No Good Deed, Goldy Moldavsky’s latest Y.A. offering, certainly lives up to what the famous phrase declares: “No good deed goes unpunished”. It is true for the lively cast of characters who head to tech genius Robert Drill’s summer camp for youthful activists, Camp Save the World, run haphazardly by his new stepson, Jimmy.

Ablaze with zeal and commitment to Feed the Children of the world, Gregor Maravilla signs up for what he expects to be a summer of learning how to achieve his lofty goal while meeting others with their own burning issues, such as Men’s Rights, Diabetes Awareness, Down with Styrofoam, Boycott Camp and Stop Clubbing Baby Seals. Unfortunately, once a prize is introduced to the mix, underhanded competition and dirty tricks prevail as things get dangerous.

When teen movie star Ashley Woodstone (Eat Dirt) shows great interest in Gregor, he feels annoyed. Ultimately, however, their unlikely friendship helps Gregor realize that saving the world happens first in the heart, and then in the many little worlds where change can be truly made.

Engrossing, funny, tender and totally on-point, this book explores what happens ‘when doing right goes wrong’ while being a delicious satire on activism and activists going quite a bit too far. Highly recommended.  

Reviewed by Holly Graham for Kristi Bonds

Benton Bluff Junior High School’s band director, Mr. Byrd, is going to have a student teacher, Natalie Tate, begin just before winter break. This divides the band members into old versus new teacher style discussions. Some are not willing to give Natalie a chance because of bad experiences with former student teachers or due to her approach to what should be taught in band. Different does not mean bad or wrong.

Meanwhile, Mr. Byrd has assigned a group of students to come up with the music for the local theater groups’ production “What’s Your Holiday?” to showcase the diverse ways people  celebrate the season. Our band has been asked to participate.” (5)

When Mr. Byrd goes to a Band Director Conference, Carmen asks Natalie to help with the holiday music production, just hours before the first practice. “Change can be scary for some people.” (70) but the older band members finally apologize and the show turns out wonderfully.

Each chapter has a black and white sketch showing the drama that takes place between this diverse group of good band kids: Hispanic, wheel chair bound, athletic, and stylish / popular.

Louie the Unicorn continues his tale of student life at the New York School of Performing Arts in book two of the Unicorn in New York series.

The  New York School of Performing Arts will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary. For the event,  the New York School of Performing Arts will be putting on the play “The Handsome Prince and the Princess Pointlessly Stuck in the Tower” for one night only, on Broadway. Auditions will be taking place soon. Louie believes he will get the lead role. Louie asks Arnie the Unicorn (the only other unicorn at school and the school’s top actor) for audition tips. Arnie ruthlessly tells Louie to practice circus tricks for the audition. Naive Louie begins learning quite a few circus tricks, spinning plates on his unicorn horn and  juggling torches to name a couple. During Louie’s audition he is asked,  ” ‘I wanted to stop you so I could ask, at what point in the show do you think this will be appropriate?’ ” (32) Louie does not get to part of the Prince, Arnie does. But Louie will be Arnie’s understudy. When Louie shadows Arnie’s every move so Louie can be the perfect understudy, Arnie turns Louie into his gofer. “Miranda and Danny said Arnie was treating me like a “gofer.” I like gophers and I’m sure Arnie does, too, but I think the phrase they were looking for was BFF.” (55)

Meanwhile, Frank the nice troll is about to loose his part in the play as the scary giant because he is not scary. Louie helps out his friend and roommate Frank by introducing Frank to method acting.  Frank states, ” ‘Finally! I think I can do this giant thing if I imagine I’m protecting the princess rather than scaring the prince. ‘ ” (68) Now Louie moves on to create a big school-wide surprise for principal Madame Swirler whose birthday is the same day as the school’s 50th anniversary.

Arnie has ordered Louie to polish his tap shoes until he can see his face in them. Louie does one better by polishing the bottoms of the shoes, as well. When Arnie preforms his tap dance number at the dress rehearsal, he slides right off of the stage and brakes his leg. Louie, the understudy, will have to perform in Arnie’s place. After the curtain call, Louie hushes the audience and presents Madame Swirler with a slide show and photo album of her 50 years of performances at the New York School of Performing Arts. Louie can tell Madame Swirler likes it because she looses just a teeny tiny bit of her sternness and cracks a small smile which Louie hopes won’t make her face muscles too sore.

