Ricky is a little mouse who has no friends and has bullies bothering him all the time. In a secret cave, Dr. Stinky created a Mighty Robot to use to rule the world. When the robot entered the playground at Ricky’s school, Dr. Stinky ordered the robot to destroy the city, but the robot refused to hurt anyone. Ricky helped destroy the robot’s remote controller, and the Mighty Robot and Ricky became good friends. However, Dr. Stinky made an over-sized lizard to destroy the robot. The lizard and the robot battled, but in the end, Ricky’s Robot saved the day. The final battle is demonstrated in “flip-o-rama” style. The reader gets to flip through a few pages to view the action. The illustrations are bold, colorful and bright. This is a great beginner reader chapter book.

This compilation of seven stories are all are based on the theme of a doorway. Some of the stories are mysterious, some of them are thought provoking with unique twists.Each story is approximately 16 pages and represents the works of the following authors: Kazu Kibuishi, Jason Caffoe, Jen Wang, Faith Erin Hicks, Steve Hamaker, and Johane Matte. Bold illustrations are in full color and have been created by the individual authors.

Mr. Putter and Tabby is a spinoff of the Henry and Mudge series, popular with beginning readers.  In this edition, Mr. Putter and Tabby, his cat, his neighbor Mrs. Teaberry and her dog Zeke, go to the public library for story time in which you read to your pet.  Bringing their pets with them was a great idea and the story time was a success.  Simple story, no conflict.

Tony Baloney has the best of intentions of getting along with his older sister, but she drives him crazy when he is helping to clean up.  She feels the need to tell him exactly what to do.  He has an accident with the glitter, which causes an argument, which causes their parents to ground them, which causes them to miss a big school event that night, one that they had both been looking forward to.  After some grumbling and sibling revenge, they learn to work together and make up.  This is a good-feeling story, especially how Tony Baloney has his favorite stuffed animal whom he talks to and who talks back, which is shown in blue type.  It’s also great to see kids excited about going to school for Books and Buddies.  Plus the kids make up on their own.  There are lots of good things in this small book.

Escape from Future World has a very limited audience, typically boys in first or second grade.  Superman is a familiar action figure and if this is what it takes to get them reading, then so be it. The brief summary on the reverse title page pretty much sums up the whole story:  Superman and Cyborg are sent into the future by evil villain Brainiac and they figure out how to escape and destroy him.  Simple drawings, simple text, simple story, not much excitement.

Every parent/teacher has seen it.  The terrible temper that comes out of the kid that can’t handle a situation.  This is a cute story about Sam’s temper.  But he doesn’t own it.  He’s totally separated from it.  The temper finds him one day on the playground and he thinks it will be his pet.  At first the temper makes it fun because the temper scares the kids off the toys so he can have them all to himself.  But when they get home, the pet temper causes problems with his mother and father.  When Sam tries to blame his actions of “the temper”, he only receives a harsher punishment.  The next day the temper gets Sam in so much trouble he is sent home from school.  By Saturday, Sam tries to make the temper stay away, but that only fuels the temper.  Sam then uses 3 different strategies to calm himself.  This is the stand out factor for this book.  First he tries counting to 10 like he’d seen his father do, but the temper squirms away.   Next he says the alphabet backwards as his teacher has had them do in class.  The temper fights even harder not to be suppressed.  Finally Sam tells the temper he is stronger than it and lets out a huge, deep breath.    The temper finally gives up.  The whimsical illustrations keep the story playful and interesting, especially as the temper morphs into a dragon during the final strategy used to calm down.  There are other children’s books about the almighty temper, but this one’s focus on management strategies makes it an R*.  Highly recommended.

The Story of Spider-Man, a level 2 reading book, is quite the step up from a level 1 reading book, many more multi-syllabic words.  The story is told in basic simple sentences, but the story itself is much more complex and actually tells how Peter Parker became Spider-Man as well as solving a crime.  The illustrations are also more complex to go along with the story.  Those who love Spider-Man will love this book.

Very seldom do I recommend a book based on a Marvel Super Hero character, but This is Spider-Man is a great beginning to read book and hooks young readers, especially boys, into reading.  Macri uses repetitive words and most are single syllable; the illustrations are clean and clear and depict the text.  Young children familiar with Spiderman and beginning to read will eat it up.

A whisper is heard, and so a star comments about the whisper, as well as the moon, the sun, clouds, the sea, and the earth, each determining a characteristic the whisper will have. This caused all the animals to search for the wonderful whisper and inquire who might have all the amazing attributes. As it turns out, the wonderful whisper is the reader. This sweet story has many examples of similes. The illustrations are beautifully painted.

Ever since Birdbrain scored the lowest score on the Quiz Wiz TV show, he is out for revenge. He created the Zombie Zapper that turns smart chickens into zombies so, at last, Birdbrain could be the smartest chicken around. Soon zombies are found around every corner. No worries, Gordon Blue, also known as Kung Pow Chicken, and his little brother Egg Drop will save the day with the help of their friend, Annie who is know as Beak Girl. This book has a fun play of words and colorful, silly illustrations!