This is a very long story about a boy who dreams of being a wizard who could save the world.  Then he learns about some of the dangers facing the world from global warming, and starts pondering all the future careers he could have to help solve the problem and be a wizard even without magical powers.  Side bars on every page explain the science Diego is learning about, and suggestions for action are listed in the back.  The story part is kind of cheesy (and like I said, long), and I’m not sure it really contributes that much to the science that is to be found in the side bars.  I think it would’ve been a stronger book if it focused more on the substance and less on the cheese.

I like the illustrations, but I’m puzzled by the story.  The cover claims it is “A traditional tale for Easter,” but I there’s nothing about whose tradition it is.  I’m pretty knowledgable about Easter tradition, and I’ve never heard of this one: it basically tells the story of the man Simon, who helped Jesus carry his cross.  According to this story, Simon was a farmer on his way into town to sell eggs and other produce from his farm; after helping Jesus, he made his way back to where he’d left his goods to find the day gone and most of his good destroyed; he returned home with the dozen eggs that were the only items to survive the day; on Sunday morning he found his basket of eggs all cracked and empty and a dozen doves flying around his olive grove.  An author’s note explaining the origins of the tradition would be helpful.

The bird is smarter than the people in this book.  The pet store owner keeps selling his parrot to people who want a talking bird, but can’t recognize that the bird is speaking Spanish, so they keep misunderstanding him and putting him in awkward situations that lead them to keep returning him to the pet store.  In the end he is finally adopted by a bilingual boy who keeps him.  It’s another one that fall into the category of, “fine, I suppose,” but hard to find anything fabulous about it to say.

A boy and his dad are spending the day at the beach, and the boy is listing all the things his dad is not scared of (crabs, jelly fish, sharks…), but at the end he says there’s only one thing he is afraid of, but since the boy isn’t, that makes them heroes together.  It is the left to the illustrations to imply that the one thing Dad is scared of are seagulls stealing his cap.  From he beginning of the book, the seagulls are seen throughout, offering a bit of foreshadowing.  It’s fine, but not spectacular.  The illustrations are more substantial than the text.

This book just really isn’t necessary.  It’s trying to be a combination book, partly telling the story about some boys who are getting ready to surprise their mother for her birthday, and partly being an information book about birthday traditions (purple fact blurbs on each page).  The problem is that the facts and the story keep interrupting each other, and the story isn’t very interesting, and there are better birthday fact books available, so I wouldn’t bother with this one.

A nice rhyming little jingle urging vegetable consumption.  It lists several kinds, reminds us of the valuable vitamins they contain, and declares that tomatoes are indeed veggies not fruits.  It defines a vegetable as a plant grown as food, but the designates those grown on trees as fruit. But are all fruits grown on trees? Not berries. But I don’t think strawberries count as a vegetable. Hm…  I was hoping for a little more discussion as to the characteristics defining the different food groups. It’s cute for what it is, but it’s not a necessary purchase.

I listed it as a K-5 book, but I could see it having its uses among older students as well.  It is a Jewish folktale about a ruler who dresses as a servant to go see if the people of his land are happy.  After enjoying the hospitality of poor man who is very happy and generous despite his poverty, the ruler decides to test the faith of this man:  he keeps making declarations that put an end to the man’s ability to earn his evening meal, but the man keeps finding a new line of work.  When he makes him a soldier, who will not receive his pay until the end of the month, the man sells his silver sword for money to tide him over, and carves a wooden one to carry in his scabbard.  When the man is asked to execute a thief he prays aloud in he square that if the thief deserves his fate that his sword be sharp, but if the thief deserves mercy that his sword turn to wood, and so the thief is spared, the ruler is impressed with the man’s steadfastness and wisdom, and rewards him with a position as a royal advisor. In the end, everything worked out as it should.

Okay, I said it’s for grades K-2, but really it’s also for anyone who loves a dog. It’s a poem with a young girl declaring all the ways and reasons she loves her dog.  The water-color illustrations are just sweet.  It makes you go, “ahh…” And I’m a cat person.

It appears to be a children’s picture book, telling the tale of Noah’s brother Neil, who saved all the vegetables from the Great Flood while his brother saved the animals.  The thing is, I’m not sure if children really are its target audience, or if it’s really intended for adults.  In sketching the characters of the two brothers, Noah is described as an ambitious business man (the illustration of the animals getting loaded onto the ark two-by-two shows them drawn with butchers’ markings showing the different cuts of beef).  In contrast, Neil, the hero of the tale is described as a poor hippy who “wore his hair long and chatted dreamily to pot plants.”  Much as I hate to be put into the role of book censor, I’m not sure I can put this in my elementary school library, where we’re trying to convince children that drugs are a bad idea.  Can it go in a high school library? Is the public library the better place for it? I’m not assigning an grade level to it, because I’m not sure who to put.

It’s got a lot of good information, but I’m not sure I like the cartoon illustrations and the literary device of setting the information within a context of imagining you are actually traveling to Uranus.  Rather than enhancing the information, they seem to baby it down — I’m afraid older elementary students will turn up their noses at it.