Lynette Noni’s darker adventure fantasy, The Prison Healer, will bring vibes of other popular fantasy, from Incarceron to The Hunger Games. Kiva Meridian has been living inside the prison of Zalindov for the past 10 years, using the teachings of her father to guide her as the prison’s primary doctor or healer. Kiva’s past comes to the reader in waves, while the plot rolls along quite rapidly over the course of fall season. Kiva also has the job to give new inmates the mark of the prison, as she cuts a “Z” into the top of an inmate’s hand upon arrival. The physical scarring doubles as mental scarring for Kiva as she believes she is wrongfully imprisoned. Yet she does want to do her job, one of the best ones to have in the prison, to the best of her abilities, including protecting the most important patient, the Rebel Queen. Kiva will be tested in her abilities to navigate a budding romance, maneuver political turmoil, and survive deadly “ordeals”. Two of the three she passes with flying colors as a pro-fem protagonist. This reader wishes Kiva discovered her own superpowers to survive the “ordeals” rather than relying on those of others. Still, the quick pacing of the plot and dialogue, with many twists and turns, will keep any fantasy reader entertained, even if they skim a few pages here and there. Complete with a cliffhanger that came at the last minute, The Prison Healer is worth adding to school library shelves grades 7 and up.

As a sequel to Give the Dark my Love, Revis didn’t grasp this reader’s attention as much as with the first book. It focused on the politics of the story and less on character development. It was a slower read as the character’s ideas were repetitive. The romance of the entire story didn’t sit well because of what felt like a forced coupling. Characters who had different goals and beliefs were put together leaving this reader thinking it would never work out. Only the last part of the book was worth the time to read as there is an unexpected twist.

The cover photo of five diverse six year olds with five diverse puppies will draw young readers into this book about owning their very first puppy.

The first nineteen pages alternate through the five joyful children interacting with their various puppies. Sniffing hands, putting on collars, walking on a leash, learning to sit and stay, providing food and fresh water, and cleaning up puppy meshes are some of the subjects written about in huge font short sentences. Then, the final eleven pages are meant to be shared with the child and an adult to get them on the same page with puppy care. ‘A Bed or Crate’, ‘Things to Cuddle’, ‘Sense of Smell’, ‘Choose a Name’,’ Walking on a Leash’, ‘Sit, Stay, and More!’, ‘Going Outside’, ‘Being Patient’, ‘Food and Water’, ‘Checkups’, ‘A Wagging Tail’, ‘Always Be Gentle’, and ‘Stay Safe’ are the topics to be discussed between the child and adult.

Jill Wachter’s minimalistic photos of puppy and child with her illustrated balls, collars, and other puppy items accentuate the corresponding text.

Fans of the Disney channel’s Puppy Dog Pals series will enjoy this retelling of Happy Birthday, Puppy Pals!  from season one in 2017.

Puppy Pals Rolly and Bingo are excited about having a birthday. It never crosses their minds they should be giving each other a gift until their sister Hissy the cat brings it up. In the end, both Rolly and Bingo trade their favorite thing to get a present for their brother in true ‘Gift of the Magi’ fashion. This time though, Hissy trades her own things to get the puppies favorite things back.

Fans of the Disney channel’s Vampirina series will enjoy this retelling of Vee is for Valentine from season one in 2017.

Vampirina, or Vee for short, is part of a vampire family who has moved to Pennsylvania from Transylvania. This is their first Valentine’s Day. They have always celebrated Ghoulentine’s Day, in the past. Vee has made two sets of holiday cards to give out for the occasion. One set for her human friends at school and another different spookier set for her Transylvania friends and family at home. When one card from each set gets into the wrong grouping Vee must retrieve the spooky card from a classmate before it is opened.

“Loving our friends is what monsters do best… and what VALENTINE’S DAY is all about.”

Fans of the Disney channel’s Doc McStuffins series will enjoy this retelling of Brontosaurus Breath from season one in 2012. Written for beginning readers (Level Pre-1), there are pictographs inserted into the sentences of characters and their names.

