It’s a simple story about a girl’s day out with her grandfather to celebrate his birthday, riding the streetcar together to a nearby beach, having lunch out, and returning to the rest of the family and cupcakes to end the day.  It reminds us all to enjoy the simple adventures to be found close to home, that the adventure is in the attitude rather than the destination.

A fun story, full of classic David Shannon illustrations that add to the fun and appeal.  It’s also got a good message, reminding us all of the value of stopping to smell the flowers.  Mizz Lizzie is very proud to be the busiest bee around, and highly accomplished because of it.  But when she pushes herself too hard preparing for the big spelling bee, she ends up collapsing in exhaustion right at the crucial moment, missing her chance to meet the queen bee.  When enforced rest is thrust upon her, she finally joins her friend who loves lazing in the garden, and ends up meeting the queen after all, who is also fond of the garden.

Oooh. Ick. Avoid this series.  I don’t like to be mean, but I was only part way through the story before I had to check the publisher to see who was responsible for letting this get to print.  It’s meant to be some kind of hybrid between fiction and non-fiction — on the back of the book it bills itself as a tool for “understanding and comparing literature and informational texts.”  But this is a far cry from literature.  The fictional part of the story is lame and stilted and lacks any kind of character development, and the information is limited.  Stick with straight forward volcano information books.

Even the end papers and the title page bring the reader into the genre of the classic detective story.  The story is about an out-of-work Pigeon P.I. who is brought back to service when several birds turn up missing.  The clues lead him to his former partner who was tired of being a plain gray pigeon and kidnapped a multitude of colorful birds to provide feathers to add to his own plumage.  Both the illustrations and the tone of the story telling evokes a Dick Tracy type gumshoe story.

It gives a clear account of many aspects of Chickasaw culture.  It is careful to acknowledge the injustices they faced at the hands of the U.S. government.  It is illustrated with color photos of actual artifacts.  It recognizes the tribe as a unique nation.  It’s got a good sturdy binding.  I am delighted to see that the list of significant dates that recaps the history of the people is not mistakenly described as a “timeline” as so many books do.  My one criticism of the book is that it deals almost entirely with the history of the Chickasaw people:  the one page dedicated to “The Chickasaw Today” merely states rather vaguely that many people continue to honor the traditions and stories of the past, without really telling us anything about the people of today, other than to say that there were about 49,000 people in the Chickasaw tribe in 2011.  I would like to know more about what those 49,000 folks are experiencing and contributing today.

The illustrations really add to the interest of this book.  The writing is a bit flat.  It does the basic job of telling many different aspects of Lena Horne’s life, but it seems to leave out some basic details: since it never actually says when Lena was born, when it mentions other specific dates later on, the reader has no way of tracking how old Lena was at different points in her life story.  It does include a lot of information about the roadblocks Lena faced as a woman of color in the days before the civil rights movement, as well as efforts she contributed within the civil rights movement.

How much abuse could you be dealt before it crushes your spirit?  Lisa Heathfield’s story of June’s child and young adulthood is a psychological twister, alternating chapters between before and after an event that changes everything.  Before, June’s mother had died and her father had remarried Kathleen.  After, June is talking to Reverend Shaw about forgiveness.  And then the Before takes off, where Kathleen seems like the perfect wife and doting mom when the father is around, but when he’s not, it’s purely mental and physical torture for June.  Force-feeding her over years to make June obese, coming into her room at night and cutting off some of her hair, and making Megan, the step-sister participate in the multiple physical and spiritual crimes, June hates her life but can not find the words to tell an adult.  Her only escape is a literal one.  When she received a bicycle for her birthday, she is able to ride to an area on the outskirts of town.  Here she meets Blister, a sensitive, creative, smart boy with whom she develops a deep friendship and eventual love interest in over the years.  While other students make fun of her at school and push her to take actions that get her in trouble, Blister sees into June’s soul but must remain a secret, else Kathleen will kill this happy aspect of her life too.  In the after chapters, Heathfield gives hints as readers start to piece together what could have happened between Kathleen and June, but this reader did not foresee the path this story would take.  Young adult readers from 7th and up will cringe with June and love with June and they will follow June until the very last moment.

Those of you with pre-school youth will enjoy this 6″ X 6″ book containing recorded sounds of six animals: rooster, cow, duck, pig, sheep, and horse. The sounds are so life-like my dog comes running to find the animal, each time I push one of the six sound buttons.

This is a sturdy board book, with a hidden on/off switch under a flap inside the back cover.

Former science and math teacher Rob Ives has compiled nine projects to make using common everyday supplies. Each project comes with step-by-step illustrated directions, including warnings when open flames and utility knives are involved. At the end of each set of directions there is a color photo of the project and a photo of an actual working devise. Example: a balloon hovercraft is assembled in five steps on pages 12-13, ending with a photo of an actual hovercraft skimming over water in the section entitled, “Amazing Science”.

The first project is fairly simple, but fun, with each consecutive project’s instructions becoming a little more involved/difficult.

The projects are close-ended as they are presented in this book, but could easily be made open-ended if the builder needs to present something with a hypothesis.

Experiments include: bottle rocket, ball in orbit, balloon hovercraft, elastic band dragster, paper plane, candle seesaw, soap-powered boat, warm-air spinner, and a vortex.

Going back to school is a BIG worry for a Bigfoot! Finding clothes that fit, getting a full body hair cut, worries about lunch time and even picture day make BigFoot want to quit school! Yet, there are so many great things about school such as his teacher, the study of mythological creatures, and, most importantly, his friends. That is enough to change Bigfoot’s mind. Illustrations are bold and bright. This silly story will have young students laughing.