This is a strange story with a surprise ending.  The girls are very different and not very tolerant of others who are different.

The pictures are lots of fun.  They were my favorite part of this strange little story.

This is a story of a girl, Precious Little, who lives at the circus and wants to fly.  Her friends Fat Chance, and Tough Luck encouraged her to try to fly.  They threw a rope across the lucky dip (I don’t know what the lucky dip is).  Precious Little stepped out onto the rope.  She fell into the lucky dip and came out flying.(I am not sure what happened at this point).  She flew around for a while, then she fell back to the earth and Fat Chance and Tough Luck caught her.  The End.  I was confused as to what this was about.

I loved the pictures.  They are wonderful to look at, with so much detail.  I like the way the words swirl around the pages.  The upside down page confused me for awhile.

This is a cute book about an owlet who is learning to fly.  He is scared of the dark and afraid that he might get lost,  but with the encouragement of his mother he takes off.  After a shaky start and a few scary encounters he has had a good flight and heads home.  He is happy to be home and needs a rest.

This is a fun story about a girl named Minty and how her summer changed many things in the life and her neighborhood.  Minty has trouble with her best friend trying out new friends and leaving Minty behind.  There is a secret tree in the neighborhood that notes are left with secrets.  Minty and her new friend Raymond try to match the secrets to the people in the neighborhood.  This makes for some detective work and sneaking around.  Just what every kid would love to do.

This story is fun and cute.  children would enjoy the experience of going through town as a bear.  They do theings many children would probable like to do.

There is a grammatical error on the second to last page “It’s so big and has a lots and lots of windows.” The “a” should not be there.

This would be a good book for beginning readers.  The vocabulary used is full of sight words for early readers.  The font is large and easy to read.

Dudley is a worm, an ugly worm, whom children tease and taunt.  Feeling like an outcast, Dudley meanders along in life, dreaming of a beautiful butterfly girl he saw.  Wanting to run away from home in shame, Dudley is convinced to stay, build himself a home, and wait.  He does, and he is transformed into a beautiful boy butterfly.  He and girl butterfly become friends and get married and live happily ever after.  Simple story.  There are a few more embellishments to the story to make it interesting than just what I’ve explained.  However, the story is sweet and is a perfect complement for a unit of the life cycle of insects.  The illustrations are amazing and are what make this book a treasure.  This story, though simple, is explained in words and concepts that kids understand.  Every school library should have a copy.

How interesting to have a book with so much to say about something that exists only in one’s imagination!  Various myths and lore surrounding merpeople are explored.  No actual findings of any merpeople.  Lots of books and media which feature mermaids are referred to.  A quiz to find out what kind of mermaid you are is featured.  Lots of beautiful illustrations and pictures of mermaids.  Girls strongly in tune with fantasy will enjoy spending time with this book.

Mole is a terrific musician but the problem is, he gets stage fright and can’t play in front of a crowd.  At a school talent show, he doesn’t want to play because of fear, but comes to the rescue of his friend, Pig, whose iPod broke and needs some music for his dance.  Mole overcomes his fear.  The references of Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen will go over young readers’ heads, but the adult reader will know who is being referred to.  Okay, but not necessary.

This book will have limited appeal to students, mainly those who love monsters, cannot read too well, may be prone to nightmares, and who have trouble with comprehension.  This is a graphic novel about ten young monsters who’ve formed a friendship and one day are headed out to the beach for a day of fun.  There they meet Gil, a fish monster, who is afraid to go into the water and is afraid of fish.  They talk him into going with them into the water and he ends up saving their lives from the giant squid.  He then discovers his family.  The story is kind of lame, the dialogue is lame, and what is strange is that the cover is intentionally made to look beat up and well worn, as if it’s been a loved book.  Why?  To fool the kids into thinking this is a popular book?  Some younger kids will enjoy it, but most won’t pick it up.  Most school libraries won’t have the budget to purchase these books.

Using a dog to teach the love of poetry–a perfect combination!  Marilyn Singer has written poems about dogs for every occasion and Miki Sakamoto has created beautiful, colorful, clean pictures in which to display these poems.  Together, it’s a beautiful thing, which all school libraries should have.