Lily finally gets a pet her mother says will be no trouble – a kitty.  She slowly warms to the cute little kitty and leaves it alone for a moment.  She is unaware a large tiger is missing from the zoo.  Illustrations show this large cat prowling around Lily’s home causing all kinds of catastrophes.  Lily blames each incident on her innocent little kitty.  Readers are aware of the tiger lurking around while Lily remains oblivious.  After cleaning the last of the messes inside, Lily takes her kitten outside.  The dog from next door scares her and she yells for help.  The tiger pokes his head over the fence and frightens the dog back to his own yard.  Lily thinks her kitty saved her!  As they go back into the house to relax, the reader sees all sorts of zoo animals in the back yard.  The end pages show a newspaper with articles of animals escaping from the zoo and being located in Lily’s neighborhood.  Future adventures in store???

When deciding to babysit young children, one must be aware of basic rules of safety, fundamentals of caring for infants and toddlers, how to care for preschool and school-age children, and parents expectations for behaviors.  This book contains many lists of what responsible babysitters should know.  Also included are quizzes (with answers), and questions to ask parents before caring for their children.  Hints for feeding, diapering, nap/bed times, and playing with children are included along with practical advice for encouraging positive behaviors.  A person who reads this book will have a good idea of the rules babysitters need to know as well as if this is a job they should consider.  Other books in the series are: “Let’s Play! Awesome Activities Every Babysitter Needs to Know”, “No Running in the House, Safety Tips Every Babysitter Needs to Know”, and “You’re Hired! Business Basics Every Babysitter Needs to Know”.  Well-written and timely.  Consider owning the set.

Countries around the world share common themes found in fairy tales.  The basic premise of Rapunzel is of a beautiful girl taken from her family by an old woman and being kept isolated in a tower or room.  She is discovered by a handsome young man, they fall in love, and devise a plan to free her from her confines.  Meister gathered Rapunzel stories from Germany, the Philippines, and Italy to include in this book.  Each are adapted to local customs and traditions.  A fairy tale is defined/explained on the first page.  Included in the back are: a glossary, three Common Core critical thinking questions, and a couple of writing prompts.  The book concludes with a bibliography for other Rapunzel stories, internet sites, and  list of other books in this series (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White).

Spiders are not usually considered pets but this book introduces many possible choices.  Life spans and basic foods are mentioned for tarantulas, wolf spiders, trapdoor spiders, jumping spiders, fishing spiders, and grass spiders.  While some like to be handled, some do not.  Excellent, large, colorful photographs illustrate each spider showcased.  “Xtreme Fact” boxes provide additional information.  Glossary and index included.

An illustration of an actual-size footprint for different animals from around the world is located on a double-page spread.  Short rhymes give clues to the animal that left the track.  The answer is found on the next page along with additional facts about the animal.  The clues are usually enough to identify the animal although the identity of the true animal may still be a revelation.  Posada’s images are detailed and colorful.  She uses collage with watercolor to capture attention.  This is an interesting mix of poetry and nonfiction facts.  Questions to ask when trying to identify an animal track are suggested in the back with websites and a bibliography for further reading.  Recommended addition to elementary home or school libraries.

Holidays have different characters to represent them, so why not a Birthday Queen?  Audrey and Don Wood have created a colorful, fun tale celebrating birthdays.  The Birthday Queen has her work cut out for her.  She writes invitations, test games for suitability, auditions clowns, bakes cakes, wraps presents, and magically has decorations ready when guests arrive.  As usual, Don Wood’s paintings are large, warm, and vivid.  One cannot help but feel the love and joy the Birthday Queen shares with you, the birthday child.  Not until the last page does the reader discover the Queen is actually “your mom”.  This book will probably be most appreciated by mothers!

The conventional Cinderella story is fractured into a humorous version with elephants featured as Cinderella and the royal family.  Nasty warthogs are the step-sisters and a tiny mouse is the godmother.  The Warty Sisters are mean and rude while poor, lonely Cinderelephant is forced to do all the work.  Prince Trunky decides it is time to find a spouse so he and his parents, King Saggy and Queen Wrinkly, invite all the girls to a ball.  After the Warty Sisters leave, Cinderelephant meets her Furry Godmouse who transforms her into a vision in pink.  When she arrives at the ball, Prince Trunky finally sees the one person he will not squish on the dance floor.  They dance together until Cinderelephant rushes home at midnight, leaving her plus-sized shoe.  A search throughout the kingdom finds no one whose foot was large enough to fit the shoe until he stumbles upon Cinderelephant.  Humor and puns are both visual and verbal.  Large digitally created illustrations are cartoon-like and colorful.  This is a fun retelling of the traditional Cinderella tale.

In this 7th book of Mouse and Mole, the best friends make valentines for their friends.  Every time they think about each other, they get butterflies in their stomachs, but they do not yet realize the depth of their feelings for each other.  They make secret deliveries of the cards to their friends and furtively sneak special valentine clues to each other.  Directions for making valentines are included within the story as well as at the end of the book.  There is good plot progression, new details and hints in valentine messages are frequent, and there is humor throughout.  Drawings in litho pencil and gouache create warm, colorful, outlined illustrations that add even more fun information to the story.

In this re-telling of Little Red Ridinghood with a super-hero twist, Super Red Riding Hood is a little girl who loves red and pretends to have super-hero powers when she wears her red cape.  On a journey to pick red raspberries for a snack, she encounters the wolf, of course.  First she uses her quick movements to avoid him.  Then she uses her mental prowess to make him leave her alone.  But when he explains that the only reason he is bothering her is because he is so hungry, Super Red uses her generosity to share her berries.  At first the book feels a little slow and trite, like a student wrote it.  But once wolf comes into the story, students will be entertained again from the suspense and then the friendly ending.  Author/illustrator Claudia Davila’s whimsical illustrations will help entertain young readers.  This could be used as an example of how to adapt classic tales to a contemporary audience and teach a lesson at the same time.  If your library already has books that will fill this niche, then this is only an additional purchase for you.

Runaway Tomato is Kim Cooley Reeder’s 1st children’s book and boy is it should be a runaway success!  This is the story of a tomato that grew so big in one night of rainfall that it blocked the door to the farmer’s house on a large hill.  The whole town comes out to try to move it.  When they finally do, the tomato begins to roll down the hill and thus begins more farcical pieces involving townspeople trying to stop the tomato, until it eventually explodes.  Sauce runnth everywhere!  The whole town pitches in to clean up the mess, moving some of it to the city hall where they create a tomato fest for everyone to enjoy.  And when all is said and done, with the remnants in the city landfill, night has fallen again.  More rain comes, and the reader is left with visions of hundreds of tomatoes growing like crazy.

The premise of the story is so original, and it is heightened by Reeder’s use of rhyming and rhythmically symmetrical quatrains throughout.  But credit for this picture book’s success also has to be given to Lincoln Agnew and his illustrations.  Primary colors accented with black make for bold, beautifully crafted scenes.  This is a work of art that could be enjoyed any time but especially in the fall when tomatoes are ripe or spring when students often do seed planting activities.  Highly recommended for school and public libraries for read alouds.