Buster is the new puppy in the Roger’s house. Phoebe, the older dog, is tricking Buster by taking his bones while his back is turned. Phoebe the Trickster, might be a better title for this book.

Phoebe convinces Buster his bones need training to stay in place. When Phoebe runs barking out the dogie door, Buster follows. Then Phoebe returns first hiding Buster’s bone. Phoebe tells Buster she’ll help train his bones to “stay”. Each time Buster leaves to see if his bones “stay”, Phoebe takes one, telling Buster, ”  ‘It was not a smart bone… The smart bones will stay. Try again. ‘ ” (13)  Roger watches as Buster growls at his new bone, runs outside, and then back again. ”  ‘ That is one smart bone,’  said Phoebe.” (16)

The second half of the book continues with Phoebe now wanting the bone of the big dog next door. Phoebe pushes Buster through the loose board in the fence.  While Buster is innocently trying to teach the new dog’s bone to stay, Phoebe takes the bone. When caught with the bone in her mouth, Buster reasons that Phoebe is simply returning the bone.

Twenty-one poems and six recipes grace the pages of this book as collage animals romp around their page of food.

The free verse poems,  in one, two or three word lines, usually describing the food’s outward appearance. The poems run from five to twelve lines, but one or two have as many as eighteen or twenty-five lines.

Strawberry Jamboree

So many strawberries

costumed in red–

they carry green parasols

to shade their heads.

Tatseless, or tasteful?

You decide.

They wear their seeds

on the outside.

My fresh green salads are never this much fun! There is something whimsical about freshly photographed vegetables printed with inked faces smiling at you. Juana Medina’s salad preparation consists of counting smiling vegetables on their way to the salad bowl:

“1  one Avocado Deer, 2  two Radish Mice, 3   three Pepper Monkeys” , 4  horse carrots, 5 turtle tomatoes, 6 alligator cucumbers, 7 radicchio lions , 8  flying bird walnuts, 9 romaine dogs, and 10 Clementine segment kittens.     Wait, don’t forget to make dressing for the faceless salad. Olive oil in a porcupine bowl, a birdy salt shaker, and 2 piggy lemons come to the rescue.

Otto, the robot and his mouse friend Pip come full circle in this pre-level one story about Pip wanting a balloon.When Otto shares his balloon with Pip, Pip floats away until  a sleeping Zee, the bee, flies into the balloon popping it. Otto comes to Pip’s rescue only to crash into a palm tree sending Otto and Pip down into a pond. There Pip points to the baby hippo’s balloon.

David Milgrim’s illustrations answer all of the questions the minimal vocabulary does not provide.

Years ago, the Warming came and it was destructive. Now, everyone in the meadow and city is assigned a job. The keepers enforce rules, the catchers track rule breakers, the computers are those who conduct all the mathematical computations. Jeremy Finn is a dreambender. He and the other dreambenders secretly analyze people’s dreams and adjust them to avoid danger and violence, fear and anger, music and art. It is those things that bring about emotions which are thought to bring about another Warming.

Callie Crawford lives in the city and works as a computer, but is dissatisfied with her work. One night, Jeremy encounters Callies’s dream of singing, and he finds it beautiful. Jeremy questions the rules of a dreambender, and he allows her singing dream to continue. Because of his choice, he is banned from his job as dreambender. He decides to escape the meadow and travel to the city to find Callie, telling her about the dreambenders which causes a domino effect of changes for those in the city and the meadow. Changes of hope.

Alice is a 12 year old girl who is quite troubled. Her parents send her away to boarding schools and summer camps each year to avoid her. She is physically awkward. She is excessively too tall, her body is overly stocky, and her hair is very thick, curly and unruly. Each boarding school she attends, she does not remain in, due to bullying. More than anything in the world, she wants to have a friend.

Millie is a Bigfoot, living in the Yare community deep in the woods. She is excessively small for her age, and therefore feels useless because she is weak and slow. She is very interested in the “No-Furs” (humans) that go to school on the other side of the lake, but it is forbidden to talk to one because they cannot be trusted.

Jeremy is a boy that is infatuated with the Bigfoot. He conducts searches of them on the internet. He completes a presentation about them every year in school. He wants to hunt them.

Alice is sent to another new boarding school where she is again bullied due to her diverse appearance. Escaping into the woods at night, she rescues Millie from drowning in the lake. A spark of a secret friendship begins. As the three characters’ lives collide, a crazy plot is formed to save Millie and her Yare community. The ending is a tease of the potential of a sequel.

This story has a great moral of accepting yourself and others, no matter the differences.

An energetic and colorful take on a counting book.  With rhyming text and fun word choice, one dino after another joins the dance floor.  “They hear a swish/What’s this?/One more?/One more dino on the floor,” prefaces the addition of each new dino until there are 9.  The last dino, a T. rex,  arrives with a stomp and a roar, making all the dinos, “quake and shake with fear.”  Not to worry, “the T. rex spins, stands on his toes.  He moonwalks, strikes a funky pose.”  Soon all 10 dinos are dancing together.

The repetitive text makes this a good read aloud, though the dance specific vocabulary makes it difficult for young readers to comprehend independently.

In Spring for Sophie, a young girl explores the transition from winter to spring using all her senses.”When will I know when spring is coming?” asks Sophie.  Her mom tells her to listen for the birds to start to sing.  At first Sophie hears nothing, but slowly the first chirps are followed by more birds announcing that spring is coming.  Sophie then wonders, “How will I know when spring is getting even closer?”  Her dad tells her to use her feet; when the ground gets softer then spring is closer.  Again, Sophie has to wait until finally the ground feels softer.  “How will I know when spring is really here?” she finally asks.  Her mom answers that her eyes and nose will tell when spring is here.  Then one day after the snow had melted, Sophie tastes the arrival of spring as she catches the rain on her tough.

A good choice for investigating the seasons as well as using all five senses to observe the natural world.

Dump Truck Duck is a rollicking rhyme filled telling of a duck’s day as a dump truck driver.  It starts with a “rumble rumble” and adds some alliteration (gravel, grass, and gritty glop; with brambly brush and slimy stuff) to the rhyming rhythm.  Dozer Duck and Digger Duck join Dump Truck Duck at the construction site.  The story wraps up with Dump Truck Duck heading home for the night to dream of the next big construction project.

Colorful illustrations paired with the fun language makes this a great read aloud.

Watersong is a melody made of onomatopoeia.  The words themselves tell no story, but are an accompaniment to the story told through pictures.  A fox strolls through a light rain.  As the rain intensifies, the fox finds shelter.  With a sigh, the storm passes the fox emerges to find a friend to celebrate the, “sparkle glitter glow,” of a day surrounded by the beauty of nature.

A lovely and relaxing read.