The Winter Place by Alexander Yates brings the mythical and reality together in a haunting story about a family who suffers loss and grief and the paths taken to reach happiness. Two young siblings, one with an ability to experience paranormal events, join forces to discovers a family they didn’t know and get clarity about the younger child’s disease. The events and people that come into their lives help to determine the course they take to find answers as well as to find home. The vivid narrator and settings kept my interest as well as introduced me to the mythical events as seen through the eyes of a young man searching for answers and the path that will lead him to discover his past, his present and his future. The book was very interesting and unusual because of the characters introduced in the story. The end is unexpected, but comes full circle for the main characters. The Winter Place by Alexander Yates, is a book that will keep the reader’s interest throughout the story. If you enjoy mystical characters, a story of loss and redemption and finally discovery, this book will give you a great read. There is humor, disbelief, action and a underlying sense of family love and loyalty.

The McNasty pirate twins, Captain Gruesome and his brother, Captain Grisly, are determined to find the treasure buried in Little Snoring. However, two school friends, Tat and Hetty, are also in search of the treasure. The McNasty twins are pushed to the test against Tat and Hetty when they realize that the two friends know where the treasure is, and the gruesome pirates make several attempts to trick them into disclosing its’ location. Kids will love the nastiness, silliness, and mucus, as well as friendship. Black and white illustrations enhance the story.

In this fourth of Jiménez’s autobiographies, the author recounts his life from when he started his graduate work at Columbia University in the late 1960s to when he began his professorship at Santa Clara University in 1973.
With few true accounts of the Latino experience in America, Francisco Jimenez’s work comes alive with telling details about the warmth and resiliency of family and the quest for identity against seemingly impossible odds.

This is an eloquent work about overcoming poverty to receive an advanced education. A wonderful book to inspire young Hispanics in their pursuit of a better life.

Silliness runs rampant in this second book in the Ghastly McNastys series. The McNastys are twin pirates, though the illustrations show them not to be identical. The McNasty twins “were Gruesome and Grisly. And that was just their names…they hated two children in particular. Tat and Hetty, who had stopped them from finding the lost treasure of Little Snoring.” (p. 8, Book 1)

The action goes back and forth between the pirate brothers and Tat and Hetty. They both want the treasure they think is hidden inside Little Snoring Castle.

The story begins as school, in Miss Green’s class, is letting out for the summer. All the children and town folk are eager to audition for the Hollywood movie- Raiders of the Lost Shark- that is about to begin filming in Little Snoring Castle. The McNastys only audition to get inside the castle, so they can search for treasure, and since they already are pirates, they instantly get cast for the movie. In the meantime, Tat and Hetty have come up with a plan to capture the McNastys by tricking them into dungeon #244. Tat and Hetty make a fake treasure map marking dungeon #244 as the site of the treasure and hide it inside the chimney for the McNastys to find. The McNastys find the map, but the map is ruined before they can study it. They are about to torture the treasure’s location from Mrs. Slime and Miss Green, when Miss Green simply tells them the the correct dungeon’s number, # 433. When the pirates keep Mrs. Slime and Miss Green locked up in dungeon #53, one begins to cry and the other one’s nose runs so much the liquids begin to rise to the point of drowning them. A little later, Tat, Hetty, Big Wig, Dog, and Polly the parrot are escaping up a chimney from the pirates. The pirates light a fire, but Polly’s sea gull friends bring them a bucket full of Mrs. Slime’s and Miss Green’s snot and tears to douse the flames. It, also, sticks the pirates together for awhile. Tat and Hetty trade their knowledge of the treasure’s location ( dungeon #433) for the key to Mrs. Slime’s and Miss Green’s dungeon from the McNastys. Nasty as they are, the pirates throw the key into the moat and later release the movie’s sharks into the moat just as Tat finds the key. Hetty distracts the sharks away from Tat using strawberry jam sandwiches. What the McNastys find in #433 is not what they expected. Inside the secret room of #433 spider webs are strewn everywhere. There is a giant silver orb in the center of the room. The McNastys slice it open with their cutlasses. The diamonds they expect to fall out don’t. What does fall out are thousands of baby spiders. The McNastys run only to be swallowed alive by the sharks in the moat, which jump and free themselves into the open sea.

The first six pages cover basic shapes used in connection with the drawings : circles for sun, triangles in ice cream cones. Tools needed: pencils, colored pencils, sharpeners, erasers, markers, and paper.Then the bare basics of a color wheel are given. Nineteen creatures are presented to draw in 4 steps. The left page shows the finished drawing, in full color, followed by the four steps in black and white, on the right-hand page. Above the drawing , on the left page, is a fact or two about the creature represented below. Examples: ” The Diplodocus was the longest dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period!” ( 18) or  “In Chinese folklore, the dragon is a symbol of power and good luck!” (42)

I claim absolutely “NO” artistic talent, so when I followed the 4 step directions on eight of the creatures, I was amazed at how well the pictures turned out!

“This play is based on a true story titled, ‘A Locomotive Engineeress,’ which appeared in the magazine Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly in 1888.” (p. 4) The play takes place in Eastern Tennessee.  “Narrated in 1888; the main story takes place in 1856.” (p. 5) This play teaches: need is the mother of invention or you can do anything when you have to.

Older Bella narrates the play of how her father introduced her to working in the cab of a steam locomotive due to the fact the 15 year old Tennessee girls were not very friendly to 15 yr old Bella, a Yankee. The engineer taught Bella everything a male apprentice would be taught, but without a chance of ever using it, being female. Then one night the train’s fireman was sick at home and Bella took his place. On this trip to the mines, the weather was so stormy neither the engineer nor Bella could see the tracks in front of the engine. As a flash of lightning lit up the night, the engineer realized the train’s wheels did not have any traction. The wheels were just spinning, but the train was standing still. The engineer put Bella in charge of the train’s controls, while he spread sand on the tracks. Once the wheels found traction Bella drove it to the mine. And just in time, because the engine had lost most of its water for steam. Bella had saved the train and the town by bringing them their supplies.

Educators: Find FREE lesson plans and a Reader’s Theater script for this book at www.redchairpress.com/free-activities.

What drew me to this book was the glossy, vivid colors of each page. Daniel and his dad are on their way to see the Christmas play, The Nutcracker, when they run into his friend Owl. Owl is afraid to go in because he is afraid of all the people and the dark. Daniel convinces Owl it’s safe and gets him into the auditorium. This series is inspired by the television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and you can see the similarities. Both deal with problems of children and solve them in a calm manner. This story would be great for little kids with similar issues. I would recommend this book as a personal purchase, but because of the weak binding, not for a school.

Rosemary Wells is a genius at picture books for young children, and this one is no different. Sophie is trying to get attention after her new baby sister has been brought home. When her antics set off her baby sister, she is the only one who can quiet her down. Kids who do have a baby brother or sister will love this story as it shows how important it is to be a big sister/brother. The illustrations are beautiful. The only drawback is that it is geared towards such a small audience group.

I liked it.  There’s something every so very childlike in the simplicity of both story and illustrations. It’s rather Madeline-esque.  A rhyming tale set in London of a boy venturing through the city to visit the possum exhibit at the London zoo, while dragging his doggy pull-toy behind him, never noticing that when he left the exhibit, the five baby possums followed nose-to-tail with the doggy all the way home again.  The young boy takes it all in stride and is busy fixing a picnic for his guests when they next grab onto the string of some helium balloons, which end up carrying them right back home again.