Daniel looks nothing like his family. He feels quite distant from them, especially when he learns that his mom saved a newspaper clipping about a meteor that landed nearby on his birthday. He figures he must be an alien, and decides he must find a way to get back to his home planet, planet Keplar 22B. He and his two oddball friends formulate plan after crazy plan to get Daniel reunited with his alien community. However, when a plan backfires causing his mom and dad to be kidnapped, Daniel, his friends and his sister need to work as a team to take action to save what he realizes is the most important thing in his life: family. Crazy, silly humor is riddled through out this story.

I have seen Skylander toys at the checkout stands in stores, but I never knew the background story behind them until now. In my case, it might have been advantageous if I had read the four mini-bios on the last four pages of this book before reading the graphic novel itself. That way, I could have gotten a feel for the characters I was about to come across. More than likely, young readers won’t have this same problem, as the characters are licensed from Activision.

As the story begins, a new Skylander Academy is opening with its first class of students about to arrive. The celebration is waiting for Flynn to arrive with the students on a dreadyacht. The dreadyacht crash lands, but Flynn is not on board! The students report that Flynn went overboard. Now Tessa and Cali  go searching for him, while the new students go to their first Skylander Academy orientation. Tessa and Calli find a weeruptor (one of the students from the dreadyacht) stuck up in a tree as they search for Flynn, not realizing the weeruptor who exited the dreadyacht was an evil impostor who threw this one overboard so he could take his place at the academy. As the three of them fly after Flynn, Tessa and Calli give give the weeruptor a history lesson on the Portal Masters. Just as the lesson ends, they encounter Troll Bombers who have Flynn. The weeruptor helps Tessa and Calli get Flynn back from the Troll Bombers when who should show up, but -Wildfire to help in the fight. Slowly, the Kaos amnesia spell is wearing off Flynn and Flynn tells his story. Now, they must all go back to the Skylander Academy to track down evil Kaos who is disguised as the weeruptor before he can do any damage.

The title – Mini But Might- describes the weeruptor in this episode of THE KAOS TRAP.

I have never lived in blizzard country or country that gets significant  snowfall. After reading this 8″ X 9″ book in the “This or That? Weather” series the biggest difference between a winter storm and a blizzard is whether or not there is strong wind involved.  I honestly am not sure why the publisher wanted to separate these six titles into individual books, instead of compiling them into one book on weather comparisons.

“A winter storm forms during cold weather. This usually happens in the winter. But a winter storm can also form in late fall or early spring. A blizzard is a severe winter storm. It happens in the winter. It has high winds. Blowing snow makes it hard to see.” (4-5) If there is wind greater than 35 mph, it is a blizzard.

The rest of the book is filled with photos of snow on the ground and / or blowing in the air. There is a satellite photo of the United States’ east coastline with clouds forming a blizzard. Another satellite photo over the Great Lakes region, labels the air movement of a ‘lake-effect storm’. A nor’easter is mentioned as a kind of winter storm that gets its’ name from the strong wind, but is not a blizzard. There is a quick “At a Glance” comparison page covering five elements of the two types of storms. And right before the glossary page is a craft project to make using a glass jar, glitter, water, and a small plastic animal to be swirled around creating a blizzard inside the jar.

Stella and Barry explore the idea of taking care of a person in Mini Goss’s Too Hot For Spots.  Barry is still in his pj’s when Stella arrives to play.  Stella says she’ll make him all better and proceeds to tap, squish and make Barry say “ahhh”. This would be the perfect book to accompany a Fisher-Price doctor’s play set as such toys take up a two page spread and Stella plays with all of them while trying to get Barry “all fixed.”  But of course, Stella wants to play the patient too, and her idea of chicken pox leaves both friends covered in red sticker dots.  The bright, warm colors and textures of these knit characters is charming and unique.  The end notes contain a small paragraph explaining their creation.  K-1 students will definitely enjoy its kid humor of tickles and giggles.  Recommended.

