Eloise once again gets her Nanny on board for her latest project. This time it is building a snowman in Central Park, even before Eloise eats breakfast.

Eloise makes a standard snowman: 3 snowballs, 2 eyes, 2 stick arms, and a twig mouth. “But something is missing.” Back to The Plaza to fetch a large carrot for a nose. But something is not right. Back to The Plaza to have the “best tailors” make “a hat, a coat, a scarf, and gloves.” After the snowman is dressed, it’s back to The Plaza. Now, Eloise commissions a wooden house for the ‘dashing’ snowman. Back to The Plaza, for breakfast.

Cute in a pretentious sort of way that only Eloise can pull off.

Tomie dePaola’s recognizable art style gives this telling of making a snowman, sledding, and making snow angels before going inside for hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire all the soft cozy comfortable delight of the winter’s first heavy snow fall in easy to read format, co-written with Jim Lewis.

The last house on Candy Cane Lane does not have a single decoration because this one house can not afford any. How the little girl who lives there wishes they could have decorations, too. Then one night, batten down the hatches, there is a December blizzard on its way. In the morning, the little girl rescues a damaged outdoor choir boy decoration from a dumper to use in her yard, only to have her father put it back in the trash. At the dump, the choir boy befriends a plastic reindeer with a broken antler and a plastic ghost. Off they go to find the little girl at the end of Candy Cane Lane. They pass super highways, woods, shopping malls, and factories without luck. Then they discover a factory that makes Christmas decorations for displays. The choir boy, reindeer, and ghost are invited inside by a sugarplum fairy who’s never been outside the factory. The sugarplum fairy shows them a Santa assembly line, where the Santas are all identical. Next, the sugarplum fairy leads them into a room of “rejects.” “There was a Santa with a green coat, a camel with three humps, wise men without gifts, and a snowman who looked melted.” The choir boy tells them about the little girl on Candy Cane Lane who will “love” them all. Off they go, even though they do not know the way. The giant from the factory helps out by throwing the choir boy riding the reindeer with the broken antler up into the sky where they catch an updraft. Soon they land on the little girl’s roof and “the giant helps deliver the rest of the ornaments safely…” The little girl thanks her father ” ‘ This is the most wonderful Christmas I could ever imagine!’…And all the ornaments agreed.”

Author and illustrator, Scott Santoro has worked on such movies as The Lion King, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Gnomeo and Juliet.

In Book #3 of Eddie Red Undercover, Edmund is back working for the New York City Police Department after a bomb was delivered to a police station with the note “1-Eddie will know what this means” attached. (1) “Last spring I worked for the NYPD because of my photographic memory and ability to draw almost perfect character sketches.” (2)  The police tell Edmund as little as possible in an attempt to protect him, but Edmund and his friend Jonah realize this case is  dangerous because they have assigned a body guard for Edmund. The police have also put Detective Bovano undercover as a teacher in Edmund’s expansive private middle school- Senate. Det. Bovano is in every class with Edmund using the name Mr. Frank, but this is OK with them because Mr. Frank is a better chemistry teacher than their regular chemistry teacher.  Jonah and Edmund keep working the clues, but which items are clues and which are not? Are some items just coincidence? Are they working one case or two?         As the plot unravels, it is revealed the villain actually had five bombs planted throughout the city. While Jonah and Edmund are using the computers at the public library, Edmund receives a text from an unknown someone saying, ” You’re looking in the wrong place… The answer is on the map. Gold. Stolen treasure. ”  Jonah and Edmund try to decode the clues and solve the case without Bovano because once they tell Bovano, Edmund will be off the case.   In the meantime, Senate Middle School is having a school carnival which the boys are working. While there, Edmund finally gets some alone time with a particular girl as they go into the “Maze”. The villain kidnaps Edmund from inside the “Maze” wanting his memory and art ability to sketch the basement of the art museum to be used in a future museum robbery. Jonah uses a clue from Edmund to locate his whereabouts and has the Senate Middle School marching band parade down the street outside the hotel where Edmund is being held as a diversion. Then, Edmund uses the birthday gift Jonah gave him , a mace pen, to get away from his kidnapper. Bovano arrests the villain Lars at the airport at the same time the unknown texter sends Edmund the text, ” ‘ You ruined everything.’ ”  (184) “THE END”

Eddie has included three pages of  “HOW TO BE A CRYPTOGRAPHER”. This gives the reader tips on how to break codes.

Based on a true story, The Only Road tells of a 12 year old boy’s escape from Guatemala to the United States to join his older brother.  Fleeing the drug lords who have killed so many in his community, including his cousin, Jaime fears that he will be next, and that he has no choice but to flee his country and try to make it to his brother in New Mexico.

Jaime faces many challenges: hoping trains and hoping he doesn’t fall under the wheels, surviving crossing the desert, watching for and fearing that he’ll be captured by the Border Patrol.

