This is a beautiful true story of Ms. Patricia Polacco’s young school years and the wonderful art teacher, Miss Chew, who encouraged her and helped her to develop her talent.  Touching and emotional, Patricia overcomes obstacles and misguided teachers, to be better understood as a student.  The illustrations are bright and expressive.  Students who learn differently or who are artists would especially enjoy this book.

This is the story of Warduff the cat who saves the day when the farm animals are in danger of being eaten by the hungry fox.  The text and illustrations in this story are hilarious, making it a fun read-aloud.  The story is pretty simple, so I think it will appeal most to a younger audience, perhaps Kindergarten to 2nd grade.

How refreshing to come across a picture-book biography other than the pat same-ol’, same-ol’ that fills our shelves.  Zitkala-Sa (born Gertrude Simmons), a Native American Sioux born in 1876 in South Dakota, was taken from her tribe, at age 8, to be educated at a Quaker Indian Boarding School in Indiana.  Despite the loneliness, foreign customs, and homesickness, she blossomed from the love of music, writing, and public speaking.  She learned to recognize and speak against injustices and eventually became a well respected fighter for Native American civil rights in Washington DC in the 1920’s.  The acrylic illustrations are embellished with sheet music, maps and photographs, emphasizing primary source aspects of this adapted, heartfelt retelling.  “She was the first Native American writer to receive national acclaim; the first Native American violinist to perform before a U.S. president; and the first Native American to write an opera and have it staged.”  Comprehensive back matter includes suggested readings, websites, and more detail.

Nardo does an excellent job of organizing this massive topic.  He begins with an overview of Greek mythology and ancient history, relying on the Greek epic poet Hesiod (same era as Homer who is better known) to give his thoughts on the subject.  He then moves into Chaos and explains the beginning of time, the beginning of the Titans and then the Olympians.  Nardo is able to cleverly and clearly explain the totally twisted and confusing relationships of the gods and goddesses.  He accompanies this explanation with a story, or myth, of the entity.  I would have liked to have seen how the Greek myths are still represented in today’s world.  The book ends rather abruptly with a graphic in color-blocked spaces of the Titans, Olympians, Minor Deities, Muses, and Nymphs names.  I wish there was a smoother transition to the next phase of their glorious history.

A simple and delightful personal narrative of a young sister’s admiration for her older sister.  Not so much a story as a list of all the ways that “My Olive is the best in the world”…compared to herself.  “My Olive is the best in the world at tying her long stripy shoelaces.  My fingers are in knots!”   Gentle, doll-like digital illustrations placed on wallpaper and photograph backgrounds add  much visual interest.  Useful as a primary writing model, teachers can share this title in a mini-lesson on personal narratives.  Lovingly, at the end, the big sister acknowledges her little sister for being the “best in the world at giving big, BIG hugs!”

Not being a Chinese language expert, I had an Chinese ESL specialist from our district look at this book to give me her take 0n this publication.  The Basics explains the four tones of Mandarin along with a graph of “It Sounds Like”, with consonants, vowels, and vowel combinations.  Each phrase is presented in English, Chinese characters and pinyin transliteration.  The phrases are organized into themes such as, Schools, Meals, Months, Seasons, etc.  Bright, colorful, digital, illustrations add to the visual appeal.  Unfortunately, frequent typos in the pinyin transliteration make it questionable to have this title on the shelf.  Errors like extra letters, wrong letters, missing letters, as well as incorrect tone marks appear in about seven different places throughout the text.  I ended up making the corrections right in the book with a black pen, instead of not adding the book to our collection.  Aside from the errors (which were corrected in an unorthodox way), the ESL specialist thought the book was still worth having.

Students who are interested in history or geography or travel, will love this book.  It includes the seven wonders of the ancient world as the seven wonders of the newer world.  The first seven are all located in the Mediterranean Sea area and the structures of the newer list include countries such as India, China and Brazil.  The history behind the structures is amazing.  Plus it’s interesting to see how these ancient structures have influenced today’s building and architecture.  Activities to make the structures are also included.  I paired this book up with a novel by Peter Lerangis titledThe Colossus Rises and the series is Seven Wonders.  It is an adventure based on the Colossus of Rhodes.  Each of the seven books in the series will be based on one of the seven wonders of the world.  It is a terrific way to teach history as well as read a brilliant story.

Piper knows she’s cynical.  Falling in love is not something she aspires to do. In fact, she usually walks away before she can every really get to know a guy.  Enter her two best girlfriends with a love potion plan to find boyfriends by Feburary 14th.  The fact that her single mother of three owns a floral shop and that Piper works for a candy shop owner only makes the weeks leading up to Valentine’s day a stressful combination of angst.  But the character Heather Hepler develops in Piper is surprisingly insightful, respectful, and not as melodramatic as the chic lit cover filled with candy “consternation” hearts might lead one on to believe.  Piper gets her man, but does she really want him?  Her soul mate might just be closer than she imagined.  The predictability of the ending is one small flaw. Another is the “thrown in” conflict of Piper’s real father coming into the picture.   This read is more about realizing that repressed feelings can put all relationships at risk until the eventual implosion or explosion that is necessary to move on.

Based on the Marvel comic book series THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, Tony Stark is a rich man who likes to have fun, but he is also a brilliant inventor.  When an enemy army captures him, it leads to the invention of the first Iron Man. Now, both Iron Monger and Titanium Man ” use Tony’s technology for their own evil purposes– Tony feels it’s his responsibility to stop them!”

More picture fills the page than text, but the colorful bold highlighted words provide the meat of the story.

This non-fiction book illustrates that large dinosaurs, in this case – stegosaurus, SHOULD NOT be shrunk down to ‘graphic’ size!

The illustrations are too repetitive and lackluster.

Book consists of 57 sentences total. Page 18 states, ” four sharp spikes…” but the illustration on page 13 definitely shows more than four.