An active boy named Scribble and his imaginary friend, a bird named Buttonhole share many things. As they talk and ask questions about the world around them, some of the answers Buttonhole shares are thoughtless stereotypes. “Elephants bang into things and are rude and loud.  They trumpet,” says Buttonhole.  Scribble greets the arrival of Dash, a quiet polite elephant who likes ballet with a smile, but Buttonhole is not so welcoming.  Only when Buttonhole and Dash realize that dancing is like flying do they join together in play.  Scribble and his friends then happily dance through the house on adventures;  The bath is a sea, the legs of a table a forest, and the couch becomes a mountain.

The quirky illustrations give the story a feeling of motion.  Grump the cat appears on each page with grouchy commentary distracting at times from the story line while in others focusing attention on the feelings of the characters.

An Australian import.

Cricket Song is an invitation to listen to the world around us.  A child falls asleep to the song of crickets.  The cricket’s song mingles with the “kreck” of frogs and leads to the poorwill and the fox.  The sounds of one creature leads to another until the story spans the water to another land where another child also dozes to the song of crickets.  The lyrical text flows smoothly from page to page, filled with examples of onomatopoeia.

Beautiful pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations lend the story a soothing feel.  The picture at the bottom of each page shows the two children’s’ houses on either side of the water.  Minute changes in the image from page to page shows the progress of the day yet at the same time unifying the characters and events in the story.

Together the text and images portray the diversity of the world around us as well as the sameness of our human experience.

Mr Pip, a monkey and Frederick, the famous actor are best friends.  On his birthday, Frederick receives numerous outrageous gifts from people all over the world, but is unable to enjoy any of them because Mr. Pip is clearly unhappy. Worried about Mr. Pip, Frederick takes him to vets all over the city.  When none of them can help Mr. Pip, Frederick leaves Mr. Pip with the Guild of Geniuses to determine why he isn’t happy.  After a week and many unsuccessful quirky solutions, Frederick returns to find Mr. Pip is still unhappy.  It turns out all Mr. Pip needed was a chance to present Frederick with his birthday present and the chance to spend some time together.  A rather awkward story, though amusing at times.

Nukappia lives with his adoptive parents in Ottawa, but spends his summers with his biological family in an Arctic Inuit village in northern Nunavut.   The story begins as Nukappia rises from a sleepless night at his Uncle’s house in town.  His uncle Angu will walk him to his grandparent’s annual camp along the shoreline.  As they walk, the reader experiences the Arctic through the eyes of the Inuit.  The dried seaweed can be a delicious soup or used in medicine, catching fish using a weir with kakivaks (traditional fishing spears) and digging for clams and jigging for sculpin through the ice.  As Uncle Angu shares his knowledge that “almost everything that can be found on the shoreline is useful as either a medicine, food, or helpful tool,” Nukappia’s excitement grows for their arrival in the camp.  His greeting with his entire northern family fills him with happiness.

Glossary of Arctic Plants and Animals includes Inuit, English and scientific names, photograph, description, and Inuit traditional uses.  Glossary of Landforms and Tools Used on the Shoreline include illustrations and descriptions.

Suffer Love, Ashley Herring Blake’s debut novel, will appeal to readers who enjoyed John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars or Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything. The main characters, Hadley and Samuel (Sam) have the same attraction-with-a-complication, although in this case the complication is not medical. Sam’s mother had an affair with Hadley’s father. Sam realizes who Ashley is long before Ashley makes the connection. Sam’s decision not to share that information provides much of the tension throughout the novel.

The novel is told from alternating points of view, which is occasionally disorienting. It’s helpful that each chapter is titled with the name of the character from whose point of view that chapter is told. There is a good deal of vulgar language. Sadly, though, the characters seem to use profanity as casually  and unconsciously as many high schoolers do today.

This book is told through the eyes of young Rosa who lives on the lower Baja Peninsula with her family. Rosa tells her followers about Mexico being in North America with beaches, deserts, rain forests, and mountain ranges. Rosa’a parents take tourists on whale watching tours. Rosa goes to school after a breakfast of fried eggs, beans, and sauce on a tortilla. In school “we are learning about archaeology (say: ark-ay-AHL-oh-jee), which is the study of ancient cultures. There are many places in Mexico where the remains of ancient cities still stand.” Her school is taught in Spanish in the morning and in English in the afternoon.  In history, they learn about the Olmec, Mayans, Aztecs, Europeans explorers and conquerors. People “fought many battles with Spain… won their freedom in 1812… became Mexico!”