Lambie and Bronty want to give their toy friends ‘cuddles’, but three sets of friends run away, while the last friend ‘passes out.’ It turns out Bronty has some salami stuck in his teeth from lunch causing bad breath. Doc McStuffins removes the salami and teaches Bronty how to brush his teeth. The toys “have a toothbrushing party!” when Bronty is afraid to use a toothbrush.

For the past 16 years, Hazel has been living with a small radius of her house that includes her school, a few stores, a mini-golf course, and one restaurant. Her town is not small, but if she goes outside of this radius, the universe literally begins to freak out. When she was born, a rift, or a tear into the universe, was formed. The rift acts up now and again spitting out things from other dimensions — trees, furniture, and not known to Hazel, other Hazels. The government had set up barns on their property to monitor the rift and government agents had become Hazel’s friends as they had to track her every move. But her 16th birthday is the flashpoint. The rift begins its meltdown on a whole new level. Hazel will meet her versions from other dimensions and will slowly learn her destiny in the process of saving her world from being entirely sucked into the rift. Corrine Duyvis’ incorporation of current coming of age issues into an out-of-this-world experience feels surprisingly authentic. Teens will appreciate Hazel’s struggle to be her true self, even if it is something she learns through the eyes of her other selves.

I don’t like it. It’s supposed to be a Level One early reader, but it’s got a lot more big words than the level two books I’ve read from the same series. It tries to invite interaction by telling the reader to give Bunny a high five or poke him on his elbow, but the story is kind of lame: Bear tells us that Bunny is noisy everywhere, they go to the library, Bunny is noisy there too, and then they go to a movie where they both get shushed by others in the audience for talking about how hard it is to be quiet.

It’s very much a VERY early reader (Ready-to-Read Ready-to-Go!, which comes before Pre-Level one). It has only one to two sentences per page, and those are very short, direct, and repetitive, to the point of stilted reading. Normally stilted writing annoys me, but this works almost like a wordless book, where the bright, amusing illustrations tell a complete story even without the text: Cat and Dog play tricks on each other, taking turns claiming possession of a stuffed dinosaur until one of the tricks backfires and the dinosaur falls down a hole, where Mouse gets to claim it; Cat and Dog solve their problem by working together to put on a play to earn enough money so they can each purchase their own stuffed toy, which makes Mouse happy too, since he’s the storekeeper who gets their money.

I’m picky about early readers, and I like this one. The familiar characters (Farmer Brown and his crew) will draw kids in, and the amusing illustrations support the text. The sentences are simple and repetitive enough to support emergent readers, but they still manage to tell a story kids can relate to — heading off on an adventure, everybody enjoying their own preferred amusements, and then coming together to roast marshmallows over a campfire.

I’m picky about early readers, and I like this one. The sentences are simple without being stilted. There’s enough repetitiveness to the text to support emergent readers. But there’s still an amusing story to it. The entertaining illustrations and familiar characters (Farmer Brown and his crew) and familiar situation (staying cool in a pool on a hot day) will all help draw kids in and give them reasons to connect with the story.

It gets points for repetitive, predictable text patterns and for rhyming and for attractive illustrations that support the text while presenting students with examples of a wide variety of birds in different settings. It also gets points for providing extra information in the back for those who are curious. My complaint with the book is that it fails to use complete sentence structure. The repetitive pattern used consists of “Bird (preposition) a (noun), (verb).” I would have been so much happier with it if it had included, “There is a…” at the beginning of each, or even if each had started with “A” and the comma had been replaced with “is.” Providing young students with many examples of good grammar is part of language learning. This one sets an example of sentence fragments, which has a place in poetry, but I didn’t find especially suitable to this format.

Because it is an early reader (Ready-to-Read level 1), the information is pretty basic, but it’s not a bad choice for what it is, though it can’t exactly be called substantial. With one to three sentences per page, it simply but accurately describes how the earth formed, how volcanoes form, and how they continue to shape/change the earth’s landscape. Clear, simple drawing help enhance the text to convey meaning.

For an early reader (Ready-to-Read level two) it packs in a solid amount of information. It’s written in a tone that expresses enthusiasm for the topic. It’s illustrated with a combination of color photos and cartoonish drawings and charts. The graphics add to the appeal without distracting from the text. It’s a solid choice to pique the curiosity of young readers.

