It’s a simple, sweet, charmingly illustrated story about a Mama duck who went for a walk with her little ducklings one day, but the little ones fell through the gaps in a storm drain.  Luckily the problem is noticed by some friendly humans who work together to rescue the ducklings and send them on their way. I’ve got two gripes with the story that keep it from getting a higher rating: 1) it feels like it’s trying to be the next Make Way for Ducklings, but it falls a little short, and 2) the cover declare it to be a “true rescue story,” but though it may be based on a true story, as soon as the author starts interpreting Mama Duck’s quacking to represent human speech, it stops being able to claim the “true story” label.

What a fabulous, fun book, about punctuation and about being yourself.  This charming story, told in simple sentences, on pages that resemble that rail-road track paper on which kids are first taught to print, tells of young Exclamation Mark’s struggles to fit in with a bunch of periods.  He tries all sorts of things to try to be like the others, until he meets Question Mark:  when Question Mark arrives on the scene, he is of course full of nothing but questions; he asked so many questions that Exclamation Mark is driven to shout out for the questions to stop.  So surprised by his own shout, he starts to experiment and finds all sorts of ways he can contribute to the vibrancy of language.

Oh, I’m so sorry to have to give this book a negative rating.  Usually I am a fan of Gary Schmidt’s books, and I was really looking forward to reading this one, but I had to slug my way through it, and I don’t imagine many of my students would stick with it much beyond the first chapter.  I think maybe Sci-Fi/Fantasy is not Gary’s strong suit.  The story is told in alternating chapters, with part of the story told on another planet in turmoil, and part in contemporary New England, with a family in a bit of turmoil themselves.  With the Valorim facing their impending doom, in a last ditch to preserve all the good and beauty of their world, a locket is fashioned that contains all their arts, and launched out into the universe; when it lands in Tommy Pepper’s lunch box, it begins to exude its influence over him, so that he finds himself suddenly able to do all sorts of things he never could before. Tommy’s story is actually pretty good, but the ending isn’t really satisfactory enough to make it worth slugging through all the other chapters to get there: the chapters set in Weoruld Ethelim are so heavily riddled with invented vocabulary unique to this planet, without enough supporting English text to give them meaning through context, that the reader is left puzzled and these chapters become a chore to read as one must struggle to make meaning of them. There is a glossary in the back, but few students are going to willingly look up so many unfamiliar words, and besides, doing so interrupts the flow of the story (not that there’s much flow in these chapters).  The five-finger rule tells kids if they run into five words on the first page that give them trouble, that book might be too hard for them.  I ran into five such words in the first two sentences.

This is the second book in a companion series, which serves as a prequel to the Charlie Bone books, giving readers the back story on who the Red King was and where he came from.  The characters are likable, the plot is engaging, and the book manages to avoid one of my pet peeves with series books: in a brief prologue and snippets explained as they pop up in the story, the author manages to explain enough of what happened in the first book in the series so that this story manages to stand alone: readers (like myself) who pick up this book without having read the first book in the series will still be able to enjoy the story independently — though they may find themselves intrigued enough to want to seek out the other book, they won’t be lost reading this one.

The patriotic color scheme, the illustrations (some photos and some drawings), and the way the text is formatted with lots of headings and captions, all serve to make the book visually appealing and non-intimidating.  The tone of the text is chatty and conversational, which helps to draw the reader in.  And the content of the book, focused as it is on the children and families who’ve lived in the White House, builds a connection between young readers and history.  Rather than being organized chronologically, it is organized around themes such as what it’s like to always live in the spotlight, what the house itself was like, and what were some of the perks and problems that came along with living in the white house.  Appendices in the back put the presidents and first ladies into chronological order and tell snippets of what happened to White House Kids after they left the White House.  It’s informative, approachable, and interesting.

Originally published shortly after the end of WWII, this beautifully illustrated version of the Gettysburg Address uses artistic montages to draw out the wider themes of Lincoln’s speech.  The complete text of this short speech is in the front of the book, but the body of the book is dedicated to pulling apart the text phrase by phrase.  The illustrations are rich and vibrant and full of symbols drawn from all eras of history, inviting the reader to ponder why different images were paired with each line of text.  In the back of the book is a page-by-page explanation from the author sharing his thoughts/reasons for including specific images.  The Afterword provides the historic context of the original speech.  All together this book helps take one of those standard texts students are often asked to memorize and enrich it by placing it in the context in which it was originally offered, connecting it to wider issues of history, and providing illustrations to help with comprehension of big ideas.

Eleven year old Ben McBain loves football and has the skill and passion to be a great quarterback.  The problem – he is small.  The coach is an ex-NFL player who selects his own son Shawn to be quarterback.  The problem – Shawn is inconsistent, moody, and although he doesn’t want to disappoint his dad, does not want to be a quarterback.  Ben exhibits more maturity than most eleven year olds but the reader is drawn into the game and relationships between friends, teammates, and family.  Mike Lupica’s skill creating interesting characters incorporated with knowledge of the game results in an action packed quick read.

Third grader Ellray Jakes seems to continually mess up.  In this book, he is taking care of the class goldfish during spring break when his little sister overfeeds it and it dies.  Although Ellray is worried about what his classmates and teacher will say, he takes the blame.  The situations are realistic and conversations are believable.  The class bully is Cynthia, who tries to look perfect while accusing Ellray of causing all sorts of problems.  Ellray speaks up for himself even though he does not seem to be heard.  His character is revealed in pieces throughout the book.  Black and white illustrations and occasional font changes add to the interest and fast pace.  This is a good beginning chapter book for both reluctant readers and those who enjoy a good story.