It’s okay.  The illustrations are cute.  The theme is a popular one in children’s lit:  the fun to be had in exercising one’s imagination.  It tells of a young boy and elderly neighbor and all they imagine from her front porch swing (the cat that casts a shadow of a tiger, the tree root they imagine to be a dangerous snake in the grass, etc.) But I think there are better books that follow the same theme.  This one lacks much in the way of pizzaz or story arc.

The illustrations alone are enough to recommend this book.  They are beautiful and charming and fanciful.  The story is a bit heavy: an  allegory describing all the troubles that arise as Mother Nature keeps trying to make children of her own (by the names of Fear, Hate, Greed, Envy & Fickle), and then leaving them in the charge of the humans while she goes off to create the seasons.  Every time she returns, it’s to disastrous results, until she creates a set of twins, who managed to bring everyone else together in harmony (most of the time), whom she named Love.  Not exactly a light-hearted tale, but one that gives children a way to ponder some big ideas.

A charming story, told in rhyme, with really cute illustrations, makes the reader think twice about all the classic bad-guy characters.  In this book, the witches, trolls, dragons, giants, etc. are not really evil through and through — that’s just their day job.  In this book we see them gathering together at the end of the day, commiserating over their daily challenges, setting aside their grumbly ways, brushing teeth, reading stories, checking for princesses under the beds.  A good conversation starter to make one consider characters’ lives outside the stories.

It follows a fairly standard format of similar non-fiction counting books:  it’s got larger print offering a couple lines of rhyming text on each page that indicate how each number relates to octopuses, and then smaller text offers a paragraph or two elaborating on the original statement.  The illustrations are rather Steven Jenkins-ish, which attract young readers, and the text presents its information in a simple, direct manner, easy for young readers to comprehend.  The first nine numbers state assorted facts about octopuses; and number ten lists and describes ten different types of octopuses, including scale images to show their sizes relatives to humans.  The octopus crafts outlined on the final two pages seem a bit superfluous, but other than that it’s a solid choice for beginning informational text.

Somehow it seems almost sacrilege to give a Patricia Polacco book anything less than a Recommendation.  And I suppose this would be a worthy book to have if you want to have the complete works for an author study, but as Patricia Polacco books go, I was a bit disappointed.  It’s long and rambling and doesn’t seem to have a point other than telling the story of a woman for whom Thursday was lucky.  It tells about all the good things that happened on Thursday: being born, meeting the love of her life, sons being born, opening a diner, discovering her signature dish.  After her husband dies, she loses heart and closes her diner, until one day (on a Thursday) she discovers a kitten abandoned and wrapped in a towel with Thursday stitched on it, so naturally she names the kitten Thursday, and gradually she returns to cooking, reopens her diner, and on a Thursday a famous critic tastes a dish that came about because the cat knocked a bunch of ingredients together, and so she becomes rich and famous.  It’s okay, but it was a bit disappointing. I wanted it to have more purpose.

The simplicity of the story relegates it to the youngest readers, but there is lots of repetition in the text, which makes it especially appropriate for those students, as a scaffold for emergent readers.  The simplicity and matted color palette of the illustrations suit the story — that of a young owl who wakes up one evening excited to play, packs up his wagon, and sets off to find a friend to play with; unfortunately, all of his friends are sleepy, so he uses the items in his wagon to help tuck his friends in, and heads home at daybreak, sad that he was unable to find a playmate, only to find all his friends  newly awake, waiting at his home to play.  Of course, now he’s sleepy and must turn them down in like fashion (until after his nap).

Well, it’s definitely not an R*, which I really wanted it to be, since I recognized the kitty on the front from it’s partner book, Lost, which I absolutely loved.  I’m sorry to say this one did not live up to my hopes, and out of frustration I almost knocked it down to an additional purchase.  But I decided that wasn’t really fair.  Disappointment aside, the illustrations are strong, and kids will eat up the story of the cute kitty who sneaks into Mr. Fluffy Boots’s bag, gets a ride on his sleight and gets to visit his North Pole workshop, before deciding he really longs to be home.

Nicholas O. Time, authors a new series dealing with time travel – In Due Time. In book #2 – Stay a Spell the main characters Jada and her friends Abby and Daniel are students at Sands Middle School. Their school librarian, Ms. Tremt, is very efficient and then some. It seems at times, Ms. Tremt knows what books you need even before you know. This comes into play when Jada goes to the library to check out self-help books to help her with her spelling problem/ bad spelling test grades. Jada can not seem to wrap her logical mind around the rules for spelling English correctly. While in the library, Ms. Tremt recruits Jada to help her. Little does Jada know that time travel will be involved. Jada may bring her two friends, but none of them will ever be allowed to tell anyone about their time travel. The butterfly effect is discussed. The slightest change in the time traveled to can have far reaching implications. Ms. Tremt has Jada, Abby, and Daniel traveling back to Hollywood, CA, 1977, where Jada’s Aunt Katy works in a Hollywood film company’s costume shop. Something goes wrong, they travel back to 1803, instead  meeting Sagawea. The second time, is successful. They meet Aunt Katy. Aunt Katy is very energetic and shows them around the costume department letting them try on various costumes.  A problem arises that could cost Aunt Katy her job.  Jada’s wonderful math skills helps her discover the problem. Jada realizes the problem was caused by a spelling error, which caused the wrong fabric to be ordered. Oh, this causes a butterfly effect. Then, Tim Raveltere appears. He is trying to track down Ms. Tremt. He wants to take away Ms. Tremt’s ability to time travel for his own gain. Jada, Abby, and Daniel follow Tim through time to stop him, where they meet Cleopatra. Jada, Abby, and Daniel escape ancient Egypt going back to their own time thanks to Daniel’s quick thinking.

That is enough time travel for Jada, Abby, and Daniel for the moment. Ms. Tremt works to keep Tim R. at bay. Then, Jada invites Abby, Daniel , and Aunt Katy over to her house on Saturday have to fun dressing and dancing  1970s style.

Story #2 is over. Nicholas O. Time gives the readers some additional background on the three times to which Jada, Abby, and Daniel traveled.

The reader will enjoy the descriptions of sights Jada, Abby, and Daniel are seeing, especially when referenced to their modern counterparts.

Tim Howard, Dwayne Wade, Stephen Curry, Jim Abbott, Althea Gibson, LeBron James, Shane Battier, R.A. Dickey, Serge Ibaka, Caron Butler, & Jacques Demers.  These 11 athletes began their lives heading down a path that one would not expect to lead to stardom.  Some felt the pangs of abuse – drugs abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, neglect.  Others overcame the challenges of physical impediments.  Each athlete gets 15 – 24 pages of story time.  Dreamed up by a father and sons triple threat, the writing is seamless between the authors.  Even if a student only reads about a few of their favorite athletes, the message is taught and it is a win for libraries.  Highly recommended!

The Grumpasaurus is a small, fearsome creature. You should observe the Grumpasaurus from afar. Edward Hemingway’s book is written as a field guide and features diagrams and colorful illustrations. The book starts out with the Grumpasaurs finding his teddy bear with his arm falling off. It sets him off in a grumpy mood. Eventually his teddy bear is repaired and we soon learn that the Grumpasaurus is a young child in a bad mood. This is definitely for younger audiences. It could be a fun way to talk about bad moods and strong emotions.