I’m sorry, but the story is boring and the sentences are stilted. It tells about some classmates who are competing in a relay race. It tells us they struggle when they practice and that they win in the end, but there’s nothing that makes the reader care one way or the other.

I can’t declare it to be a terribly original story. It pretty much mirrored one of the other books in my pile that I read a few minutes later. The twist in this one is that the all the kids in the story have pet monsters instead of ordinary pets. As Pet Monster Show-and-Tell day approaches, our main character is terribly worried that she is unable to teacher her beloved monster any tricks to show off. Her anxiety builds when the other students’ pets exhibit a wide range of talents, and she doesn’t know what to say about her own friend. Seeing her distress, Hugsby offers a hug right when she needs it, which she declares is his special gift before he offers hugs to the whole class. The saving grace of this one is the way kids will be able to extrapolate to the feelings so many of us have at times, thinking we don’t have any special talents that compare to those around us, and the way it reminds us to appreciate the simple talents like giving good hugs.

I kind of had to chuckle as I read this book in August, when my “teacher dreams” are starting to kick into gear. The babysitting scenario that got out of hand seemed to reflect the themes of most teachers’ dreams this time of year. When Henry’s friend stops by and asks if he can watch her sleeping nephew for a bit, she insists it will be no problem, as the baby is sleeping. But word spreads around the neighborhood and pretty soon watching a kitten, an infant, a baby, and a puppy. One thing leads to another until complete chaos is reigning, beyond Henry’s control and his house gets trashed. But eventually they all wear themselves out and are asleep when their parents return to collect them. The last one to leave, who was the friend who had started it all says, “You see, Henry? Babysitting is easy.”

I really wanted to like this one more than I actually did. The illustrations are fabulous! They’re warm and friendly and inviting. But it’s one of those poetical sort of books that depends on a series of short rhyming phrases to tell its story, but I didn’t think the words really did their job as well as they should have. Some of the vocabulary is likely to be unfamiliar to young children, and I don’t object to exposing kids to rich vocabulary, but sometimes the words chosen seem to be better at meeting the needs of rhythm and rhyme than actually conveying meaning. It maybe almost would work better as a wordless book.

Okay, so I couldn’t quite bring myself to give it an official recommendation, because it’s not like it has anything especially literary to make it stand out. It’s your basic story of girls who get the wishes for pets granted, and then the main character worries that her pet isn’t special enough to win a prize at pet day, but then he surprises her and she decides she loves him no matter what. The story line itself practically mirrors another story I read a few minutes before this one. That being said, this book does have really appealing illustrations featuring lots of big-eyed fairies waving magic wands and flowers and sparkles and PINK, so it will certainly be a popular choice with its target audience.

It’s a fun introduction to the genre of detective novel. Strange noises in the night keep awakening the barnyard animals, but each evening when Sherlock Chick and the other animals arrive at the location of the noises, only a few clues are found, and no culprit. The cat keeps offering suggestions of what it could have been (ghost, goblin, monster…) and suggesting they all talk it through together, but everyone is too tired to stay up and address the issue, and each night they continue to be awakened. Finally, Sherlock Chick decides to investigate in the light of day when he can see things more clearly, and the culprit becomes obvious.

I’m recommending it with reservations. It’s a lift-the-flap book, which is unlikely to stand up to much hard library use, but if that doesn’t make you squeamish, it’s a really lovely counting book with beautiful illustrations, a repetitive format that asks after each animal, “Who has more babies than that?” It counts to ten and then fifteen and 25, and then the final page tells us that the spider had lots of babies, and asks the reader to count them all throughout the book. Observant readers may notice before they reach the end that most pages seem to include a spider or two, and the final page will invite them to go back and count more thoroughly on their own.

It’s sort of a hybrid picture book graphic novel that tells the story of Arnold, the guy who answers the phones at his family’s superhero business while he’s waiting to discover what his super power is. One day a call comes in when none of the other superheroes are around, so he borrows a cape himself and heads out. On his way to answer the summons he helps an old lady in a wheel chair, a little duck, and the girl who called, with his ordinary human powers of kindness, discovering he is a Super Nice Guy. I really like this one. It manages to stay true to the tone of the typical super hero tale, while reminding kids they have the power to change the world in their own ways. It’s got a good message without being schmaltzy.