The author of Bats at the Beach and Bats at the Library brings his friendly, fuzzy bats to a baseball game.  But this isn’t a human baseball game.  This is a bat baseball game.  At the beginning of the story, the bats arrive at a piece of grass under a striped canopy on the edges of a carnival.  Some play the game, while others watch, hanging upside down from the tent.  The story is told in rhyme, following the drama of the sport.  Lies includes traditional human baseball trappings, such as popcorn, a tiny microphone, and uniforms, and integrates them with things befitting the bats small stature (i.e. the foul lines are sprinkled using powdered sugar).  There are one or two awkward turns of phrase (i.e. “We feel ejected from the game!”), but overall, the rhyme is solid and the competitive drama is involving.  Readers view the sport through the perspective of a grandfather/grandson pair, which brings a measure of nostalgia to the story.  All in all, this is a fun bat adventure.

This is a wonderful manual.  It tells everything you need to know about the activity.  You are even given tips about attitude.  I learned about different types of cheerleading.  This book is very readable and informative. Lots of great pictures.

This book is so funny.  The girls in this story are into mischief nonstop.  There is never a dull moment with this imaginative pair.  This book is silly and believable.  The pictures add a lot to the story.

This could be called a coming of age story.  It’s very readable and deals with a lot of modern issues like divorce and parents finding other friends.  The story is interesting and shows that life goes on.  It also shows the ups and downs of school friends, too.  All in all a good read.

The is the folk tale story of the Town Mouse visiting his friend the Country Mouse.  The Town Mouse invited the Country to go the visit with him at His Majesty’s Court.  When they got there the country mouse was delighted at the fine food that they had before them to eat,  but he was very alarmed by the barking of the court dog.  The country mouse decided that the Majesty’s Court was not a very good place to be and went home to his “plain food and … peaceful cottage.”

Some of the words are hard for the kids to understand but they understand the story.  This is a wonderful story for all to hear.

This book starts at 6300 BC and takes the through the history of transportation to 2004.   It has many interesting facts of different countries and how they evolved with transportation.  They use different forms and mode of transportation.  The pictures are fun to look at but I wish they had used real pictures where they could.  It is a great introduction to transportation and could inspire a child to look into more depth on the subject.

Tyger, Tyger is the exciting first book in the Goblin War series by Kerstan Hamilton. High school teenage angst of the 21st century is entwined with primordial struggles between goblins and humankind  of Irish/Celtic mythology.   Danger and excitement build as Teagan learns about her mother’s true identity and the role she is thrown into in order to protect her younger brother and rescue her father.  The tension between Teagan and Finn, the handsome McCumhaill of the Irish Travellers, makes for page turning interest in this fast-moving, imaginative sprint through Mag Mell, the world between worlds. The fierce, dark power of unknown forces of evil and the persistence of ancient curses that survive through time make this life and death struggle more vital than which college Teagan may choose to attend or expectations of her employer. Fantasy readers will love it and those who normally don’t choose fantasy will be happily surprised with how the story carries you away.

Twelve-year-old Zoe Bennett goes to a private school for gifted students, but she hasn’t yet found her own “gift.”  For Zoe, that’s a problem, though it is one that lots of public school students would probably be willing to trade for.   Still, with a sister who’s a talented actress and a brother who’s a math whiz, Zoe is seen as an outsider at her school, and is the prime suspect when mysterious notes start showing up in lockers around the school.

Though many kids may not identify with the special school, they will identify with a girl who feels like she’s not part of the “in” crowd.  And the all -too -familiar cliques, rumors,  and mean kids are here too.  Zoe finally does discover something she’s interested in when Lucas, the nerdy new student, drops his notebook,  Zoe sees that it’s written in code, and discovers that she can read it.

Classes in Zoe’s specialty, cryptoanalysis, might not be offered at most schools, but the lessons Zoe learns about making friends and fitting in are pretty much the same everywhere.

There’s an answer key for the ciphers, plus bibliographies with books on codes and ciphers, and also on Mayan civilization and writing.

Greek myths are exciting and kids love reading about them.  Odysseus is always a popular hero and the story about the cyclops is one of the best.  Odysseus and his men came to an island and found a cave full of food.  Waiting, they found that it was a cyclops who lived there and he was none too friendly.  For breakfast and dinner he would eat two of Odysseus’s men.  Finally they came upon a plan.  They would give the cyclops some wine and when he fell asleep they would blind his one eye.  After doing so, they disguised themselves as part of the sheep and slipped out of the cave.  I especially enjoyed the cleverness of Odysseus when he said his name was Nobody, so when enraged, the cyclops yelled ‘Nobody did this to me!’  Fun reading for kids.

The first sighting of the Loch Ness monster was in AD 565.  Throughout time, there have been reported sightings of Nessie, but none have been confirmed.  Hoaxes and fakes have been reported as well, making the reality of there ever being a monster is quite dubious.  Kids enjoy reading about monsters, however, and they’ll enjoy this one, also.