This is a 15th Anniversary release of a fun story of Gerald the giraffe who’s insecurity about his body made him, “so sad, because when it came to dancing he was really bad.”  After teasing from the other animals and an embarrassed departure from the party, a cricket helps Gerald realize he just needed to find the right music. An uplifting story full of alliteration and rhyming shows that true self-esteem comes from within.

The child is the center of this charming explanation of a family tree as the author cleverly portrays the child’s paternal line reading from front to middle and the maternal line backwards from back to middle.  While the text and images offer a multicultural view of an extended family, both the maternal and paternal lines follow only the patrilineal decent.  The human factor comes through in both the word choice and detailed illustrations making this book an engaging selection.

I occasionally find myself watching a television show about haunted houses. If you do too, then this might be the book for you.

I’m not saying one way or the other whether or not I believe in ghosts and that is the stand Kat Sinclair is taking also. As this book series begins, 13 year old Kat Sinclair and her father are off to travel the world with a “ghost hunting” TV show Kat’s father will be hosting. Kat’s grandmother ( a former horror movie actress) has given her a very expensive camera to take along  on Kat’s travels. Also, grandmother is requesting Kat start a blog about her travel experiences.

Kat tries to be objective, but “Suddenly, I felt ridiculous. One day with a bunch of ghost hunters and I was already buying into the whole paranormal activity thing. Still…” (p. 59) “So that made three weird glitches: the printer, the camera, and the laptop… I wasn’t ready to believe the glitches were all thanks to a restless spirit haunting the show, but at least now I had something to write about for my second blog post.” (p. 64)

The pace keeps building and the suspense with it as urban legends of haunted places in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a prison in Brussels keep the reader racing across the pages. So fast paced, I suspended my skepticism in ghosts and took the actions for fact.

Warning! If you are squeamish over the mere mention  of a ‘tween being bullied for being gay, this is not the book for you. The bullying is mentioned early in the book, but the reason for the bullying isn’t revealed until p. 214 of  the 240 pages. And at this point in the series, it is only mentioned as a reason for the boy’s unfriendliness.

Warning! The book has a Ouija Board being used by two young people who believe in its powers.

It’s fine I guess.  The pictures are cute. The story is a bit flat, though.  It basically tells what a little mouse does when he comes up out of his hole in spring, summer, and autumn; but then when he pops out in winter he just goes back down and snuggles in, making use of the things he’s gathered in the other seasons.  The mouse is personified, making bread and soup and reading in his hole, but there’s nothing about it that makes the reader care especially, either about the mouse or about his adventures.

The girl in the sparkly tutu on the cover will be sure to draw a lot of readers, and the story will offer them a good lesson about giving new things a try.  Tallulah is excited about attending dance camp because she’ll get to enjoy her beloved ballet lessons every day, but she’s put out that campers are also expected to take tap lessons, too.  At camp she meets another girl who loves loves the tap classes but hates ballet, which Tallulah just can’t understand.  When the girls get to comparing notes it comes out that they both like the classes at which they excel, but have been turning their noses up at that which was a challenge.  Together they decide that maybe not being the best doesn’t mean they’re the worst either, and that’s okay.

Poet Brian P. Cleary has done it again! Twenty-eight limericks are hilariously shared with the reader together with the comical illustrations of Andy Rowland.

A great pasta maker named Freddy

cooked eight hundred pounds of spaghetti.

He carted it down

to the center of town,

rang a bell, and yelled, “Supper’s ready!”   ( p. 21)

Cleary begins the books with, “Limericks… are a short, rhyming, and nearly always funny form of poetry that tells a story, and they have a few simple rules.”  (p. 4)  Some of the rules talked about are number of lines and rhyme scheme, giving examples along the way.

Though the book’s title ( Something Sure Smells Around Here)  will grab readers’ attention, that limerick is my least favorite in this collection of limericks.

Primary grade students will enjoy seeing farm life, as well as, other life which co-habits a farm. Across the bottom margin of each right-hand page are miniatures of: a pig, wheat, a frog, barn owl,  pea pod, ant, bee, and a sheep. These are the animals and crops  given a  few sentences ( three or four), on a page or two in this book as the reader tours a farm.

The idea of wild and domestic plants and animals successfully co-habitating the same area is well represented, though not directly stated.

I think this is an important book to have available so that students facing similar circumstances (and there are a lot of them out there), can know they are not alone, that other families are coping with the same struggles.  Told from the point of view of a young girl, it tells of her feelings after her mother has been taken away to stay at a “prison for women without papers.”  It doesn’t sugar-coat things:  when she asks Papa when Mama is coming home, he can’t tell her — only reassures her that Mama loves her very, very much and would never stay away too long if she could help it.  It tells of Papa spending his evening writing letters to judges and politicians and reporters that go unanswered.  It tells of visiting her Mama and how hard it was to leave, and of the tapes Mama is able to send with bedtime stories recorded, which give her comfort.  It does offer a happy ending, which may not be what all children will get, but offers a sense of hope.

Beatrice Bunny and Bear become best friends one spring. After a busy summer and fall doing everything together, Bear goes away to hibernate without telling Beatrice. When Beatrice finally discovers about hibernation, she plans to turn it into a sleepover with Bear. When Beatrice can’t sleep, “Beatrice had a brilliant idea. ‘I’ll share winter with Bear!’ “ With squirrel’s help, Beatrice created a book of winter things and activities which Bear missed while hibernating. Finally when Bear reappears in the spring, Beatrice has the perfect gift –– The Great Scrapbook of Winter Delights and Adventures for Bear, by Beatrice. “It was the perfect gift to read together again and again.”

Mônica Carnesi’s happy energetic illustrations are the perfect addition to her text, proving once again, a picture is worth a thousand words.