The 1860’s in the United States was a time of huge change. The war between the North and South to determine the outcome of slave ownership resulted in a tremendous loss of life. This war dominated the news, however, there was another war going on, the one started by wealthy New Yorker Henry Bergh. This war involved humans and their animals. Bergh was horrified by all the abuse heaped upon helpless, innocent animals. His observations began right in the streets of Manhattan where horses were whipped mercilessly. Horses lived to maybe one year of age and their carcasses were tossed into the river. This opened Bergh’s mind to other instances of abuse: dog fights, rat fights, slaughter houses, circus acts, cock fights, fox hunting, pigeon shooting, dairy animals, and so on. His work created legislation that made anti-cruelty animal laws which carried jail time as well as monetary fines. Bergh’s work also led to animal licensing and the ASPCA being formed. Another interesting fact is that his work to prevent animal cruelty led to legislation for anti-cruelty laws for children and child labor laws. It was his life’s work to protect the innocent. Interestingly enough, Bergh and his wife had no children nor any pets of their own. I was amazed that this all transpired 150 years ago. The United States was a relatively new country and had no means of mass media. However, through the efforts of one single but determined man, millions of animals and children’s lives have been saved or made better. This is truly an inspiring story.

In this version of the classic fairy tale, Goldilocks is portrayed as a sweet, polite, and curious child, who loved to wander and explore. She comes upon an unlocked cottage and knocks, but the smell or porridge lures her inside. She calls out to see if anyone is home first, then she enters and sees the porridge already in bowls and wonders why breakfast would be set out and no one home to eat it. She doesn’t think anyone would mind if she ate it. Afterwards she decides to sit down and wait for the people and tries the chairs, finding the smallest one perfect for her. But it broke. Now she knows she must stay and say she’s sorry about the chair. She wanders upstairs and finds the beds and falls asleep in the smallest one. While asleep, the three bears, first time they’ve been mentioned, come home and discover the eaten porridge, broken chair, and Goldilocks asleep. She awakens, sees the bears, screams, and runs all the way home, never to go there again. Goldilocks is actually a nice little girl and so are the bears. Again, Little Hare has produced a quality version of a popular fairy tale making the characters likable and nothing scary about it.

This is another rewritten fairy tale published by Little Hare Publishing that is more kid friendly than previous versions. Little Red Riding Hood is given instructions by her mother to take a basket of goodies to her ill grandmother and not to dawdle along the way. That’s it. She meets the wolf who is actually very polite and pleasant, not at all scary. He even suggests that her grandmother might enjoy some of the wildflowers growing alongside the path. She picks and he runs to grandmother’s house and eats her whole. LRRH shows up and he eats her, too, then falls into a sleep, snoring loudly. A woodsman hears and comes in the cottage and cuts open the wolf and rescues grandmother and LRRH. They fill his stomach with rocks and when he awakens, he stumbles outside and falls into the well and drowns. Kids immediately recognize that LRRH is too friendly with the wolf, but they aren’t scared by the story. This version is great for beginning readers.

There are several versions of The Ugly Duckling, not all of them kid friendly. This version is kid friendly and doesn’t focus on the bullying done by the other birds. Clearly, there is bullying, but the actual words aren’t mentioned, only the feelings of the ugly duckling. The rest of the story is the same and the ugly duckling joins a group of other swans and realizes that he is one of them. Kind of a nice feeling to the story as the ugly duckling searches for a group in which he fits. Who doesn’t?

Goodnight, Good Dog is nice.  Period.  It is the explanation of a dog who doesn’t want to sleep even though everyone in the rest of the house is.  Finally he settles down and sleeps, dreaming of the things he liked during the past day.  The prose is simple yet slightly monotone. The best page is when the dog recognizes the lullaby rhythm of the title’s repetition as he curls up in him bed.  The illustrations are basically primary and secondary colors.  Such simplicity could only be for the benefit of the youngest of listeners, but this reader wonders if even that will hold their attention.  Not recommended for school libraries.

Fans of the Jake and the Neverland Pirates will enjoy this book based on the episode “Rock the Croc”.  The book version is filled with one rebus ( in which the word is written below in a very small font) of a noun on almost every line throughout the book. There are, also,seven side questions, such as “Can you help Jake spot the crocodile?” (11), throughout the book.

Jake and his pirate friends Cubby and Izzy find a map for Pirates’ Plunge , a waterslide, floating inside a bottle. When Hook tries to take the map from them, the bottle flies through the air. Croc swallows it.  What follows is Hook always trying to outdo Jake, Cubby, and Izzy’s attempts to retrieve the bottle from Croc. First, they try to tickle Croc to make him sneeze the bottle with the map out, then they try to get Croc to burp it out. Finally, Hook accidentally steps on a log, resting upon another log like a teeter-totter, Croc catapults Hook through the air. Croc laughs so hard “the bottle with the map flies out of the Croc’s mouth.” (29)

Off Jake, Cubby, and Izzy go to Pirates’ Plunge for some waterslide fun, too bad Hook is stuck up in a tree.