It’s fine.  I suppose it’s a good idea for all library collections to include a story about the kid who doesn’t want to have a babysitter, and this would work, but I’m not sure you can’t find better out there.  It’s a pretty basic story:  Tiny Troll is watching his mother get ready to go out for the evening, protesting that he doesn’t want a sitter, kindly older sitter comes, Mom goes, Tiny Troll throws tantrum, calm and nurturing sitter wins him over with mudmilk (monster equivalent to cocoa?) and a story, Tiny Troll falls asleep, and Mom returns safely.   The only thing that makes it particularly unique is the monster twist.

This fictional story set in France in the late 1800s describes an encounter between a young girl and artist Camille Claudel.  When Mademoiselle Claudel comes to stay for a time at the home of the girl’s grandmother, the famous sculptor helps the young girl look at the world and develop her own artistic skills while using the girl as a model for her own work.  A blurb in the back of the book shares the historical facts which inspired the story.  The soft illustrations suit the story and the setting.  A glossary in the front of the book (including pronunciation guide) introduces young readers to the French words sprinkled throughout the story.

A beautiful book, in illustrations and in sentiment, for young children.  With just 2 to three lines per page, told in rhyme, it works through a variety of animals, showing parents nestled with their young in a variety of animal homes, always keeping their young “safe and sound.”  It’s sappy, but in a good way.

In this poem, a young boy walks us through his day, sharing how his feelings shift as different things happen, each time comparing his mood to a color.  A good pairing to go with Dr. Seuss’s My Many Colored Days.  Also a good tool for helping children talk about their feelings, or for teaching about the figurative language of poetry.

Beautifully illustrated non-fiction, addressing the question as to what happens to insects in the winter, when we don’t notice them around anymore.  Each two-page spread takes on another insect, using the approach of, “If you were a…” to offer a few sentences about what that insect does to survive the cold of winter.  In the back of the book, a section on “More about the Insects in this book” offers further details, with a paragraph on each.  On the one hand, I wish those extra paragraphs had been offered directly on the pages for each insect, but perhaps that would have detracted from the artwork, which really is one of the assets of this book.

With text all in Spanish, this information-rich book was a bit beyond my Spanish skills to adequately review it, so I handed it to one of my native-spanish-speaking second-grade teachers, who teaches a unit on rocks, and asked her to tell me what she thought.  She says she would recommend it.  Features she approved up were that it is well-organized, has an attractive layout and color photographs, uses high-academic vocabulary and appropriate grammar, highlights important vocabulary, and incorporates additional and relevant elements related to the topic.  As a librarian, I approve of the sturdy binding, and the complete range of non-fiction text features, including headings, index, glossary, charts, etc.

Cotton-candy sweet, it’s probably best suited to a public library that serves the pre-school crowd.  It tells the story of a young polar bear, used to spending all his time with Mom, who is trying to make a new friend.  Things don’t work out with the seagull, the seal, the penguins, or the walrus, but when he takes a break from his search, another young polar bear comes along, and the two have fun together.  The pink and white cover, with the i in the title dotted with a heart, and the fuzzy bears will appeal to young girls.

Every children’s library needs something along these lines to offer as reassurance to kids who are going to have to visit the hospital, and this one is cute.  Kids who already enjoy the other Little Princess stories will especially appreciate it.  When the Princess is informed she’s going to need to visit the hospital, she insists she doesn’t want to go, despite all the positives those around her offer in reassurance.  When she is finally hogtied and dragged in, they treat her like a princess, so she wants to go back.

So this is not a folk song with which I am familiar, but it’s fun to read.  It’s filled with non-sense words, telling a rather non-sensical tale about a mouse who lives with a tailor who bakes the mouse into a pie because he thought it would die because it had a chill.  The bright, cheerful illustrations expand on the words, giving the characters personality and helping to make sense of the non-sense, and the rhythm and rhyme just make it fun.  The complete text of the song is set to music in the back, and the last page offers what is known about the origins of the song.

Your basic pet story with cat and dog learning to get along:  Toby makes it very clear that he doesn’t like cats, but the neighbor’s cat comes to stay anyway.  Nobody ever notices all the trouble the cat causes, or the things Toby wants them to notice about him, but they always seem to notice when he’s getting into trouble.  In the end, they make friends after Toby gets the family’s attention when Pandora (the cat) is stuck in a tree. Kinda cute, but the illustrations are a bit drab.  Not a stand out.