The traditional tales of native peoples are a niche in our libraries which can sometimes be difficult to find.  This story offers an introduction which gives the reader a context for the tale, setting it within the tradition from which it comes.  The illustrations capture the adventurous nature of the story, drawing the reader in.

The real strength of this alphabet book lies in its illustrations, which are bright and stylized and incorporate each of the letters they are representing.  The text is somewhat limited in the information it provides, really more it spark one’s curiosity than to quench it.  It uses a lot of slang of the time and genre, which some readers may find confusing, but it includes a glossary of terms in the back to explain itself.  The two-page introduction at the beginning sets the stage for the rest of the book by offering a basic, straight-forward history of the development of jazz, which even made sense to this musically illiterate reader

On the one hand, when I was 10-12 years old,  I would have been delighted with this book, and anxious to try it all, and I know plenty of girls today who would like it, too.  On the other hand, reading it now as an adult, I can imagine my mom would’ve been very discouraging to my youthful enthusiasm, and now I understand why.  The crafts that are included require expensive and hard to locate items (although, to the book’s credit, they do offer suggestions of where to locate the more obscure items), and are unlikely to turn out quite so tidily as those in the photos.  It would have been helpful if the step-by-step directions included more photo support.

The story is that of the Biblical narration of the first Christmas, with some elaboration to add dialogue and expand on the setting.  What really recommends it are the illustrations — they’re beautiful, full of rich colors and soft edges.

It tells the story behind the creation of the famous Christmas carol, setting the scene in an Austrian village in the early nineteenth century, where the people are downtrodden by war and cold.  It tells a bit about the background of the writer and composer who collaborated to create it, and it tells a bit of how it spread around the world.  The illustrations suit the tone and era of the story.  But it’s not told in the most direct manor, and I’m not sure there’s enough here to compel young readers to be interested.

I don’t know if it’s a problem with the translation, or if it’s the fault of the editor, or if it’s just a cultural difference in story telling.  According to the information on the dust jacket, there are thirteen books published in this series in Japan, which would seem to indicate it was  popular there.  The illustrations are cute, and will attract certain readers, but the story really rambles.  It’s essentially about a community effort to raise funds to restore an old abandoned house that had once been a cafe.  They hold a homemade cake contest, selling pieces of the entries to raise money, then they all work together to rebuild the house, and everyone made themselves at home as they liked.  Except it took a long time to tell it, and the reader is never really sure what the point is.

I like the end papers in this book.  Unfortunately, that’s about all I like about it.  When a young girl wakes up to a horrible hair day, both her parents are too absorbed in their own interests to care, so the girl imagines a bunch of if-only scenarios that would make it better, until at the end she runs home, and this time her mom decides to pay attention and she brushes it.  It’s just a bit odd.

I guess there’s nothing bad about it.  I just couldn’t find much to get excited about, either.  I’m not sure what the point of the books is.  I can tell from the back flap that it is apparently a sequel to Cats Got Talent, and maybe if I had read that one as background, I would care about these further adventures of the cats.  But as it is, there’s here to actually make me care about this trio of cats getting kidnapped by an untrustworthy talent agent who uses trickery to make them famous.

This is book five of the Lighthouse Family series.  Pandora the cat,  Seabold the dog and 3 adopted mice have created a family characterized by kindness and comfort.  In The Octopus, the mice children Whistler and Lila explore an estuary during the lowest tide of the year, seeing creatures they have never seen before.  They offer friendship to Cleo, a stranded octopus and Cleo in return helps free Lila’s feet from the dry crusted sand as the tide comes in.  The story ends with Cleo bringing his family to share a companionable afternoon with the lighthouse family in the sea cave below the lighthouse cliff.

Short chapters and a peaceful, kind message make this book a good choice for young readers.

This book addresses many of the inter-dependencies and complexities of this rain forest ecosystem; from food chains, to pollination, seed dispersal, and human impact.  The book includes primary source documents and online extensions.  Questions appear at the end of many sections and captions.  Photographs, diagrams and maps support the text.

Contains Table of Contents, Stop and Think, Glossary, Learn More, and Index.

While the information is solid, the sentence structure appears stilted and oversimplified making it a choppy read.