Seriously?  This was painful to read.  The saddest part about it is that there are many sentences (or even whole paragraphs) that are actually very well written, with good voice and humor, but there’s no glue to hold the story together.  The characters are underdeveloped and the plot is disjointed, and it’s hard to even follow exactly what’s going on — let alone care.  To give in the benefit of the doubt, it is part of a series, and perhaps, if one had already read others, the characters might be previously introduced enough for a devoted fan to follow — in that case, it might work itself up to being an additional purchase, but I’m not willing to spend good money on other books in the series to find out.

Well, it’s got a sturdy, shiny binding, and it’s a cute story, which I’m sure would make a fine souvenir for children who had seen the play while visiting Washington D.C.  It tells the story of some children who are taking a tour of the White House, when George Washington pops out of his famous portrait and starts escorting them on travels through time to visit children and adults who lived have at the White House.  While dodging the secret service agent on their tale, the students witness the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, consult Mrs. Kennedy about redecorating the white house, crash Susan Ford’s prom, etc.  While it’s got lots of random White House trivia for readers to learn, it’s not exactly the kind of book that would be useful for research, but it’s also not exactly the kind of book that’s likely to have a wide appeal for recreational reading.

What a fabulous series for creating a bridge between graphic novels and traditional fiction chapter books.  I expect these books to have high appeal for reluctant readers who are fans of graphic novels:  The book is short (48 p.), with lots of full-page color illustrations in bold comic-book style.  The plot is action-packed, describing the initiation rites of Batman’s latest sidekick, a junior-high hero-in-training who is anxious to fill the shoes of the most recently retired (e.g. grown-up) Robin.  Setting out on his final test to see if he’s ready to join in on Bat missions, the young Robin-wanna-be faces repeated distractions which interfere with completing his given task, as he stumbles across others who need his help.  As an added appeal, the text of the story is sprinkled with traditional comic book sound effects (Crash! Thud! Whack!) in large, bright fonts, and the binding is library reinforced.  I’d like to get more in this series for my library.

Cartoon-like illustrations accompany photographs and magnified images of dust mites, bed bugs, clothes moths, germs, bacteria, and mold that can be found in a bedroom.  Each living thing is described along with its living conditions.  There is a box on most pages with additional information.  This colorful book is well designed with a good balance of photographs, illustrations, and text.  A glossary, index, related books to read, and two informational websites are included.  Readers will enjoy the “gross” factor.

It’s the first day of second grade in a brand new school, in a brand new city, and Lillian is nervous.  The teacher explains that Friday is her show-and-tell day, and each day as she watches and listens to her classmates tell about their toys and other possessions, she gets more and more nervous.  She’s nervous because she doesn’t feel she has anything to share with her new classmates.  She and her mom had to leave their home and all their possessions to move to a shelter, and all their money is being saved to pay for a new apartment.  When Friday comes around, Lillian shares her magic beads.  With them she shows her class all the wonderful things she can do with them:  use it to play circus and walk a tightrope, use it as a leash to walk her pet elephant, and turn it into a snake to scare the monsters out from under her bed.  Her classmates all see the wonder of imagination and want to play, too.  Imagination beats toys, hands down.

The title says it all, this dog loves books.  So much, in fact, he opens his own bookstore.  But no one comes.  Tired of waiting, dog decides to read and loses himself in one adventure after another, and realizes that this is the exact reason why he loves to read.  A customer comes in, a little girl, and he loves to share his favorites with her.  Very simple story, very simple illustrations, but it needs no more embellishments.

This 32 page book puts two dinosaurs, the T-Rex and the Velociraptor, in a battle, although they lived in different time periods on different locations of the earth.  It compares each dinosaurs size, speed, weapons and attack style, and then proceeds with a fictional, blow-by-blow, announcement style of attack. Illustrations and fast facts trivia are found throughout. This book contains a glossary, read more, internet sites, and index pages.  This was a fun read!

Airy Fairy attends Fairy Gropplethorpe’s Academy for Good Fairies. However, things tend to be a bit tough for Airy Fairy because Scary Fairy tends to pick on her, and Scary Fairy is the neice of the teacher, Miss Stickler. With Scary Fairy’s help, Airy Fairy seems to get into trouble. When the Academy takes a camping vacation, Scary Fairy tries to cause trouble for Airy Fairy, but her friends Buttercup and Tingle come to the rescue. Miss Stickler is proud when Airy Fairy wins the scavenger hunt.

While riding on his bike, Rusty sees a German sheppard chained in a yard with no food or water. Rusty takes it upon himself to care for this dog daily. On one of his visits, he notices a ghost dog with the Sheppard. The ghost dog visits Rusty at times when the sheppard needs help. When Rusty finds the sheppard injured one day, he dicides to take the sheppard and hide it in his back yard, which turns out to be challenging as well as dangerous. With the help of his friend Andrew, and the ghost dog, Rusty exposes a meth lab which is run by the dog’s owners. This book is very intense and fast paced!

This 32 page book is filled with color photographs and great information about monster trucks. The historical piece of how monster trucks started in the 1970’s is especially interesting starting with the first official monster truck, Bigfoot. It tells of the evolution of monster trucks from “crushers” to “racers” to “stunt performers.” It also informs of the significant parts of a monster truck as well as safety features. Most page spreads have a fast fact which offers monster truck trivia. This book comes with a table of contents, glossary, read more, internet sites and index pages.