Peggy the Pug’s family is not feeling very cheery this Christmas. Business is slow, Ruby doesn’t like her teacher, Chloe feels like she is losing her friend, and Finn has lost his bandmate. Peggy wants to help them be happy again. She decides that she needs to talk to Santa and to do that she needs to become a reindeer. She tries to give herself antlers, she eats carrots, and finally decides to talk to the reindeer at the school Christmas fair. Each thing that Peggy tries seems to make more work for her family at home.

This is short chapter book with sketched illustrations and is a part of an 8 book series. The book was originally published in Great Britain.

A young boy and his father cross the border to Mexico every Saturday. Each week they cross the Rio Grande. On this visit they go to Tio Mateo at his jewelry store, plays soccer, has a sweet treat from the paletero, and visits the pharmacy. On their way back home, they make one more stop, they check in with and drop of supplies for friends on the bridge who are refugees and stuck between the United States and Mexico. The watercolor illustrations by Erika Meza are colorful and eye-catching.

In the 2nd Chicken Little book by Sam Wedelich, Chicken Little still asserts that she is not afraid of anything and definitely not a big bad wolf especially because she has never seen a wolf. One day Chicken Little and the wolf collide and Chicken Little runs away. While trying to decide what she saw and if she is afraid, the rest of the flock is debating fight or flight. Chicken Little decides to investigate why the wolf is always running and discovers that the wolf is just misunderstood and wants to belong.

Written in Spanish and English, a young girl recounts her visits with her abuelo in Cuba. On her visits they sell fruit in the street while singing the names of the fruit. Other vendors are singing about their wares as well. The girl’s favorite visit is on New Year’s Eve where she wishes for friendship between the two countries and more visits with her family. When she returns home she misses her abuelo, but knows that they can continue to sing rhymes through the letters they send each other. The colorful illustrations by Sara Palacios are vibrant. The author’s note at the end talks about Spanglish, travel restrictions between Cuba and the United States, the singing vendors in Cuba, and New Year’s Eve in Cuba.

A young girl and her cat are outside on a dark night when they see a firefly. The night starts to clear and they see stars in the sky. The book then starts to look at natural and artificial light. It introduces vocabulary with bold text and a glossary is included at the back of the book. The text is broken up with diagrams and illustrations. There is a lot of information in the book, but it does not always flow smoothly from one concept to another. It introduces a firefly at the beginning of the book, but does not talk about how a firefly produces light. The book does focus on how light behaves and how we see light. The illustrations complement the text and help further explain the concepts. Overall I think this book is a good introduction for explaining the concepts of light.

Lola’s dad, the super secret agent, James Blond, is kidnaped by Max Imum and other Friendly Falls villains. Lola sets out to find him with her dinosaur, James, and her cat Hot Dog. Luckily she brought her pencil and eraser to help her defeat the villains. Along the way she is joined by two skeletons and a scribble monster. In the second story, Lola sets off through the television to save her mom who has gone missing.

This story is full of twists and turns and imagination. As an adult, I had a hard time following and keeping up with the story. I think this story would appeal to 2nd and 3rd grade fans of silly graphic novels.

When their owner, Mrs. Food, slips and falls and is taken away to the hospital, the pets learn they are in serious trouble. The dog, cat, bird, and two rats must come up with a plan to survive on their own. They concoct a plan to become independently wealthy. Their plan involves stealing coins from the Coin Man on the top floor. Along the way, they discover something is going on with the little girl who is taking care of them and discover it might not just be the pets that need saving.

Each of the pets have distinct personalities. Readers will laugh at the animals plans and antics. This is a page turning read.

