serum that erases their teen past problems and unlocks a psychic ability within each of them. Suddenly, Z can hear other people’s thoughts, Andrew becomes a genius, Justin can throw people off with his mind, Gabby can see people’s past by touch, and Sabrina can see dead people. Their new powers will help them uncover clues and follow leads that have eluded the authorities. Their outsider status gives them the perfect cover.

Their earlier problems have vanished, but their new freedom comes with a price, as the same traits that make them excellent investigators also make them vulnerable. As they close in on the murderer, they expose a larger conspiracy that puts them directly in harm’s way and makes them wonder if there is anyone at all that they can trust.

The Lost Causes is a page turner that mingles science fiction with mystery, and ends with a completely unexpected cliffhanger that will leave the reader longing for a sequel.