Louis and his older sister Sarah were out riding when suddenly Louis got eaten by a large creature.  Sarah chases after trying to save him when suddenly the creature who ate Louis is eaten by another larger creature.  This happens three more times.  Finally Sarah catches up the the last and largest creature, crawls in it’s mouth, and into each mouth of each creature until she reaches Louis, who is calmly reading and waiting for her.  She figures out their escape, which works, and then the creatures all turn on her and Louis saves her in return.  First graders loved the story and did not even stop to think of how that could even remotely happen.  They cheered for Louis standing up to the creatures saving Sarah.  Who knew?  The illustrations look to be colored pencil, clear and crisp.  All in all, a fun book.

Caterina is a very organized little girl bird and is about to throw her first party.  Being organized means she has lots of lists.  She has lists of friends, food, decorations, and so on.  She is totally prepared for her first party when, of course, the only thing she cannot control happens–the weather.  But her friends show up and they have the best time ever.  The illustrations in this book are beautiful–each pair of pages has colorfully designed backgrounds, Caterina and her friends look to be typical illustrations maybe done in colored pencils, and then there are photos of real objects and textures and collages of different textures laid upon one another for depth.  To true enjoy this book, you need to look at the small stuff and how Kono gave her illustrations life.

From Abdo’s series Essential Library of American Wars, Vietnam War by Martin Gitlin, is a 100 page accounting of the 20 year war as well as a brief historical account of the French-colonial rule leading up to the Vietnam War’s start in 1954.  It’s always a toss up to this reviewer whether a book such is this is meant to used as a reference source or as a book to read for pleasure.  On the side of pleasure, editors chose to take the reader right into the height of the conflict in 1968 Tet offensive.  A hook to establish the harsh realities of the war, readers then begin the chronological journey.  But because of this publisher’s choice to present a text in 10″ x 8″ size, I just don’t see many middle or high school students pulling this out on silent reading day or cuddling up with it in bed.  To the student that is not put off by its size, the combination of full color and black and white photos with size 14 or larger text and 2 inch margins make this feel like a more substantial read than it is.  This reviewer doesn’t doubt that the content is well presented and consulted upon with the help of history Professor Kenneth Heineman, Angelo State University.  It is very readable and discusses all of the main battles/concepts one has/will learn in a general history class concerning Vietnam.  But if a library were looking for a text that would have in-depth articles on such major battles/concepts, this is not the text for them.  Still if your library could benefit from a newer copyright date, this is a strong selection.

The question of “belief” is  the core of this YA novel, Believe by Sarah Aronson:  belief in one’s self, belief in a memory of the past, belief in the love of family, belief in God and the possibility of miracles, belief in a future of one’s own creation.  Janine Collins is six years old when she is thrust into the headlines as the only survivor of a terrorist suicide bombing that claims the lives of both of her parents.  Her terribly disfigured hands are a constant reminder of her past ordeal. She just wants to be ordinary, valued on her own merit not as political or religious spokesperson, not as the “special” Soul Survivor.  What is the price of being famous?  Every action must be considered as to how it would play out in the press.  Friends, her rescuer, the news media all use her fame to advance their own causes. Everyone has a preconceived notion as to what she should do with her fame, which she totally rejects.   Ordinary anonymity seems impossible.  She is confused as to what to believe in and what is true.  The pursuit of individuality makes Janine sympathetic but also selfish and narrow minded. Her envy of the ordinary seems glamorized.  The issues presented are relevant to teenagers in the angst of who they are and what they stand for. The book is a good read, with  ideas that would make for good discussion.

This story gets funnier and funnier as you read.

It is a creative spin off “There was an old Woman who swallowed a fly.”

The pictures are big and colorful.  The text is large, clear, and easy to read.  There is an interesting facts page at the end of the story.

I liked the book.

This book was interesting .  It is full of basic facts about the breed, as well as informative as to how to train and care for this type of dog.

I am not a dog person, but after reading this book I think this type of dog would be a fun and interesting dog pet.

Less familiar words in this book are focused on in boxes at the bottom of the pages.  They have pictures of the different types of pointers, training equipment, and table to compare the different types of pointers at a glance.

This is a nice addition to our dog book collection.

Pre-K – 1st grade students will get a number of chuckles out of Big Bad Baby by author Bruce Hale and illustrator Steve Breen.  The highly farcical story begins with a toddler who goes from doing multiple wrong things in his home to hypo-morphing into a giant baby that creates giant disasters in his town.  Leave it to mom to enlist the ever-calming power of the big blue baby blanket, hoisting bad baby away via helicopters back his home and in his mother’s arms.  The always collected mother says that even “Big bad babies need love too” to which baby replies “Gee-gah goo” and “…in bad, bad baby talk means…’I’ll be back.'”  A cute story becomes more worthwhile because of the illuminative illustrations, especially that of the faces of the characters.  They are so well done that this would be a great book to use to discuss the idea of reading body language and facial expression.  The fun nature of the entire story makes this a recommended selection.