Rigel loves living off-the-grid in Alaska. She talks to ravens, hunts rabbits and lives in a two-room cabin with her two sisters, Willow and Izzy; her mom, Lila; and her dad, Bear. Lila and Bear have been fighting a lot lately and one day after coming home with her first rabbit, Lila announces that Lila and Bear are separating and they are moving to Connecticut to live with Grandma and Bear is staying in Alaska. Rigel does not want to leave in Alaska and Bear makes a secret pact with her that she can come back in a year. Rigel hates Connecticut with all of its noise and crowds. She misses nature. She hates school and has a hard time fitting in. Eventually she befriends a crow at school.

There was a definite connection to Rigel and how she tries to navigate this new unfamiliar world.

Bear is so excited for the surprise party and he just can’t wait. The friends decorate and bake a cake. Bear is impatient and in his impatience he squishes the cake which makes bear sad. Bear’s friends comfort him and help him build a new cake to surprise Hare. The text is rhyming and the illustrations are colorful and bright.

A little beetle and a caterpillar are friends having a picnic and watching the moon on a cliff. One day the caterpillar is gone and the beetle is sad. Looking for its friend, it sees some red in the distance and sets off to look for its friend. In the illustrations, the reader can see that the caterpillar has built a chrysalis on the underside of the cliff out of view of the beetle. He encounters a crow and a frog, but it is not afraid. Once the beetle reaches the red, it sees that it was wrong. Soon a butterfly comes along and looks very familiar and it realizes that it is the friend.

The illustrations are black and white, but the caterpillar and butterfly are in red. The illustrations are striking in this story about friendship.

A little pig faces frustration again and again of not being able to do it yet. The pictures on the pages show the piglet’s frustration as riding without training wheels, flipping pancakes, playing violin, and completing a puzzle are tried without success. The book goes on to say that it takes patience to get to yet and to get there, you will make mistakes, but that is okay. The pictures are watercolor and add to the sweetness of the book. A great story for encouraging young ones to keep trying and not give up.

Victor and Linesi are twins in Malawi. Victor goes to school and plays with his friends, but Linesi has to collect water and do chores during the day. At school, Victor’s teacher asks them to think about equality and if boys and girls are treated equally in their own lives. Victor does not think it is fair that his sister does not get to go to school and is too tired from all of the chores to learn anything at the end of the day. He decides to take turns with his sister, so that she can go to school as well. This inspires others in the village to do the same.

This picture book is based on true events. The end of the book includes an author’s note about access to fresh water and a list of organizations for finding out more information about water scarcity and gender inequality. The author’s note also includes words to know and the pronunciation, since several Chichewa words (one of the languages in Malawi) are included in the story.

A humorous look at differently topics from parts of the body, animals, plants, and the earth. Cartoon panels introduce us to diary entries for different items. It is divided up into three different sections: Human Body, Animal Kingdom, and Earth and Science. The content is not in-depth, especially since each item is only discussed on one to two pages, but there are some interesting and funny facts. The topics and the focus will definitely appeal to children. Did you know wombat poop is cube shaped? Vampire bats throw up in other bats mouths? Some of the pages has me laughing out look, but I was disappointed to see that some of the humor came from making fun of others (the slug calling the snail stupid and a loser). A table of contents and glossary are included.

This is book one in the series Dragon Kingdom of Wrenly. A curse has come upon the land and has a young dragon sets off to find the king for a cure. At the kingdom, she stumbles upon the prince’s pet dragon. They end up setting off on an adventure to save the land from the curse.

The story is geared towards younger readers and there is not a lot of text on the page, but the font is small. The illustrations are colorful and the frame size varies on the different pages. I story line and content make this a good choice for younger graphic novel fans.

This sweet book shows different ways that we can be friends. Each page only has a few words on it describing things that friends do together. The pictures compliment the gentle text. The text is written in a curlicue font that may make independent reading difficult for readers. This could be used as a read aloud and then a discussion of friendship.

Vinny is a dog. Every day his mom goes to work everyday. When Vinny asked his adopted brother, a cat, where Mom goes, he learns what a job is and decides he should get a job. He tries a restaurant but he started licking the plates. He tried a florist shop and was asked to water the plants, but that didn’t work out. Finally he tries a museum, but he ends up taking a large dinosaur bone because it looked so delicious. When he finally returns home, Mom tells him his job is to be a dog.