Lunch is the big meal of the day. There are after school programs for children while their parents go back to work.

Rosa likes the November holiday the Day of the Dead.

Rosa’s family eat a light supper before she goes to bed.

The first page of this book is a glossary of eleven entries. The last page is “ALL ABOUT MEXICO” which includes: the official name of the country, population, capital, official language, total area, government, currency, fun facts, and flag.

This book does not have a table of contents or an index.

This is a super quick overview of China for young readers. I was pleasantly amazed at how much information there was packed into these brief 32 pages! In 32 pages the book breaks China up into four regions: North, West, South, and East.  The North has the Gobi Desert, the West has the Himalayan Mountains, the South has the rain forests, and the East has the majority of large cities, such as, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Xi’an, and Beijing.

The book is introduced by a young Chinese boy telling the reader about his home country of China. His name is Jin. He lives in Hangzhou with his mother – who works at a bank, his father- -who works for a power company, and his Aunt Jun- who has come to the city looking for work.  The reader follows Jin on a typical day, starting with a breakfast of noodles with eggs. Then, off to school. Jin learns about the 40,000 years of China’s history. It includes a brief line or two about the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming Dynasties, along with the Mongol’s invasion, and the 1912 rebellion against the emperor. “My favorite part of history is learning about all of China’s great inventions. The Chinese are credited with inventing paper, printing, silk, and fireworks.” After lunch, they study science about the dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert.   They, also, study English, computer, art, music, and gym on various days. After school, dad picks Jin up for a snack. Jin is excited about tomorrow’s Dragon Boat Festival. The book closes with Jin’s family eating dinner.

The first page of this book is a glossary of fourteen entries. The last page is “ALL ABOUT CHINA” which includes: the official name of the country, population, capital, official language, total area, government, currency, fun facts, and flag.

Does not contain an index and table of contents.

What’s not to love about Mr. Putter & Tabby? Cynthia Rylant writes another lovely book about dear old Mr. Putter and his companion, Tabby (who is old as well!). Arthur Howard adds his signature illustrations and we are off on an adventure with our friends, Mr. Putter & Tabby!

In this book, Mr. Putter becomes restless as winter sets in – his garden is under snow as is his hammock. He and Tabby need some fun and he reminisces about his childhood days of sledding and outdoor play. So, he contacts his good friend, Mrs. Teaberry, and her dog, Zeke. They are always up for an adventure and usually have the gear with which to do it!

They meet up with Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke and have a lovely, exhilarating time sledding. Tabby isn’t as excited as Mr. Putter, but they both enjoy a warm bath, muffins and cream and nap afterwards!

This book is a moving historical novel told in free verse poems. The use of second person voice is an approach that draws in the reader and and one feels like a part of the pilots’ story. There are few books about the Tuskagee Airmen that are accessible to younger readers and this book does a masterful job of imparting the history and emotion of those historical moments.

These incredible men fought in two wars, World War II and the war on prejudice at home. They fought with dignity, integrity and great sense of pride in their chosen path.

The accompanying scratchboard illustrations in black and white are stark and vivid. They add just the right touch to the power of the written words.

A timeline and added resources are welcome additions, which students will absorb with great interest. This book will lead to some phenomenal discussions and reports! Highly Recommended.

This title is #4 in the DATA Set series. It is an early chapter book and can be considered science fiction.

Gabe, Laura and Cesar are the brainy group of friends that make up the DATA Set of their school. In this book, the students are challenged by their science teacher, Mrs. Bell, to build robots that would make life better. The friends are up to the task and with the aid of their friend, wacky scientist Dr. Bunson, they perfect their robots.

But, chaos reigns, on presentation day, when the robots malfunction and take over the school. The DATA Set and their new classmate, Olive, need to save the day!

The story is a fun read with diverse characters and a science theme, which will be welcome in schools, given the current STEAM emphasis. Verdict: Add it to your collection. There are very few early science fiction chapter books and this fill this niche.