Once again, Louie closes this book by writing home to his parents telling them about his latest experiences at the New York School of Performing Arts.

Illustrator Oscar Armelles livens up the pages with his sketches of Louie and his schoolmates.

Out in the snowy woods, little Wade, the moose, is having daily fun with his friends when he discovers his antlers are loose. (Young readers will identify with having their 1st loose tooth.) For four days, Wade is careful at play because he does not want to loose his antlers. His antlers are so useful. But then, after four days Wade decides to go tobogganing with his friends. “At the bottom, everyone tumbled off and headed back up–everyone except Wade. He stood stock-still. Something was different. He reached up to check his antlers. They were gone!”

His mother gave Wade a party and put the antlers in a special box. Wade soon noticed how much lighter his head felt and how much faster he could run.

In summer, little by little Wade grows a new set of antlers.

Christine Battuz’s illustrations are full texture, color,  and whimsy as the forest changes from winter, to spring, to summer, and then to fall.

An informational book about Earthquakes. This book is apart of a series about Natural Disasters geared towards younger students. There are two to three simple sentences per page and the book is full of text features. This book has a STEAM focus and gives information about the forest and how it relates to science, technology, engineering, art and math. The art section seems forced where the other sections are teaching us about earthquakes.

An overview of a forest habitat. This informational text includes many text features such as table of contents, glossary, index, and key words. The photographs are full page and sometimes a two page spread. This book has a STEAM focus and gives information about the forest and how it relates to science, technology, engineering, art and math. This does make it seem to bounce around a bit, especially for those looking for information about forest habitats. The science section and the key stats give the most information in this area.

Louie the Unicorn , who lives with his parents in Story Land, is going off to New York City for fame and glory after seeing a flyer fly by on a breeze advertising the NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS. Louie’s parents do not want him to go, but could not possibly allow him to be SAD, what a disgrace that would be in Story Land.

Louie is so naive and optimistic about everything he encounters in New York. Candy wrappers on the street are decorations placed there for him. Honking cars are cheerful greetings to him. Louie’s responds, “Tallyho, humans.” (14) Everything is rosy to Louie, even select words in the story are in red ink, which matches the cover of the book.  Louie finds the  Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe. He eats literally everything there, only to find out about ‘paying’. This is a new concept to Louie. Victoria Sponge, the cake-lady, and Louie work out payment by using Louie’s horn to make the perfect holes in Victoria’s doughnuts. Then off Louie goes to NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS which is just around the corner from the Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe.

At NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS Louie soon meets follow student Arnie the Unicorn who is the exact opposite of Louie. Arnie is rude, self-absorbed, and has an active fan club at the school. Arnie wants to be the only unicorn at the school. When Louie asks for directions to the first set of auditions, Arnie gives Louie a map to the boiler room. Somehow, Louie gets locked inside the boiler room until after the auditions are over and Arnie is named the lead in the latest school play. Naive Louie sees no connection between missing the audition and Arnie’s map.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s cafe will be closing permanently if it can not get customers. Louie and his roommates decide to put on a show of their own to help out Victoria. They make and hang up posters all over town, only to have Arnie’s fan club take them down or deface them saying the show will be in the supermarket vegetable aisle. Never fear, optimistic Louie goes to the supermarket and brings the audience through the streets to the cafe in a conga line. The show is a success! The Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe will be staying open.

Afterwards, Louie goes to see Arnie in Unicorn and the Chocolate Factory. It is wonderful. Then, Louie writes a letter home to his parents telling them all about his recent experiences in New York, especially about his new friends. Louie will be staying in New York at the NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS.

Be watching for book two of the Unicorn in New York series – LOUIE Takes the Stage!

Written in first person with illustrations of Louie, his friends, and sights placed in front of photographs of New York sprinkled very generously throughout the book.