The story is funny and sweet. It would be fun to read to a group and use for a lesson on prediction.

Book was new and bright and shiny. It went on many adventures until one day Book was moved to a lower shelf where it was lonely and forgotten. One day someone picked up Book and it was so excited to go on new adventures, but instead it was tossed in a box. Then suddenly Book was chosen again and went on new adventures.

The end notes includes places to donate books. The author’s note says that he has so many books that they are in boxes, which is not place for a book to live. During a school visit one day, the librarian mentioned that they donate excess books to readers who do not have a lot of books and that inspired him to research places to donate books.

Space is all around us. You find space in between words, buildings, and in the sky. Space can be useful. This short picture book causes readers to pause and think about empty space in a different way. The illustrations are diverse and inclusive, but does include and anthropomorphic gorilla.

The book might be useful in looking at perspective or trying to look at things in new ways. It would probably be best in an individual or small group setting.

Maya lives with her Japanese father and American mother in Japan. Her grandmother and Great Grandfather live nearby. Maya is in school on March 11, 2011 when an earthquake hits off the Japanese coast, followed by a tsunami and damage to a nuclear plant. Her family is safe and intact, but Maya is scared as the aftershocks keep coming for days and weeks. She makes paper cranes and writes messages to “The People in the Northeast” to help her cope.

Written in verse, the author uses fonts and color to show the aftershocks and Maya’s feelings. Dates at the top and timestamps for the aftershocks make you feel the anxiousness that Maya was feeling. Maya and the other characters in the story of different ways of coping and the story shows us that we all have different ways of getting through a disaster.

Clarissa is ready for a tea party, but all of her stuffed animal guests are not in the mood. They are upset about being left outside, having a rip, being forgotten, and having ice cream spilled on their head. Each animal is upset with Clarissa for a different reason and do not want to have at tea party. Clarissa has reasons for all of these things and the stuffed animals finally realize that she was trying to be kind to them.

While the premise of this story could be fun, it just doesn’t quite hit home. It is written like a script which does not lend itself to a read aloud, but the content may not be interesting to independent readers. The illustrations are colorful, but also feel chaotic.

This book was inspired by the medley “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World” created by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole. When a baby boy is born, his grandpa tells him to listen because the world is a lullaby. All through the story the boy is trying to listen for the song until one day he finally hears it and plays his ‘ukulele and sings about dreams and rainbows. Penelope Dullaghan’s vibrant illustrations reflect the feelings on each page. There is a note about IZ and the inspiration for this story as well as the words to the song at the end of the book.

The animals are playing Duck, Duck, Goose and Goose really wants to play. Every time an animal is called goose, Goose gets upset because he is a Goose. Goose points out the reasons why the other animals are not a goose, including Dodo, who should not even be there because Dodo is extinct. In the illustrations there are three squirrels in the tree commenting on the scene below. The book is funny and would be an enjoyable read aloud. Goose does get a little obnoxious as the story goes on, but the ending was one I didn’t see coming.

Written as a message from the parents to their child, this books starts before the baby is even born, letting the child know that they have always mattered. The words are lyrical and gentle and the message important. The author’s note says she wrote this book to help parents start conversations about the racial climate today. The illustrator used collage and petal shapes to create striking images.

Tilly Pages is part fictional character. She along with many of her family and friends have the ability to wander in and out of books. In this third book in the series, Pages and Co., Tilly Pages and her friend Oskar realize that books are disappearing and people are forgetting their favorite stories. They set off a trip to Washington, DC to search for the Archivists to find out what is going on and end up meeting William Shakespeare. Tilly and Oskar and their friends must fight against the evil Underwood siblings and save bookwandering. Although this wasn’t as catching to me as the first book in this series, I still recommend this book.