Rat Attack is a new Brave Mouse Reader which focuses the learner on the short vowel ‘a‘.  Coxe manages to write an exciting story of Gram who is making jam and rats keep showing up trying to get the jam.  Gram is a mouse with grandmice, however they are all dolls (I think).  Finally, Gram thinks of a way to scare off the rats and they create a cat attack to restore peace.  Their home and kitchen are all handmade from found objects and the effect of 3D is very noticeable and pleasing.  Young children will enjoy the story as well as the setting.  How fun if they could make something similar with the story they’ve written from one of the story starters at the end of the book. Rat Attack is a fun, new series helping young readers with the vowels, one at a time.

The illustrations are really quite charming, and though I’m not really well-versed in Swahili folktales, this one does include some of the classic characteristics of folktales, including providing an explanation for natural phenomena (in this case, explaining why chickens scratch at the ground).  As a general story it’s got some points that would make me question the storyline — why didn’t chicken just use Eagle’s prize needle at Eagle’s house, so the whole mess could’ve been avoided in the first place — but if you’re wanting to expand your multi-cultural folk tales, this would probably fit the bill nicely.

It gets points for a good, sturdy binding, and for clear step-by-step directions with good photo support.  But it completely utterly misses the mark of what its title claims.  The crafts included are not particularly “earth-friendly,” given that most of the materials used in the crafts are plastic; and given that few of the materials used are likely to be found laying around the typical home, it’s hard to qualify them as “recycled stuff.”  I do like that the index categorizes the crafts according to difficulty level — that’s a tool helpful to young crafters.

Stemming from a legend that Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in G Minor, known as “The Cat’s Fugue,” was inspired by the sounds of the composer’s cat walking on his harpsichord, this story tells of a cat with a head full of music which she longs to play.  Only her owner’s strict rules that no one is to touch his harpsichord keeps the cat constrained, until one day, in pursuit of a mouse, the cat lands on the keyboard and gives herself up to temptation.  Scarlatti fears what will happen to his own reputation if people find out that even a cat is able to compose such amazing music, so he gives her away to someone who does not own a harpsichord.  If your population has a heavy interest in music, it might be worthwhile, but it doesn’t exactly count as a must-have.

It gets points for a sturdy binding and bright, full-page color photos that support the text, and including e-books as well as print books in both text and photos.  But it lost points for being about a rather boring topic that seems like a waste of money, since I think there are probably better ways to teach the parts of a book.  However, it still might have earned an “Additional Purchase” if it hadn’t also shown itself guilty of one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books for young children:  over-simplification to the point of untruthfulness.  When describing the spine of a book, it declares, “Hidden stitches hold the pages together.”  Yet that’s not always the case; sometimes staples or glue hold the pages together.  It claims that all books have barcodes on the back and tables of contents in the front, and that facts fill up nonfiction books, yet not all books have barcodes or tables of content, and not all nonfiction is facts.  This book is full of misinformation.

In a celebration of the relationship between father and son, this story tells the classic story of a boy who is stalling going to sleep at the end of his bedtime story: he tells his dad he loves him, and when his dad confirms he loves him, too, the son goes on to say he loves dad three.  Once they reach the number five, the son moves on to other descriptors, declaring he loves his dad more than the toys in the toy box, more than all the flowers of summer, more than all the fishes in the sea….  Each time Dad insists he loves Son more and tells him yet again to go to sleep.  Eventually Dad falls asleep, and it’s the son who does the tucking in.  My only critique is that there seems to be a bit of a disconnect in mood between the text (rather sentimental and mushy) and the illustrations (more bright and cheerful and cute).

What a delightful, charming, inspiring picture book biography!  It tells of the childhood of Clara Barton, describing her relationship with her older brother and detailing several experiences that served to nurture her interest in nursing, culminating in an accident which nearly took her beloved brother’s life, and left him in a depression from which Clara helped him recover.  An author’s note in the back goes on to describe Clara’s later years and her societal contributions as founder of the American Red Cross, as well as the author’s own family connection to this great lady.

As is fully explained in an afterword at the back of the book, the text is made up of the words to an old folk song with German origins.  The charming illustrations create characters and a setting which expand on the words of the song to round out the story:  that of two bears on a fishing trip, when the younger bear notices a hole in the bait bucket and pesters the older bear about what is to be done, but since the older bear is more absorbed in the fishing than the bothersome questions of her companion, the bait escapes before the problem is resolved.

With only a few words on each page, and much repetition, this is definitely targeting very young children.  It begins by listing many scary sounds a young boy may hear, before describing his coping strategy of sitting down, closing his eyes, and telling the scary to go away, and then lists all the joyous things he sees around him as he goes on his way.  The illustrations are childlike and support the text.  It’s okay, but there’s not really enough substance to the text to rate it an actual recommendation.

It’s one of those books that combines fiction with non-fiction:  on one level it a a fictional picture book telling the story of a dog who is invited to visit the international space station as part of a program to honor Laika, the Russian dog who was the first living creature to travel in space.  As the story goes along describing Max’s fictional training and experiences on his adventure, extensive sidebars on each page describe the facts supporting/inspiring that part of the story.  The illustrations are detailed and realistic, contributing to the educational nature of the story.