It’s a cotton candy book. It will be popularly checked out, and loved by many, if only for its pretty, pink, sparkly cover and the pretty, sparkly rainbow on the last page. Oh, and because it’s full of fairies. It tells the story of Twinkle and her fairy friends, on their way to their Fairy Godmother’s garden party. As pretty as the roses are when they arrive, Twinkle’s friend Pippa wishes that more of them were pink, so Twinkle tries her hand at making them so, but making them so, but as she is still a bit of a novice with her magic wand, she manages to turn the entire garden and everything in it pink by mistake. When she is unable to undo her mischief, she fesses up to her Godmother, who opts for a perfectly pink party, at the end of which Twinkle’s fair power grew, and she is able to wish the world back to a rainbow of colors (on a very sparkly rainbow page).

It’s cute. Even if I don’t really like the font for some reason. The story tells about when a seed lands and starts sending down a root. The personified animals who live underground near where the root begins to grow (a mole, a family of field mice, and some ants), are all rather annoyed by the way the root begins to disrupt their lives. It blocks the paths the ants are trying to make, it pokes a hole in the mole’s bathroom ceiling, and eventually it pokes it’s way through the home of the field mice so badly that they have to move. For most of the book, about two thirds of the page area is dedicated to the illustrations of what is happening underground, with only the top third showing what’s happening above. Until they all storm up in their frustration, ready to bring the plant to its end, until one of the little mice stops them and pleads the plant’s case, pointing out that it provides shade and a view point for the ants and play space for the mice and tomatoes for all.

For a child, questioning the world starts with the everyday activities of life. Liwska poses question after question about such things as birthdays, being heard, and making choices just as a child might. Her sweet and sometimes humorous animal illustrations slow the reader and promote reflection and discussion. Liwska’s questions slowly progress into questions that dig deeper and instigate meaningful reflection of self and community. With her book, she provides an age appropriate way to encourage mindfulness in our younger students.

In South Sudan, Nya has to walk every day to a well to fill up water jugs for the family. Today, her mom makes her take her younger sister, Akeer along too. Akeer is tired and keeps slowing Nya. Nya tries to distract Akeer by pointing out things to see, and singing the clapping game song. At the watering hole, they drink deeply and play the clapping game twice before heading back towards home. On the return trip, Akeer drags her feet, walking even more slowly. Finally she starts to cry and sits down. Nya snaps at her, but then realizes Akeer is not usually a crybaby. When Nya knelt, she realized Akeer was sick with a fever and they were half a morning’s walk from home. Nya couldn’t leave Akeer and they couldn’t wait for what might be hours for someone to come along. Nya emptied part of the jug and had Akeer climb on her back and tied her on with a headscarf. Together Akeer and the jug were so heavy, Nya could only walk a few steps at a time before she had to rest. As she approaches the village, people rush to take Akeer and the water from her and she sinks to the ground exhausted. No matter how tired, her mother needs Nya’s help to carry food water for the 2-3 day walk to the clinic to get Akeer help.

The story is a powerful message on the scarcity of safe water for large numbers of the world’s people. The endpapers include information about Salva Dut, a former refuge who with his organization, Water for South Sudan, is installing wells to provide clean water. While told through fictional characters, the story also illustrates how access to clean water also made it possible for young girls to receive schooling.

Nya’s Long Walk is a picture book companion to Linda Sue Park’s novel, A Long Walk to Water.

Follow along as Ginny tries to find the perfect pet. She likes goats but they are too messy to have in the house. Ginny ventures to the beach, the hills, the forest and outer space looking for the perfect pet but definitely not a monster. If Ginny can not find the perfect pet, maybe she shouldn’t have a pet at all. Read this cute read aloud book to find out which pet Ginny gets in the end.

Blue is working to find freedom for her friend, Crow. However, she’s also very much a part of the ongoing war between Goswing and Grimmaea. Blue, being half Grimmaean, has a difficult time getting someone to listen to her. Hector is a journalist who is trying to help, but no one wants to listen to the stories he writes or the truths he shares. The draft age has been lowered and Hector is being pressured to enlist even though he’s only seventeen, It seems the world has gone mad while Blue and Hector work hard to get anyone to listen to reason.

EndGames is the sequel to NewsPrints. If you haven;t read the first book then this will be difficult to understand. It works to tie up some loose ends from the first book, but it does take awhile to get there. This book takes a pointed look at how pride and greed can fuel conflicts as well as looking at racial profiling and gender roles. There are no language issues. It does deal with war violence and racial prejudice.

It’s definitely the middle book of a trilogy, and one you wouldn’t really want to purchase without having the rest of the series available, too. But I give it points for standing on its own well enough that if a student randomly picks this one up without having read book #1 (which I hadn’t), they can enjoy this adventure anyway. Enough information is explained along the way so you get the gist of what has gone on before, but this one has it’s own beginning-middle-end. Readers who enjoy it would be drawn into seeking out the other books, but it wouldn’t hurt too much that they read them out of order.It’s the story of Egg (short for Egbert), and his friends traveling through lands where they don’t speak the languages in search of someone who can help them decipher a treasure map, while dodging others who are after their secrets. It’s got pirates and jungles and human sacrifice and slave traders and a bit of romance, too.

You definitely don’t want to buy this one unless you already have or are intending to also purchase the rest of the series. This is definitely one of those series books that needs the rest of the series to complete it. As a stand-alone book this one lacks any sense of beginning-middle-end. You definitely feel like it’s all part of the middle of something bigger. There’s enough explanation offered along the way to allow the reader to more or less follow along, but it’s clear you’re missing out if you haven’t read what came before, and it ends with a cliff-hanger that leaves you feeling incomplete. It opens with two kids (the main characters) racing for their lives through some city they have just mysteriously found themselves in, being chased by bad guys. On the run and in hiding, they need to contact their adult companion while avoiding the supernatural evils who are after them, because there’s been some sort of rift opened between the world of the dead and the world of the living, and they need to put it right. It’s got an online game coordinated with it as a gimmick which will appeal to some.

This book manages to do something I appreciate but often fail to find: though it is the 6th book in a series, it stands on its own two feet, as a satisfying story itself. It has a clear beginning, middle and end of its own, and the author offers enough backstory explanation woven into this one that as a reader who has not read the rest of the series, I was able to enjoy this one just fine; I could tell these characters had had previous adventures and relationships, and reading this one gives me the hook to want to go read those others, but I did not feel like I was wandering through this story blindfolded. It opens as a slapdash “pack” of wolves, bears, and an owl find themselves compelled to leave their homeland and brave crossing a dangerous ice bridge into the unknown, as their only hope of survival. It tells of the dangers they face throughout their journey, some from nature itself, some from an enemy pack on their trail. It also tells of the friendships and discoveries made along the way.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve written a book review for a book I didn’t finish. I tried. I forced my way through 100 pages to give it a fair shot and see if it was going to finally get better. But I gave up. It’s slow, and rambling, and boring, with nothing offered to make the reader care about the characters or what is happening. In reading the translator’s afterword, I learned that it was originally published in the 1930s in Poland, as a serial, at a time when little was available in the way of stories written for children. This edition does not succeed in bridging the cultural gap between 1930s Poland and 2000s America. I don’t know of any child who will stick with this book past the first 10-20 pages. When I read in the afterword that, “We shall also never know if the story ever had an ending,” I thought I could never justify asking a child to slog through something that was never even going to come to conclusion. What’s the point?