This is a gripping story that tells of a boy’s bravery as he seeks a better life in the US.

Set in the rural, off the grid community of Rowan’s Glen in the Ozark Mountains, this mystery is the story of a romance, suspense, and horror. Twenty years earlier a teenage girl had been murdered after being crowed the May Queen at the annual Glen’s May Day celebration. Now, all these years later, animals are being found brutally murdered.

Who is killing the animals? The same person who killed  the May Queen? What is causing the dark omens that seem to settling all around the Glen? Is this year’s May Queen in danger?

The plot is intriguing, as is the setting. But not all plot pieces fit together. And the ending is complicated and somewhat convoluted.

WAX is a eerie, creepy story of the Grosholtz Candle Factory in Paraffin, Vermont. A seventeen-year-old girl, Poppy Palladino, makes a disturbing discovery in the back room:  dozens life size, realistic wax sculptures, crafted by a very peculiar old lady.

Frightened by this discovery, she rushes away in her car, only to have a wax figured teenage boy jump naked from her trunk! She tries to return him to the factory, but it is destroyed in a mysterious fire.

As she and the wax boy, Dud, try to solve the mystery of the fire, she begins to notice that citizens of the town of Paraffin are looking more and more waxy. Why is behind this? What evil is lurking?

For those who like mysteries and creepy stories, this is a good choice.

The Unexpected Everything is Morgan Matson’s fourth book (you may know her from Since You’ve Been Gone). A Junior Library Guild selection, The Unexpected Everything is the story of a prominent US Congressman’s daughter whose summer internship and future plans are tossed into the wind by a scandal that rocks his career and blazes across newspaper headlines and cable news airwaves.

Andie, aged 17, has lived, since her mother’s death from ovarian cancer, under the microscope of her father’s staffers, who have made sure that she’s never done anything to embarrass him in the eyes of the public. But now, a campaign finance scandal is embarrassing Andie, and results in the revoking of her spot in a prestigious Young Scholars Program summer internship at John Hopkins.

Driving to the home of the doctor who withdrew his letter of recommendation, in a failed effort to be reinstated in the program, Andie stumbles upon a run-away dog, catches his leash, and then comes face to face with his dreamy owner, Clark. Clark, not much older than Andie, is a nerdy, homeschooled writer, who published his first novel at age 14.

The storyline evolves into a funny and entertaining romance. Here is an excerpt of Clark’s attempt to ask Andie on a date:

“I was just . . . trying to get a sense of your schedule.” He blinked, like he’d just heard himself, and I could see the tops of his ears were starting to turn red. “Wow, that sounded creepy. I didn’t mean that in, like, a weird way. I think I’m making this worse. Oh god.” He took a breath, then swallowed hard. “I was wondering, you know, what you do. At night.” He stared at me in horror after he said it, like he couldn’t quite believe the words had come out of his mouth. “Oh, man,” he muttered, closing his eyes behind his glasses for a moment. “This isn’t going well.” I had to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling wide.”

Although this novel is 519 pages long, each one is a page turner. Even reluctant readers will enjoy this story of friendship, family, romance and, of course, dogs.

Ashley Bryan uses a primary source document as the foundation of his moving picture book about the lives and dreams of slaves.  The document, the Appraisement of the Estate that occurred after the death of Cado Fairchilds.  Written in first person free verse, the book starts with Mary Fairchilds describing the estate and her plans to sell it after the death of her husband.  Her poem is followed by Bryan’s portrait of the 11 estate slaves superimposed on an image of the original appraisal document.  Each slave’s story includes a portrait, a poem about his or her life as a slave, and a poem and illustration of his or her dreams.  Bryan’s poetry highlights the cultural roots and humanity of the individuals listed in the otherwise unemotional primary source document.  The book ends with a transcription of the appraisal document leaving the reader with the powerful knowledge that the slaves would be sold, but not knowing what was to happen to them.

Anchored by a primary source document, this is a powerful book humanizing the slave experience.

Learning to share is one of the essential social skills young children need to master.  Just like with Bear and Hare, some kids find the concept easier than others.  Simple repetitive text and expressive illustrations make Bear and Hare Share! a good starting point for discussion around sharing.

Bear and Hare take a walk and see some neat stuff that they both want.  When Bear asks to share, Hare responds with a vigorous “Mine!” Bear doesn’t care and still shows his affection for Hare.  After their tug a war over a balloon pops the balloon, bear wanders out of the story.  Now Hare doesn’t care and heads off to a bee hive enjoy honey on his own.  When the bees chase him away, Bear is there to comfort him.  Reluctantly Hare offers to share his jar of honey.  The reader isn’t sure if Hare has really learned to share since the last page shows Hare holding the jar away from Bear rather than sharing.

Thick pages make the book easy for young readers.