The title is long, but the cover design is different enough to attract your attention, reminiscent of a time gone by.  Inside are 30 unique fairy tales each accompanied  by either a colored or black and white illustration.  The fairy tales are quite humorous and the illustrations are colorful and finely detailed.  I wish there was some biographical information about Terry Jones, because I had never heard of him before.  But I am guessing he must be a storyteller extraordinaire and story collector.

Sammy is new to the school, small for his age, and Jewish.  This makes him a prime target for the gang of bullies in the school.  He gets his head held in the toilet, made to do the bullies’ homework and intimidated and threatened on a daily basis.  School isn’t so fun for him.  Then a new boy, Skink, starts school and as the bullies approach him ready to show him who is boss, Skink surprises them all by standing up to them, as well as befriending Sammy.  This is Sammy’s first friend and he couldn’t be happier.  Sammy’s Jewish religion means that Sammy must attend Hebrew school studying for his Bar Mitzvah, which is a rite where basically he ‘becomes a man.’  His rabbi tells a story of Golem, made of clay, powered by God, to stand as protector of the Jews when faced with death.  Sammy can’t get the idea of a Golem out of his mind and how useful that would be to use against the bullies.  Sammy’s dad is a potter, so Sammy has access to lots of clay needed to build a Golem, which he does, and calls Gully.  Gully goes to school with him and protects him and life is good for Sammy and his friends.  The rabbi knows that Sammy has created a Golem and pleads with him to destroy him before the Golem destroys him.  If you have any interest in learning about religion, then this is the book for you.  There are many enjoyable moments in this book, such as the developing friendships, the witticism, and the power of the music, and, just plain growing up and learning to take responsibility for your actions.  That’s what makes Sammy a man.

This story would make an excellent movie!  The ‘flower girls’ are three 11-year-old triplets, sister of the bride, who believe their sister is making the biggest mistake of her life.  Their sister, Lily, is about to marry a guy she hasn’t been dating long and doesn’t know so well, but more importantly, doesn’t make their sister happy.  The wedding arrangements are totally taken over by the groom’s mother, who ignores any wishes Lily has for HER wedding.  Enraged, the triplets contact Lily’s former boyfriend, who has returned to town for the summer from college, and invite him to the wedding hoping the sight of him will bring Lily back to her senses.  The lengths the girls will go through to stop the wedding are hilarious.

I get some of the best books from Australia, and this is another one.  Machine Wars is about machines with artificial intelligence warring against humans.  The head machine goes rogue and begins warfare with its creator.  This robot, called Ahriman, thinks for itself, builds actual destructive weapons and is able to learn as it makes mistakes.  He builds soldier robots, drones, is able to hack into computer systems to locate people and to transmit misleading information, such as putting out APB’s on its creators family members and friends.  Its goal is to control the world and projects its persona onto a hologram in order to control people.  The concept is new and refreshing.  Apparently you’d have to be a total genius to understand how A.I. works, so the author doesn’t bother to explain; you just have to accept that it does what he says it does.  The story does start to drag a bit after the main character, Bram, and his friend, Stella, have to continually keep running to keep safe from Ahriman.  Their job is to keep Ahriman distracted while  Bram’s mother, the genius creator of Ahriman, finds a way to disable him.  A great adventurous, exciting read.

Calling all members of the secret Silver Jaguar Society!!  Members are throughout the world and have sworn to protect the world’s artifacts.  In this installment, there have been art heists all over the world from famous museums, all happening at approximately the same time.  Jose, Henry and Anna aren’t actual members of the Secret Jaguar Society, but a close family member is and this membership has been passed down from generation to generation originating with an original artist, creator, or inventor in their families.  In a previous story, the character of Goosen was introduced who reappears and takes responsibility for the art thefts.  Goosen had also been a member of the Secret Jaguar Society at one point, but had turned traitor and instead of protecting art, he stole it.  The three young friends end up in Paris and help to solve this mystery.  One exceptional part of Messner’s book is at the end, where she has placed photos and descriptions of the places in Paris where the three friends investigated.  This element adds a touch of reality as her descriptions are based on facts.  Lots of adventure awaits in this book, and perhaps a little art history, too.

