It’s your basic bed-time stalling story:  when Mom calls Alfie to say it’s time for bed, he insists he must find Sharkie first.  The story consists of the dialogue back and forth between Alfie and Mom before she finally insists they’ll have to look for Sharkie tomorrow, but when Alfie finally gets to bed, he finds Sharkie has been there all along. The scenario will definitely be familiar to young children, but it doesn’t really offer much in the way of originality, and I confess, I find the illustrations a bit drab.  All in all, not bad, but not great.

I’m sorry.  My reason for not recommending this title may seem petty, but given how many different options one has for learning about different countries, I find myself lacking any patience for paying good money for a book with inaccurate/contradictory information, just because the publishers couldn’t be bothered to edit carefully.  On p. 28, the text offers a description of the Malaysian flag and the symbolism there of, including stating that the flag has 14 stripes and a 14-pointed star, representing the 14 states; yet every picture of the flag in this book, including on the cover and directly above the paragraph describing it, the flag is pictured with only 13 stripes.  I expect accuracy in my non-fiction.  Kids will count.

Lynch’s Vietnam War series concludes with the final narrative of four friends caught in the chaos of war. Casualties of War (Book Four) gives Beck his turn to tell his story. Morris, Ivan and Rudi have told their stories, but it is not necessary for the reader to know their stories in order to understand this 4^th book in the Vietnam Series.

Beck, now in the Air Force, was always the smart one, the one bound for college. Upon discovering Beck’s plan to enlist, his father had said, “The universe has better plans for you.” And in Vietnam, Beck does feel as if he has “just been handed the keys to the universe itself.” He is, literally, above it all, as he watches the war from on high in his C-123 aircraft, his goal somehow to not kill anyone as he defoliates forests with Agent Orange. He finds the countryside gorgeous and rues the “danger and destruction in all its variety and in every direction.” Beck’s hope is that when the friends get back together, no matter what else has happened, “the universe will tilt back where it belongs.” This volume lacks the sharp character development and pacing of its predecessors, as much of the narrative concerns all four players and how to contrive the requisite reunion. When it does occur, it brings disastrous results and an abrupt ending to the series.

An excellent war saga that will leave readers feeling they have been through something monumental.

A really fun extension of the famous nursery rhyme, I almost rated this as highly recommended, but for a few places where the rhythm of the rhyme is a bit tricky to maintain fluently.  The illustrations include all the famous nursery rhyme and folk tale characters joining in the fun of a ball put on by this merry old soul. Unfortunately the king is worn out by all the preparations and falls asleep at his own party.  All the guests make unsuccessful attempts to wake him in the manner most suited to their character (i.e. Boy Blue blows his horn, the Mother Hubbard’s dog barks, Bo Peep’s sheep baaa…), but the king sleeps through it all until his Queen of Hearts, who knows him best, arrives with some freshly baked tarts.  One sniff and the king awakes instantly, ready for a treat.

The illustrations are fun and eye-catching, and the story offers readers encouragement to make their own fun.  The story begins with a gathering of ravens sitting around complaining of their boredom, until a brightly-colored, high-spirited strange bird crashes into their midst.  When the newcomer questions the group as to why they aren’t happy, the ravens reply by asking why they should be happy, to which the bright new fellow replies that they don’t need a reason to be happy.  The paradise bird then proceeds to give them lessons in fun, helping them make up a silly song & dance that suits their croaky caws, getting them all laughing before encouraging them to share what they’ve learned because, “Happiness stays with you when you spread it to others.” As part of the merry making, the paradise bird had shared with the black ravens some of his own brightly colored feathers as inspiration, which he leaves with them as reminders when he flies off, his mission accomplished, a nod to Pfister’s most famous book, The Rainbow Fish.

The illustrations are bright and cheerful and will invite young readers in, especially those who will be drawn to these familiar characters from other picture books by the same author.  The story is simple, yet shares a positive message about persistence and looking for different ways to achieve one’s goals.  The story opens with Bear wishing he could fly so that he could swoop and glide and feel the wind in his fur.  Goose wishes he could help, but does not see how it would be possible, while Fox is full of ideas.  Finally Bear is able to achieve his goals of swooping a gliding by dancing instead, which Goose declares is “like flying, but with your feet on the ground. Mostly.”

If you have a significant Spanish speaking population, and/or a group of students trying to learn Spanish, this is a solid choice for an early reader book about cats.  The layout is clean.  The text is simple and straight-forward, well-supported by full-page color photos.  There is only one or two sentences of text per two-page spread, so the information is not in depth, but for vocabulary development, it does a good job of highlighting important words, and offering enough other context within the print and/or photos to allow a reader to deduce meaning.

The illustrations are colorful and fun.  The story allows the reader to read between the lines:  if one pays attention carefully to the reactions of the sideline characters, one realizes that the dragon being described by the main character falls more into the category of imaginary friend.  The story opens with a young boy helping his father build a crib, which happens to be decorated as a castle.  The opening line states, “If you help your dad build a castle, a dragon will move in.”  Throughout the book, a full understanding requires that the reader pay attention to both the pictures and the text to put all the pieces together.  The situation (new baby arriving) is one many young children will relate to, and while I’ve read many books that address the situation, not all of them offer something creative or fun to make them stand out.  This one does.

Although I admit this title is unlikely to draw a high level of interest among your average elementary population, and it’s not exactly a part of the usual core curriculum, so it may not find a huge audience, I still give it a recommendation.  It offers a clear and concise description of how banking and investments work to return interest on money saved, including explaining the differences between different types of savings accounts and different kinds of banking institutions. The examples it offers uses simple numbers, easy for children to understand.  I think it wise that every library collection should have something along this vein to encourage students to understand the value behind saving money.

As is often the case with books designed for early readers, the information in this book is so scant as to leave it lacking interest.  It claims to be designed for a fluent reader, but it still only has a 1-2 sentences per page, and other than the historical information about early cars, much of the other information provided would be things most kids would already know, such as that an automobile is a car, and that most cars run on gasoline, and are made in factories…