From Abdo’s series Essential Library of American Wars, Vietnam War by Martin Gitlin, is a 100 page accounting of the 20 year war as well as a brief historical account of the French-colonial rule leading up to the Vietnam War’s start in 1954.  It’s always a toss up to this reviewer whether a book such is this is meant to used as a reference source or as a book to read for pleasure.  On the side of pleasure, editors chose to take the reader right into the height of the conflict in 1968 Tet offensive.  A hook to establish the harsh realities of the war, readers then begin the chronological journey.  But because of this publisher’s choice to present a text in 10″ x 8″ size, I just don’t see many middle or high school students pulling this out on silent reading day or cuddling up with it in bed.  To the student that is not put off by its size, the combination of full color and black and white photos with size 14 or larger text and 2 inch margins make this feel like a more substantial read than it is.  This reviewer doesn’t doubt that the content is well presented and consulted upon with the help of history Professor Kenneth Heineman, Angelo State University.  It is very readable and discusses all of the main battles/concepts one has/will learn in a general history class concerning Vietnam.  But if a library were looking for a text that would have in-depth articles on such major battles/concepts, this is not the text for them.  Still if your library could benefit from a newer copyright date, this is a strong selection.

The question of “belief” is  the core of this YA novel, Believe by Sarah Aronson:  belief in one’s self, belief in a memory of the past, belief in the love of family, belief in God and the possibility of miracles, belief in a future of one’s own creation.  Janine Collins is six years old when she is thrust into the headlines as the only survivor of a terrorist suicide bombing that claims the lives of both of her parents.  Her terribly disfigured hands are a constant reminder of her past ordeal. She just wants to be ordinary, valued on her own merit not as political or religious spokesperson, not as the “special” Soul Survivor.  What is the price of being famous?  Every action must be considered as to how it would play out in the press.  Friends, her rescuer, the news media all use her fame to advance their own causes. Everyone has a preconceived notion as to what she should do with her fame, which she totally rejects.   Ordinary anonymity seems impossible.  She is confused as to what to believe in and what is true.  The pursuit of individuality makes Janine sympathetic but also selfish and narrow minded. Her envy of the ordinary seems glamorized.  The issues presented are relevant to teenagers in the angst of who they are and what they stand for. The book is a good read, with  ideas that would make for good discussion.

This story gets funnier and funnier as you read.

It is a creative spin off “There was an old Woman who swallowed a fly.”

The pictures are big and colorful.  The text is large, clear, and easy to read.  There is an interesting facts page at the end of the story.

I liked the book.

This book was interesting .  It is full of basic facts about the breed, as well as informative as to how to train and care for this type of dog.

I am not a dog person, but after reading this book I think this type of dog would be a fun and interesting dog pet.

Less familiar words in this book are focused on in boxes at the bottom of the pages.  They have pictures of the different types of pointers, training equipment, and table to compare the different types of pointers at a glance.

This is a nice addition to our dog book collection.

Pre-K – 1st grade students will get a number of chuckles out of Big Bad Baby by author Bruce Hale and illustrator Steve Breen.  The highly farcical story begins with a toddler who goes from doing multiple wrong things in his home to hypo-morphing into a giant baby that creates giant disasters in his town.  Leave it to mom to enlist the ever-calming power of the big blue baby blanket, hoisting bad baby away via helicopters back his home and in his mother’s arms.  The always collected mother says that even “Big bad babies need love too” to which baby replies “Gee-gah goo” and “…in bad, bad baby talk means…’I’ll be back.'”  A cute story becomes more worthwhile because of the illuminative illustrations, especially that of the faces of the characters.  They are so well done that this would be a great book to use to discuss the idea of reading body language and facial expression.  The fun nature of the entire story makes this a recommended selection.

The Katharine the Almost Great series is a good beginning chapter book for kids.  There are quite a few different things going on that make the story interesting.  First, there’s the mystery of their beloved teacher becoming Miss Crankypants; second, it’s almost Christmas and quite a few school events happening; third, Crockett, Katherine’s cousin has a hilarious sense of humor and quite a few great jokes; plus, his absent father cannot make it for Christmas and that causes some problems; and lastly, Katharine and classmates really show the spirit of Christmas for their teacher.  This is a good story that should energize kids and make them feel good and possible think that this is something they would like to do.

The illustrated children’s book “The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf, and Grandma” by Diane and Chrystyan Fox will be sure to give primary and intermediate readers a good laugh. In this book we follow a cat trying to read the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” to an action loving dog. However the dog is always interrupting and trying to add in it’s own commentary to the tale, much to the frustration of the cat. The humor in the book sets it apart from others, which switches between the dog voicing it’s own ideas for the story, to slightly critical of the “plothole’s” in “Little Red Riding Hood.” However the illustrations, while being comical and fitting for the text, are a bit too minimalistic at times with the size of the pages, so too much blank, white space is shown. The different approaches to and levels of comedy in this story make it a fun little read. While the drawings themselves, although being too small at times, add to the humor as well with some slapstick interaction between the two main characters. Primary readers will love the silliness of the dog, and intermediate readers will love the good natured criticism of the famous tale. Recommended.

The children’s picture book Beetle and Bug and the Grissel Hunt by Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura is an interesting read, but not always in a good way. The story is told in a AA, BB rhyme scheme, about the main characters “Beetle” and “Bug,” who try to find a mysterious “Grissel,” a creature that has apparently never been seen, however they have a very specific description of what it looks like. They go to the ocean and up into space via their magic rug, finding strange and interesting creatures, but never the prized “Grissel.” The fun rhyme scheme is easy to digest and the illustrations are always eye catching. On the other hand the flow of the text simply can not redeem the disaster of the plot, and while the art style is unique it sometimes seems disconnected from the text with random everyday items just thrown in throughout the book. This fiction book takes full advantage of it’s classification, giving us a potentially interesting journey to go on looking for this elusive creature. However, halfway through it seems to drop any semblance of a plot, leaving us with no resolution in the end. The illustrations arenimaginative, but like the convoluted plot, the closer you look the less enchanting they become. Primary readers might enjoy the innovativeness of the creatures and the setting, but as they mature it will surely wain on them.

In this episode of Ricky and his Mighty Robot, Sergeant Stinkbug from Saturn has polluted his planet so much that he wants to move to another planet.  He looks towards Earth and spots Ricky’s cousin Lucy and plans to kidnap her.  Stinkbug and his soldiers fight Ricky and his robot and Lucy steps in to win the day.  This volume has more language for students to read and has copious illustrations to support the story.  Many pages are used for the ‘Flip-o-Rama’ and makes this an expensive comic book.