The Mystery of the Stolen Snowboard is one of 153 Boxcar Children books created by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  Warner actually only wrote the first 19 stories and the rest have been written by ‘ghost writers’ giving credit to her as being ‘created by….’.

In this book, the four Alden children are at a ski facility watching Henry’s friend compete.  After the first event, his snowboard is stolen.  Other minor incidents occur giving the Aldens the clues as to who took the snowboard and why.  Although the story is fine, there are some other issues which could be brought up for discussion from this story.  First, there is a coffee shop owner who is concerned about the environment.  He’s afraid that big international companies will come and build and cut down trees and basically ruin the town.  Second, there is burger joint owner who wants the snowboarders to all wear hats and pins that advertise her establishment.  Plus she is pushing for development and wants ownership of all the restaurants.  Not that that is bad enough in itself, but the food she serves is tasteless and unhealthy. And, third, is the subject of pushing kids into sports which demand all of their time so that their lives aren’t their own any longer.  The mystery is solved without too much effort or drama and the side stories make it interesting.

I have not heard of Terry Jones before, and I believe he is British.  However, he has written 30 wonderful fairy tales which, when read aloud, leave the listeners spellbound.  Very funny and refreshing, and each fairy tale is accompanied by a beautiful water color illustration (some black and white) by Michael Foreman.  In checking online I see that Terry Jones has other such books as well, which I will certainly purchase and add to our elementary school library, as should any other librarian.

Franklin has been a popular book character for young children for decades now, and has also branched out into his own TV cartoon show.  This book is a compilation of eight episodes of the TV series titled Franklin and Friends.  Each story is about Franklin and his friends at school, playing, making discoveries, investigating, and so on.  Each story is wholesome and interests children.  The illustrations are vivid and almost seem to leap off the page.  The cover is a hologram which gives Franklin a little movement.  This is a well made book with strong binding and would be perfect for all elementary school  libraries as well as public libraries.

Greg and the Mural is one in a series of books featuring Greg and his cousins, who  portray important characters in the story.  Greg is in sixth grade and enjoys art.  He has entered and won an art contest, the prize being a scholarship.  I am not sure where the story takes place; the blurb on the back of the book mentions ‘Trinidad Community’ but I cannot find it in the story.  However, it is known that Greg lives with his cousins and grandparents and there is no mention of his parents.  Both grandparents work at low-paying jobs.  The boy who came in second in the contest, Mark,  lives ‘at the top of the hill’ and when Greg goes there he is amazed that people can live in those poor of conditions.  Mark and his gang buddies have been tagging buildings in Greg’s community and Greg and his cousin James work together with the police to try to stop the vandalism.  There is quite a bit to discuss in this short story, choices to make that can effect your future.  There are also discussion questions at the end of the story.  This book is a very simple to read story and is intended for reluctant readers of grades 3 through 6, and maybe older.  The cover art doesn’t seem to jive with the intended audience.

In this sequel to William S. and the Great Escape, William is now a Hardison and lives with his Aunt Fiona, a school teacher, who adopted William, Jancy, Trixie and Buddy.  Life is somewhat normal, and after a year, William decides to spend his summer in the city, auditioning for the role of Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  His time is spent budy working on sets and lines and costumes,  yet his past somehow manages to worm its way back into his life, and not in a good way.  Snyder is a master at what she does.  This story is set in the 1930’s which is pretty much only demonstrated in the fact that kids didn’t have many rights at that time.  Being able to beat kids, threaten them, and intimidate them was behavior that, although not condoned, also wasn’t reported to authorities.  This story wouldn’t have stood up had it been written with a modern setting.  Also, having it take place so long ago slows the story down.  Conversations were done in person, face-to-face, with time in between to do some thinking.  Nowadays anything controversial is on YouTube immediately, or some other social media, which demands a different style of story.  Snyder gives you the opportunity to get to know the characters and do some thinking.