Come and Play, Mr Croc is a board book for the very young, perhaps one year and up.  Five characters are introduced at the very beginning and page by page, the reader looks for one of the characters hiding.  Very colorful and eye-catching.  Youngsters will enjoy one-on-one storytime with this book.

This five senses book is for toddlers, ages two years and up.  It covers all the five senses and with each one gives a fair amount of examples plus added vocabulary to describe things.  A youngster will be delighted with a one-on-one storytime using this book.

This story is creative and fun.  It teaches a lot about the fun of using your imagination.  I liked the way the boy with the box includes everyone, even the boy who was showing off.  The font changes when the characters are talking, however the choice of font style is somewhat hard to read and fairly small in places.

The pictures are interesting and unique.  This is a good read for children.

The first half of this book seemed quite different from the second half; shorter sentences almost made it seem it was targeting a very young audience.  The information given was common, not exactly riveting.  However, the second half picked up quite substantially.  The writing seemed to evolve from elementary to something more substantive and meaningful.  Comparisons were made but no judgment given.  Illustrations are like caricatures of the people themselves; nicely done.  The end of the book features a list of the presidents, in order, stating the dates served and major events and/or accomplishments during their term(s).

Darwin’s Frog, Rhinoderma darwinii, is a small frog, about one inch in length, indigenous to southern Chile.  This frog is different from other frogs because of mothering of the male frogs.  A female frog will choose a strong frog with which to mate, lays her eggs and is gone.  The male frog sticks around the eggs to watch over them.  Just when the eggs are about to hatch, he scoops them up into his mouth and keeps them in his vocal sacs  for about two months.  When they have developed into mini-frogs, he opens his mouth and they hop out, about as big as your little fingernail.  These frogs are hard to find because their habitat is being destroyed by development.  They are also masters at camouflage and can hide quite easily.  If they fear being caught, they flip over and play dead.  All in all, Darwin’s frogs are quite unique from other frogs.

Hooray! It’s baseball season ! Mr. Putter decides there is more to summer than taking naps. Mr. Putter and  Mrs. Teaberry  demonstrate their baseball prowess in this short 5 chapter story of geriatric baseball. Mrs. Teaberry’s dog Zeke almost causes them to loose the game when Zeke runs away with the balls after they have been grounded by the batters.

In this colorful mixture pf cut paper, folded paper, photos, and painting, a story unfolds as a newly folded origami dog discovers his new garden environment: smells, dirt- soil, and Roger the earthworm. In this enjoyable introduction to earth science for the primary grades, Roger the earthworm teaches Kitanai, the origami dog, the importance of dirt and about its composition: topsoil, nutrients, humus, bacteria, decomposers, subsoil layer, and bedrock.

Includes directions on how to fold an origami dog (head) like Kitanai.

Also includes: www.facthound.com.

Camellia loves pretending and her favorite scene is being a flower girl, until one day she is asked to be a flower girl for real.  It’s her dream come true, until she finds out there are two other flower girls.  Planning on being grumpy for the wedding, her attitude changes when she finds out the other two girls love to play the same thing as her.  They all become new friends and the wedding is perfect.  Cute story for little girls who know what flower girls do.  In visiting the website, www.flowergirlworld.com, you will find more than you ever thought possible about flower girls.  There are books, activities, crafts, fashion, tips and more.  Great idea for feminine little girls.

Wendell Minor must really like pumpkins; here’s his second picture book on them.  In this story, the emphasis is on BIG pumpkins.  Each pair of pages uses a synonym for BIG to demonstrate what big really means.  Pumpkins are seen at Mt. Rushmore, at a litehouse, at Cape Canaveral, and other places of comparison.  Synonyms are in a different color in all caps.  Some of the words are too hard and unfamiliar for the younger students.

Everyone knows that the custodian is one of the most important people of the school and he is somewhat of a mystery.  He’s the only one who knows where all the secret places are hidden.  In this elementary school, Fester Smudge (Uncle Fester?) is the custodian, and apparently he has talent for disaster.  Kids have the best imagination when it comes to what adults do, and this is a great example of that imagination.  After fantasies of flood, dragons, and caves, Mr. Smudge is actually a pretty nice guy.