This is a lovely story about neighbors helping neighbors. The opening pages show a sign, with little tear-off phone number strips, stating “BUILD UP NEIGHBORS       Fix a neighbor’s house together!”

Wilson’s grandmother’s house needs some fixing up. Wilson tells all the things he will do to Gigi’s house one day, a fresh coat of paint the color of the sun. To which Gigi replies,” ‘I will like that but today, you are all the sunshine I need.’ ” Wilson tells the ice cream truck vendor how he will fix Gigi’s windows, so they will open to let in the breeze. A fence, so Gigi can have a dog for companion. Wilson will fix the balcony, the chimney for the fireplace,  and the leaky roof Wilson mentions to the librarian. Wilson will have Gigi’s piano tuned. Finally, Wilson tells his teacher and classmates about planting flowers for Gigi.

” ‘One day.’ said Wilson… ‘one day is here!!’ ” In three glorious, untexted, double-spread pages, Gigi’s neighbors all come together to repair her house.

A Junior Library Guild Selection

The old song you learned as a child will take on a fresh new life of enjoyment as Gris Grimly’s whimsical illustrations fill your field of vision.  Large bulky farm animals with skinny legs, a hundred year old barn leaning in several directions, gnarled trees, old split-rail fences, and a weather vane all precariously being held together by make-shift repairs.

Old farmer MacDonald happily tours his farm in his knee-patched bib-overalls as he tends to his chickens, turkey, ducks, donkey, pigs, caw, and sheep. When they all return to the barn, low and behold there is a bear inside “E-I-E-I…OH! With a GRR-GRR here, and a GRR-GRR there Here a GRR, there a GRR, everywhere a GRR-GRR…Old MacDonald had a farm…E-I-E-I-O”

Includes piano score with lyrics and some of Gris Grimly’s family farming history.

Have you ever wondered what it was like for the civilians of France during World War II? I have.  The Bicycle Spy gives us glimpses of the ordinary day-to-day life in France, in 1942, along with the focal story of secret resistance to the German occupation army.

Marcel discovers his parents, town bakers, have him delivering bread to his aunt and uncle with a written coded note inside it. Resistance?

The Tour de France has been canceled due to the war but the school boys still race their bikes with each other. At school, the new girl, Delphine, talks her way into Marcel and Arnaud’s bicycle race after school. She wins. Delphine and Marcel become bicycle riding buddies. Delphine brings a scrap book of the Tour de France to the old barn where she and Marcel meet after bicycle rides. Later, in the barn, Jewish and Resistance secrets are shared between the two of them after German soldiers have shown up at their school.

The plot thickens as Marcel’s family help Delphine’s Jewish family escape from France. As much as Marcel’s parents want to keep him safely in the dark from their Resistance work, it is not possible. Marcel delivers messages for them on his bicycle under stressful conditions : carrying notes past German check-points, unfamiliar routes, a time sensitive message that arrive too late, and his bicycle getting a flat tire. All the while Marcel keeps his tired legs pumping the bicycle pedals comparing his efforts to the ordeals of riding a bicycle in the Tour de France.

Then one day, Delphine and her family are gone. Months later, a letter from Portugal arrives. No message, just a picture of a girl riding a red bicycle with a cat in the basket torn from a magazine.

“While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction…”

It includes a time line of World War II in France, a short history of the Tour de France, and a glossary of terms – mostly French.

This zebra book isvery thorough in covering the very basic facts about zebras such as their habitat,their body size and stripes, their food, and their babies. Their is an additional fact page in the back along with a glossary, index, and an online address link. Large, beautiful photographs accompany each page spread and support the information found on the page.

John was ten years old when his dad brought a baby orangutan home from Indonesia. John loved Raja like a little brother, but soon his parents divorced. John and Raja were separated for years until his father went bankrupt, having his home reposessed which meant Raja could no longer live with him. John decided to fly out to see Raja before he was sent to a zoo, only to find a very large, strong, and depressed Raja that had been locked up in a trailer in his father’s back yard. Raja was then taken to a zoo where he was locked up in a small cage. John takes an opportunity to break Raja out of the zoo, and find a way to escort Raja back to Indonesia. Unfortunately, John finds out the protected land there has been put in danger by the crooked government, which leaves John with a very large decision. Should he leave Raja, free to live in his natural habitat, where corporations are burning multiple acres and the food sources necessary for Raja’s survival, or allow him to be caged and depressed for the rest of his life? The author, Eliot Schrefer, traveled to indonesia to research the problems that orangutans face in their homeland. Readers will have many questions answered from this fictional book that has truths woven throughout. They will also be left with many more questions regarding a serious world issue.

Callum Hunt has been imprisoned due to the wide spread fear most have developed once the people realized that the Evil Lord, Constantine Madden, continues to live inside of Call. Under the control of an evil follower, Call is being forced to use his powers to bring back the dead. Unfortunately, the only results anyone has gotten in attempting this task is creating a kaos ridden, until Call realizes the missing step in the process and raises his friend from the dead. Soon following, a large battle breaks out, and Call must find a way to to use his powers to stop the evil leaders and their kaos ridden in order to cease the battle while keeping himself alive… if that is even possible. This intriguing book is the fourth in the Magisterium series.

This Zoom into Sharks title includes information on the body, habitat, food, and life cycle of the sand shark.  Content is thin due to the simplistic text.  The short sentences and simplified concepts at times created their own confusion.  For example the information on their head shape, “They have flat heads.  Their heads are cone shaped.” seems to contract each other due to lack of explanation.  Photographs of sand sharks in various poses are sure to grab the interest of young shark fans.  The photographs, however, do not always directly support the text.

Abdozooom links are accessible with a QR code on the back of the book.  Abdozoom, an online research database for young learners is only available with a paid subscription.

Using simplistic language and short sentences, the book explains the purpose, history, construction and repair of dams.  The purposes given for building dams focuses mostly on how dams help or provide for people. The book does not give any examples of how dams can harmful to people or the environment.  The book supports new NGSS standards for engineering concepts.

Contains a simple Table of Contents and a Glossary.  No index

Tiddler is late for school everyday and everyday he has a story to tell about why he was late. Each story is outlandish and the others do not believe him except for Little Johnny Dory who tells it to his granny, who tells it to someone else. One day Tiddler is caught in a net and he ends up far, far away. He found his way back by tracing those who had heard his story.

With the title of “…. Cried Wolf”, I was expecting the moral where it is not good to tell lies/tall tales, but this was not the case in this story. Even with this, I thought it was a cute story.