The illustrations are absolutely charming!  Hugo is a small yellow bird, living in Paris, who doesn’t like to fly.  One day he meets a new friend who wants to take him to the Eiffel Tower, but Hugo keeps making excuses to put off the adventure.  Finally that evening he confesses to a local owl that he is afraid of flying.  The owl is both understanding and helpful.  After practicing all night, Hugo is finally ready to take the leap the next day when his friend returns, and thoroughly enjoys the adventure.

The illustrations are soft and charming.  The text is rhythmic and rhyming and repetitive.  The story tells the simple tale of a young owl who watches his older siblings fly away and leave the nest, but is afraid to attempt to fly herself.  When she finally does, she’s glad because she then sets up her own nest, and hatches her own chick.  My one criticism is that there’s no actual compelling reason that finally spurs the chick to try flying: after repeatedly refusing the attempt she just finally does.

This is the second picture-book biography of Alice Coachman I’ve read in the last year, and though very different, they’re both fabulous in their own way.  This one has the advantage of offering the reader more detailed information about this inspiring woman who beat all kinds of odds to become the first African-American woman to win Olympic gold in 1948, from the poverty in which she was raised, to the societal prejudices against both blacks and women, to the cancellation of the 1944 Olympics during WWII.  When she finally did get her chance, it was an amazingly close contest.

Eh.  It’s fine.  It’s a cutesy little story about a personified bear, whose mother has warned him to stay away from people, who starts worrying when he hears about the tooth fairy because he doesn’t know whether the tooth fairy is a bear or a person.  He consults many other personified animal friends, getting into discussions about the Easter Bunny, Santa, and Old Mother Hubbard along the way.  For this bear, Santa and the tooth fairy both turn out to be bears.  Will young human children find their own beliefs about these characters challenged?

Beautifully illustrated non-fiction, describing the startlingly long migration of the godwits from Alaska to New Zealand.  It chronicles a single godwit, from hatching in June, to fattening itself up and learning to fly, through taking off with her flock in mid-October, struggles with weather avoiding birds of prey, to her arrival in New Zealand eight days and 7,270 non-stop miles later.  The story really is a compelling one to add to a science unit on migration and/or birds, and the illustrations really are stunning.  My one criticism of the book is the way it continually referred the bird it was tracking as “the young female.”  I found it repetitive and a little annoying (the feminist in me kept asking what difference it made that the bird was female — do males not make this journey?).

The action and violence and battle scenes in this series tend to mark it for a male audience, but the characters and plots are well enough developed that I and some other female friends have enjoyed it also.  Given the violence, these books may be most fitting for middle school and high school audiences, but a good friend who is also an elementary librarian says she’s got a lot of fifth grade boys who love the series,   so I’ve added the complete collection to my shelves as well, but I only market it to fifth graders.  This, the eighth book in the series, takes place when Will has ceased to be an apprentice, and is a Ranger in his own right, but he’s teamed up with his former mentor and warrior friend to form an emergency squad sent to squash the growth of a cult who is taking over a neighboring country, stealing people blind and gradually over-taking the established authorities.

Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to consider a non-example, or opposite. This series of bilingual readers does just that.  Colorful pictures illustrate “Fast and Slow”, and the bold text sentences describe the pictures. Race cars are fast; bumper cars are slow. Speedboats are fast; canoes go slowly through the water. Jets go fast; seaplanes are slow, particularly when landing.  This series would be useful in Kindergarten, where the concept of opposites is taught. It would also be a great idea in first grade, supporting the acquisition of Spanish, while reinforcing the concept of “opposite”. Picture glossary and index included. No A.R. test located.

Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to consider a non-example, or opposite. This series of bilingual readers does just that.  Colorful pictures illustrate “Up and Down”, and the bold text sentences describe the pictures. Seesaws go up and down, just as kites go up and down and dogs can jump up and down.  This series would be useful in Kindergarten, where the concept of opposites is taught. It would also be a great idea in first grade, supporting the acquisition of Spanish, while reinforcing the concept of “opposite”. Picture glossary and index included. No A.R. test located.

Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to consider a non-example, or opposite. This series of bilingual readers does just that.  Colorful pictures illustrate “Big and Small”, and the bold text sentences describe the pictures. Bubbles can be big or small, just as toys can be big or small and bikes can be big or small.  This series would be useful in Kindergarten, where the concept of opposites is taught. It would also be a great idea in first grade, supporting the acquisition of Spanish, while reinforcing the concept of “opposite”. Picture glossary and index included. No A.R. test located.

Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to consider a non-example, or opposite. This series of bilingual readers does just that.  Colorful pictures illustrate “Wet and Dry”, and the bold text sentences describe the pictures. The park can be wet or dry; the sandbox can be wet or dry; and the sidewalk can be wet or dry. This series would be useful in Kindergarten, where the concept of opposites is taught. It would also be a great idea in first grade, supporting the acquisition of Spanish, while reinforcing the concept of “opposite”. Picture glossary and index included. No A.R. test located.