Fabulous illustrations with deep, rich colorful pictures. Simple text on each page showing things around us that are green.  This would make a great addition to a preschool or kindergarten class.

Freelance sportswriter Doug Williams has compiled a five chapter book dealing with five National Women’s Basketball Association (NWBA) star players and five valuable basketball skills. Each chapter is matched up with one of these five WNBA players and the skill which has made her so valuable to her team: Chapter 1- Jump Shooting with Maya Moore, Ch. 2- Passing with Lindsey Whalen, Ch. 3- Rebounding with Tina Charles, Ch. 4 – Defense with Tamika Catchings, and Ch. 5 – Ball Handling with Sue Bird. The first part of each chapter tells of the key player’s performance  in specific past games, before going on to briefly describe the mechanics of her skill.

Each of the five chapters includes a  (1/3 of a page) Quick Tip: Around the World, Step Towards the Target, Keep Arms and Hands Up, Defense Starts with Stance, and Attack the Cone Zone.

Other NWBA players mentioned, in side bars, are: Teresa Weatherspoon, Sylvia Fowles, Lisa Leslie, Courtney Paris, Ticha Penicheiro, and Katie Douglas.

Biggest Blunders in Sports is a stew of mainly old stories and outdated, grainy photographs of goof-ups in sports, some going back as far 1912.  Who cares?  There are plenty of video clips of current teams/sports goof-ups that could have been used and of more interest to the reader.  Oftentimes the text did not match the photo, and the ‘fun facts’ were non-existent.  This is a boring, outdated book.  Why not do something new rather than rehash old stories?

Any one who loves sports, especially baseball, will thoroughly enjoy this book.  The table of contents will help to direct you where your interests lie, however, every double set of pages contains photos and info for the top ten in the category.  I especially enjoyed the photos of clean players, such as Derek Jeter.  My only drawback was that some of the photos were in the middle of the book and therefore cut in half by the gutter, but not many.  A great addition for all libraries.

Boy Meets Dog is a clever  play on words, making different words by just changing one letter at a time.  the illustrations show lots of action and emotions, are colorful and fun to look at, yet distracting from the text or intent of the book.  I far enjoyed looking at the pictures more than reading the word lists.  The CVC and CVCC words that were supposed to rhyme didn’t always; the vowel made a different sound, which I thought would be confusing to young children, say first graders learning to sound out words and read.  It will be a fun book to read and look at, but not a necessary purchase.

Author O’Connell is an elephant expert.  She is an assistant professor at Stanford, has won awards for other elephant books, and has spent the last 20 years of her career studying elephants.  The strength of this book is it’s photographs, which were taken by the author and her husband, Timothy Rodwell, while in Namibia, Africa.  The technology in today’s photographic equipment allows the finest of details to be seen in the beautiful photos in this book.  One shot shows 19 elephants ranging in all sizes.  The comparison is remarkable.  The shots of the newborns show their hairiness and vulnerability.  The accompanying text is simple and not distracting, and tells the reader what they are looking at.  This is a beautiful book and would be terrific addition to any school library.

Therapy dogs are becoming more and more well known, especially as wounded soldiers are returning from the Middle East.  This book is based on a true story which took place in London at a children’s hospital.  Children, as well as adults, love a good dog story and this one fits the bill.  This dog, which looked like a white cockapoo, is named Dr. White and he worked making children better.  No, he didn’t actually dispense medicine nor do any other medical things, but the power of unconditional love and affection and loyalty, which Dr. White possessed, worked to bring children back to health.  Children would respond to Dr. White in a way that they wouldn’t to even a parent.  He put a smile on their faces and changed their attitude from despair and hopelessness to wanting to get better and taking those steps to do so.  In this story, a health inspector forces the removal of Dr. White from the Children’s Hospital, claiming he was unsanitary.  But when his own child becomes very ill and the situation looks hopeless, he looks for Dr. White to work his magic. Therapy dogs are used in nursing homes with the elderly, VA hospitals, pediatric wards, and even in schools.  Just the warmth from their wiggly bodies and the occasional lick empowers the ill and elderly to reach out and grasp life again.

Lots of attention to detail makes this an exceptional book.  First of all, the font size is large and easy to read.  Second, the language is sparse.  Just enough to tell the story without any unneeded embellishments.  Third, the illustrations of events are finely detailed without any distractions.  Expressions on the faces of the animals are clear.  And, finally, the story itself is very clever, very minimal.  There are only three main characters:  the shoemaker, the cat, and the monster.  The poor shoemaker has no business, no money, so the cat tells him to make him some fine boots and he will be his messenger and drum up some business, which he did.  The cat comes across a castle in which lives a monster with the ability to change into whatever animal he wishes.  The cat sells the monster a pair of boots for every animal he becomes.  The monster doesn’t want to pay the cat so the cat thinks of a scheme.  He has the shoemaker make the tiniest of books and takes them to the monster, saying he probably isn’t powerful enough to change into a creature small enough to wear the boots.  The monster accepts the challenge and turns himself into a mouse, which the cat promptly eats.  No frills, just a great story.

Quicksilver is described by author R. J. Anderson as a companion novel to her 2011 novel Ultraviolet.  Having not read Ultraviolet, the test of this companion label would be if one could enjoy this new addition without the confusion of not already knowing characters personalities and back stories.  This is the story of Tori Beauregard and her quest to be free — free from a relay that is imbedded in her arm and could send her to a different world at any time, free from a guilt that is haunting her for what happened to a friend named Alison in the previous book, and free from a genetics company that is tracking her every move.  Tori has a special DNA that makes her more than unique.  As readers go through these months in her life, Anderson’s creativity in developing Tori for the audience is a wonderful amusement ride.  There’s action, re-action, drama, sensitive topics, surprise skills, and tension throughout.  Tori takes on a false identity and is constantly having to cover her tracks to keep her secrets.  Mischievous characters emerge that Tori has to work with but can not completely trust.  And of course there’s a love interest, but even this is extremely complicated.  Tori is unlike any other heroine I’ve read before.  She’s got a girl power and go-get-’em attitude coupled with computer/engineering skills that should make anyone stand in awe.  And all she wants to to have nothing of it.  To live a quiet life as a normal teenager.  There in lies the rub.

So can it be read as a stand alone?  There might be slight confusion in the references to her friend Alison who begins the novel in a psych ward and then again toward the end when Alison and Farraday reunite in a scene that has a lost sense of passion because of the missing backstory.  This sense of lost passion might also be due to the fact that by this point in the story a reader knows Tori feels no passion because she’s asexual.  Wow is right.

Quicksilver is recommended for those teenage girls who can handle stories with an edge, who want some twists and turns along the way.  It will be a great addition for those libraries who already have Ultraviolet and a possibility for those that don’t.

Tedd Arnold’s illustrations are so distinctive that even the youngest preschooler can recognize his golf-ball eyes on characters.  His artwork  inA Pet for Fly Guyis no exception to the rule.  The colors are sharp and the pictures go so well with the dialogue.  Another great thing is the larger book format.  I have only seen Fly Guy in the 7″ x 9″ size and this book is 9″ x 11″.  Not a huge difference but big enough to make a difference for kids to enjoy the details even more.  This book should be on all elementary school library shelves.