The Trelawney family has it’s share of adventurers.  While in Ireland for his grandfather’s funeral, Tom discovers a packet of letters from an ancestor dated over 200 years earlier.  His ancestor was a soldier in India who had gotten his hands on some loot when the sultan was overthrown.  Afraid he is dying, he hides the treasure, a golden tiger encrusted with jewels.  Apparently others have found out about these letters and believe them to be a map to the treasure.  Tom convinces his rerckless  Uncle Harvey that the treasure is probably still where it was hidden, for why else would someone have killed his grandfather over it.  Tom and Harvey set out for India (without his parents knowing where he went) and have an adventure of a lifetime.  The characters are so real they come alive in the story.  The action is non-stop and the dialogue humorous.  The first book is also excellent and this sequel doesn’t fail to keep up.  I can’t wait for the next Trelawney adventure.

Green Lanterns- Hal Jordan and Kilowog are transporting Red Lantern – Razar for destroying a planet and all its inhabitants. Unbeknownst to the Green Lanterns a set of  evil invisible beings are aboard, too. These beings are there to get nourishment from the emotions of Razer, Hal, and Kilowog. Their invisibility causes confusion. Then they create copies of the people they are feeding off. As Green Lantern- Hal Jordan puts the clues together, he successfully defeats the invisible beings (shadows) by using extreme light.

Includes: Draw Your Own Hal Jordan, Green Lantern!, glossary, and 5 Visual Questions.

Reluctant older readers will enjoy this short 21 chapter fast-paced story. The chapters run from two to four pages in length.

“Way up north in the Arctic on the Hudson Bay, a huge polar bear lay quietly on the frozen sea.” [Introductory line] Elsewhere, 12-yr. old Jeremy must find a way to save his mother, Paula, who is now floating on an ice berg, after the ice she was taking core samples on for Global Warming Research Station broke off into the sea.

Don’t panic, panic kills remembers Jeremy.

Jeremy snowmobiles to the Inuit village seeking Felix’s father who can fly a helicopter to rescue his mother.

In the meantime, the polar bear has started swimming toward the iceberg Paula is on in search of a meal.

Who will get to Paula first, the polar bear or the helicopter. Don’t panic, panic kills.

Little Hippo is playing and pretending he is a firefighter.  He has a truck and rushes off to fight a fire.  He first encounters Big Hippo and gets stuck in the mud and needs help getting out.  He then runs into gazelle and gets stuck in the long grass and needs help getting out.  And so it goes, he rushes to help and ends up needing help.    A simple story and simple text, easy for young kids to understand.

Subtitled “A Story About Learning to Listen,” this reissue of a 1995 book teaches listening and social skills to young children.  Issued as part of a ‘new’ series ‘Laugh-Along Lessons,’ this book includes a free downloadable audio version.  After not hearing the directions, Buddy got lost and learned the hard way what happens to those who don’t listen.

This is a reissue of the 1985 book by Lester and Munsinger.  It has been updated to include a free downloadable audio version.  The book is subtitled “A Story About Taking Responsibility” and is appropriate to use for teaching social skills.  This is also a good example of teaching cause and effect, as one thing leads to another, and it is clear how it happened.  Now part of a series titled Laugh-Along Lessons, this story is funny while at the same time a teachable moment.

This book was originally published in 1986 as a children’s picture book.  This new version has the exact same story, but the book itself has been updated.  It is now part of a series titled ‘Laugh-Along Lessons.’  It is subtitled “A Story About Being Yourself,” and has a free downloadable audio version with the access information clearly labelled on the reverse title page.  The series gives teachers more direction towards books teaching social skills, plus allows for different kinds of listening, both at school and at home.  Lester’s and Munsinger’s skills still bring a smile to your face.

If crayons could complain, what would they say?  In this book, Duncan finds out.  In a series of letters written to Duncan by each color, he finds out that most of them aren’t too happy with how he is using them.  Very, very clever idea!  Each letter is written rather humorously and you can hear the ‘voice’ of the crayon.  Some colors complain that they aren’t used enough, or they are used too much.  Some just don’t like their color.  It forces one to really think about how we use color.  At the end of the story, Duncan colors a beautiful picture, using all the colors in a non-traditional way.  All ages will get a kick out of this book.

This Superman Adventures graphic novel begins with villain Livewire in a hospital bed listening to an evening radio talk show where the topic is women” should be at home, taking care of the kids and doing the laundry.” (p.5) Later, Livewire dialogues to Lois Lane, “so-o-o, I’ve decided to do a little community services. It seems to me our little community–the world community–has been dominated by men just a little too long…I’ve decided to do something about it.”  Now, Livewire has taken over the media around the world. Only women’s reports are allowed on air or in print. Livewire is eluding Superman’s grip. Superman has asked to borrow Lex Luthor’s electromagnetic pulse generator prototypes. Then Superman sets a trap for Livewire using Luthor’s equipment, but Luthor goes too far and zaps Livewire.

There are 5 short chapters in this book with the villain Mxy giving Superman and Metropolis a hard time. Superman is  flying, using his super-hearing, heat vision, X-ray vision, super-breath, and red laser beams from his eyes as he works to keep Metropolis safe from Mxy.

Chapter 1 finds Clark Kent in trouble from two unexpected losses of time including being late for work and going to a restaurant that is no longer in business, kicking Lois Lanes chair out from under her, and his hand ‘suddenly ‘ knocking a pitcher of water all over Lois. After Lois leaves,  “Mr. Mxyzpptlk, the magical and mischievous imp from the Fifth Dimension.” (p. 14) shows up to laugh at his pranks on Clark.

In Chapter 2, Mxy brings a humpback whale into existence, along with all the water,  inside a movie theater showing A Whale of a Tale. Then Mxy makes it so the citizens of Metropolis do not recognize Superman. Nonetheless, Superman continues his work to keep the citizens safe through to the end of  Chapter5 where Superman outsmarts Mxy at the carnival in the House of Mirrors because “To send Mxy back to the Fifth Dimension, Superman had to trick the pocket-sized prankster into saying or writing his name backward.” (p. 24)

Superman – The Man of Steel : Mxy’s Magical Mayhem is illustrated in two full page color illustrations per chapter in this Super DC Heroes book. In addition to that, are the big BLAMs, THUDs, SPLATTTTs, WHAMs and other sound effects mixed in with the rest of the regular sized story text.

After the story ends, there are 3 Discussion Questions and 3 Writing Prompts.