The Tree House That Jack Built is a large book measuring 9.25″ x 12.25″ with bold, beautiful, saturated illustrations.  The text is told in rhyme and is sometimes cumbersome with the ending the tree house that Jack built.  But nonetheless, the story has charm and kids will enjoy the feel of the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

Whack of the P-Rex is volume 5 of the series The Notebook of Doom.  This is the first installment of this series that I have read, and honestly, I’m not sure what to make of it.  I checked other reviews online to see what others had to say, and for the most part, all of it was pretty positive.  I think it must just be my lack of taste for slapstick type of comedy.  In this book, P-Rex is a monster, a giant-sized pinata in the shape of a T Rex dinosaur.  Alexander, Rip and Nikki are on their way to school with their science projects, ant farms, when they come upon a lot of candy on the ground as well as giant footprints.  More clues throughout the day give them leads as to what is causing this disturbance.  They find the monster and deal with him the way kids would deal with a pinata: hit it with a stick.  Inside the P-Rex there is a skeleton made entirely of candy.  The funniest thing to happen was that this skeleton broke the giant ant city, belonging to the teacher, and all the ants swarmed him to get at the candy. The ending is terrific.  Illustrations are funny and appropriate to the story.  Text is at 2nd grade reading level and kids seem to enjoy the silliness of it all.

I think the lesson from this story is that laughter is contagious.  Jenny is an adorable, sweet little mouse and Lorenzo is a mouse-eating cat.  Jenny is bound and determined to meet this Lorenzo, whom she has heard so much about.  Strangely enough, her parents let her go with a warning of ‘be careful!’  They meet and Jenny laughs, sings and dances and turns a backward somersault, totally befuddling Lorenzo, who breaks out laughing.  Enjoying Jenny’s good humor was much better than enjoying her as a snack, they became the best of friends.

Based on the children’s classic, I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Dreidel,is a spinoff using the Jewish celebration of Chanukah as the event. The family is all gathering at  Bubbe’s (grandma’s) house for Chanukah and the cat is playing with a dreidel, a small wooden spinning top, and drops it onto the top of a cream-cheese covered bagel.  Not seeing the dreidel, Bubbe eats the bagel and the story is off.  Throughout the story, the reader will notice familiar scenes.  After awhile, the reader will expect to see scenes that are based on famous works of art.  Throughout the story, Slonim has interspersed familiar art:  Mona Lisa, The Scream, American Gothic, The Starry Night, The Thinker, only to name a few.  Of course, the subjects in the art are all family members.  A very clever way to study art as well as hear a familiar story based in holiday celebrations.

Sports books, especially football, are very popular with elementary-age boys.  Miami Dolphins gives a history of the team since its inception in 1966.  Key players, coaches, and seasons are given extra attention.  A timeline of the team is included, as well as a ‘game recap’ — popular by TV game announcers.  This book will be a welcomed addition to the library.

Weather is a core science subject for primary grades in elementary school.  What Is a Forecast? does an excellent job in explaining exactly how the weather is forecast and why it is helpful.  Easy to read vocabulary and the photographs fit the text perfectly.  This book is a must buy for elementary schools to beef up their weather section.

Readers are introduced to Designer Cats which are trendy cats that look like a wildcat but have a domestic cat’s personality.  The Toyger is bred to look like a small version of the Asian tiger, even though it has no tiger blood.  As a hybrid, the Toyger is a cross between a domestic shorthair tabby cat and  a Bengal cat.  The process of breeding these cats to take on the facial markings and tiger patterns is discussed, as well as their behavior as pets, and how to care for them.  Oddly enough, there was no mention of how the name “Toyger” came to be.  I discovered from another online source that, due to the fact that this new domestic designer cat’s coat was reminiscent of a tiger’s, it was called a Toy Tiger, and shortened to “Toyger.”  Not all kids would have inferred that on their own.  I think kids would be quite interested in this whole series which includes Chausie Cats, Safari Cats, Bengal Cats, Pixiebob Cats, and Savannah Cats.  Back Matter includes Glossary of bolded words, Index and Web Sites.  “Web Sites” instructs the reader to learn more about toyger cats at  www.abdopublishing.com, however, when I visited the site, I could not find any information about toyger cats.

As the scene opens, 12 yr. old Ben is, yet again, the new kid at school being picked on in the cafeteria by a bully. When suddenly, the cafeteria table just folds up on itself without any help from people. Peter, a ‘loner’ ushers Ben away from the bully and the cafeteria.

After school, Ben’s mother has an invitation for Ben to join an after school Science Camp at the college where she is working. Ben soon finds out Peter is at the science camp, so Ben knows one person already. Dr. Hughes leads the camp which deals with quantum mechanics. ”  ‘Quantum mechanics inform our understanding and predictions for many things. Every natural process, whether chemical, or biological or astronomical, ultimately comes back to quantum physics…’  “ ( p. 16) From Dr. Hughes’ introduction, Ben soon finds himself being able to pull atoms and molecules together from the air to produce fireballs, rain clouds, snow, and ice in a process called actuation (much like in the movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Nicholas Gage).  Ben is excelling at Science Camp! But then , Dr. Hughes and her equipment are kidnapped. Ben and Peter are taken to help the ‘good guys’ of Quantum League. But Ben is not a willing participant, especially after he’s told they have wiped him from the memories of all those who have known him – including his mother!

The ‘Old One’ (who leads the Quantum League) persuades Ben to help recover Dr. Hughes, by telling Ben they will restore his mother’s memory of him. Ben will become a double agent, no a triple agent, all for the cause of ultimate good over evil. Little by little Ben unravels the truth of how both sides are lying to him to accomplish their goals. Once Dr. Hughes is safe, Ben makes the decision to leave the League, to exile himself until he finds a way to reattach himself in his mother’s memory.

Fast paced, well told,  full of action, twists and turns,  and thought provoking characters.

I know some math teachers who would be disgruntled with this book, for some the artistic license that it takes with the precision of shape definitions:  apples, pumpkins, and balloons may be more or less spherical, but not exactly so, and as three dimensional objects, using the two-dimensional term “circle” to describe them would be even less accurate; some of the checks and seed packets that are meant to represent squares are a bit wrinkly & wonkey, which really makes them not exactly squares, and there’s no squares included on the recktangle page, even though squares are technically rectangles… But if you’re just trying to get a general idea of shapes across to preschoolers, and get them looking at the world around them, the illustrations are bright and the rhyming story of the trip to the farm is fun, with lots of hunting to be done on each page to see how many different things they can find to represent the shape in question.

There’s nothing on the book proclaiming it to be part of a series, but I kinda got the sense it was, so I did an online search and did indeed find many Tashi books by the same author.  I think the reason I suspected it was part of a series was that there wasn’t really any character development, and it read kind of like we were already supposed to know who Tashi was.  If you’ve got students who already know and like this character, this might be a good addition to your collection, but as a stand-alone book I didn’t find it very strong. One year when the rains don’t come as usual, Tashi sets off to try to find the dragon who causes them and ask him why; he meets a tiger along the way who points him in the right direction, explaining that there’s a young dragon who hasn’t learned to control his powers yet; upon finding the young dragon, Tashi discovers he’s sad and lonely because he ate his sister and his mother’s been put to sleep by a demon and won’t wake up; Tashi convinces the young dragon to sing to comfort himself, which wakes Mom, who explains how to unswallow Sis and agrees to send the rains, so Tashi was a hero.  I thought it was rather long and rambly, but maybe I would have appreciated it more if I know more about the main character.