When Pearl searches her closet for warm clothes, she tumbles into the Underwater Kingdom.  She finds it strangely quiet.  She discovers all the princesses gathered around an injured princess, washed in on a tidal wave, from their enemies in the Reef Kingdom.  Pearl tells them they must care for her and give her plenty of rest.  Although her wounds begin to heal, Princess Velvet’s eyes remain closed.  Pearl reads her stories and brings various corals to decorate the room.  One day Pearl asks her to open her eyes so she can return home.  Slowly Velvet looks at Pearl.  She had been worried because a look from a Coral Princess can turn enemies into stone.  Pearl assures her they are friends, not enemies.  She escorts Velvet home and they are greeted by the Coral Princesses – with open eyes.  As a thank you, they give Pearl a lovely coral pearl as a token of friendship.  The artwork in this simple story will appeal to all princesses.  There is a “pearl” embedded in the front cover.  At the end of the book, the reader is invited to touch the pearl and whisper their own pearl of wisdom by which to live.

Pearl is invited to the Underwater Kingdom to celebrate her birthday.  The sea princesses give her a beautiful pearl necklace.  Everyone is impressed, especially Princess Amethyst.  On their way to the party, Pearl accidently drops the necklace.  Unnoticed, Amethyst quickly picks it up and puts it in her own pocket.  At the Coral Castle, they play games and eat delicious snacks.  All at once, a magician appears stating he makes things appear and disappear.  In his hands he has Pearl’s necklace yet he returns it to Amethyst!  Ashamed, Amethyst rushes to return it to Pearl saying she just wanted something beautiful for herself.  Pearl tells her it looks pretty on her and that she can borrow it any time.  All she has to do is ask.  The artwork in this simple story will appeal to all princesses.  There is a “pearl” embedded in the front cover.  At the end of the book, the reader is invited to touch the pearl and whisper their own pearl of wisdom by which to live.

Eleven year old Anna’s former teacher and her husband have been approved to adopt a child from China.  As an Asian, Anna gets to accompany them to help with translation and the baby.  She is excited because she hopes to see the orphanage from where her little sister was adopted and to immerse herself in Chinese culture.  At home, Anna is one of two Asian students.  In China, she does not stand out at all.  To help raise money for the orphanage, Anna and friend Andee, make fortune cookies.  Andee surprises Anna with a gift of paper fortune cookies to open each day of the trip.  Anna has a journal to record her observations and ideas for her oral history project.  This book has unexpected depth dealing with adoption, being a minority, adjusting to middle school, and families.  A pronunciation guide for Chinese word and phrases is at the beginning of the book.  Words are listed in order of appearance.  A recipe for fortune cookies is in the back.  Black and white illustrations are a perfect match for the story.  This is a sequel to The Year of the Book and The Year of the Baby.  Coming soon is The Year of the Sisters.  They chronicle Anna’s life beginning as a 4th grader, although they are enjoyable even if read out of order.

Alice, the dragon, introduces dragons to the dragon-illiterate.  From the beginning, she says dragons are not real.  She then goes on to say they are famous, have treasure, come from eggs, are smart, almost indestructible, live all over the world, and like to eat humans.  Full page color illustrations are delightful.  None are scary.  Not all look or act the same as different cultures hold varied beliefs.  Alice is charming even as she ends the book with a plan to eat the reader!

In this Inuit folktale, long ago Walrus once had fancy, spiraled tusks which he used to uncover tasty clams.  Jealous of his ability to gather and eat so many clams, Raven cast a spell on the ocean to trap Walrus.  Frozen in place, Walrus was trapped with part of his tusks and head above the surface.  Raven teased and tormented Walrus while little critters nibbled him from below.  Enraged, Walrus heaved himself out of the ice, straightening his tusks and reddening his eyes.  He lunged after Raven who hastily scrambled far, far away.  Walrus left the coast preferring to live out at sea.  Artwork is in blues and browns and reminiscent of wood cut prints.  While stylized, it is a good match for this Arctic folktale.

Twins Sydney and Simon are hoping to enter their window-box flowers in the neighborhood flower show.  A heat wave creates all sorts of problems – the window swells shut, they can’t water the flowers, and the flowers are wilting.  Using STEAM thinking (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), the twins learn how to successfully solve their problems.  They hypothesize, seek advise from others, observe, make predictions and connections, and test.  Many scientific facts and procedures are explained and creatively illustrated as these two purple mice use each category of STEAM.  A glossary of many terms in included.  This is a great resource to explain STEAM and describe the process of the scientific method.

A young boy is unhappy as his family packs up to move.  The rainy weather matches his mood – it’s all bad, “bad truck, bad guy, bad wave, bad bye”.  As they travel the long distance to their new home, the bad weather disappears and new sights, new experiences, and new towns appear.  Good things begin again.  Jonathan Bean’s ink and Prismacolor tone illustrations beautifully and simply match the emotions with the move.  The rhyming text is large and spare, yet a complete story is told.  Anyone who has moved may identify with this family.

If kids ruled the world, life would be much different!  Each page addresses a separate rule for kids of all ages.  No bedtimes, travel can include pirate ships or rockets, school can be chosen by interest, (circus school, fairy school, inventing school, recess school…), and no one would forget how to play.  Illustrations are bright, amusing, and colorful.  All rules involve physical activity – not a hand-held in sight.  Great for story time, as a writing prompt, or just fun reading.

Readers are introduced to the five basic biomes: tundra, grassland, forest, desert, and water.  A mammal example for each biome is mentioned along with the characteristics needed to survive.  Included is a separate question to encourage inquiry-style thinking about biomes and the animals to have a home there.  Text is in large font.  Illustrations are simple, yet provide adequate information.  A short matching quiz is found in the back along with a small glossary.  Good introduction to biomes for young readers.

The saber-toothed cat is one ancient animal that lived at the same time as early humans.  Fossilized bone tells us how the cats may have looked, how and what they hunted, and how they may have become extinct.  As large, strong animals, they may have preferred hiding and waiting for prey to walk by instead of chasing it.  They may have lived in groups (prides) who cared for injured cats, as fossils have revealed healed bones.  With no more than four sentences per double-page spread, the text is simple and clear.  Acrylic paintings provide colorful, detailed illustrations to support the information about this prehistoric, formidable predator.