What do you do if you work at a zoo? You might brush a hippos teeth, tickle a tapir, or pick up panda poop. Each page of this informational book looks at what zookeepers do for different animals at the zoo. Each page has an illustration in cut and torn paper collage, a simple statement in large, colorful font and 2-3 sentences describing what they do for that animal. The back matter includes a short bullet point list of what zookeepers do, zoo pros and cons, a zoo timeline, a list of the world’s top zoos and facts about the animals featured in the book.

Ollie couldn’t wait to go outside to play with her toy bunny. Finally the rain stopped and they went out to splash in the puddles. A wind came and a petal landed on the bunny’s nose which twitched and the bunny came alive. Ollie chases her bunny through the story on a great adventure until at last it is finally time to return home and her bunny becomes a toy again.

A chick wants to join the rocket club, but the sign says no chicks allowed. As she walks through the book, we meet the hippie chick, maker chick, baker chick, cool chicks and nerdy chicks. They all come together to build a rocket and send her to outer space because when we work together and include everyone, anything can happen.

Hector and Louie are best friends and they are writing a book together telling all the things they like to do. Throughout the book they keep starting the book over, until one friend lets a secret slip out and a fight starts. Now their book is about the worst friends in the universe. Hector and Louie soon realize that they miss each other and want to be friends again. I thought the beginning was cute and fun, but the end seemed too simplified of now we are friends again.

This rhythmical jazzy book is a biography of Sonny Rollins. Students might not be familiar with some of the references in this book, but it could be paired with other books on this topic (while reading it two instantly came to mind) and with the music itself. Sonny needs to take a break from the jazz scene, but he wants to keep playing his saxophone. He can’t find a place to play and finally plays on the Williamsburg Bridge. This inspires his next album called the bridge.

A new girl named Zola moves in next door. The narrator saw a big box being moved in and knows that Zola has an elephant in that box. She imagines all the things that Zola would be doing with her elephant and those are the reasons that she can not go over to Zola’s house and be friends with her. We also can see what is actually happening at Zola’s house and Zola looks sad and lonely. The stunning illustrations add to the story about friendship.

In this book based on the well known song, a young girl finds a ball of string, throws it and then follows where it goes. We see a wide variety of settings, animals, and people of a variety of cultures playing together with the string. The illustrations are color and vibrant and tell the story to the simple text. At the end, the music is included as well as a piece about the song and the artists inspirations.

This book about Presidents’ Day gives a few reasons why we might celebrate Presidents’ Day. There is also information about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as well as a page about why we might not celebrate the day. The book includes many text features. It felt like a really brief overview with a small George Washington and Abraham Lincoln included.

A brief overview of the bichons frises dog breed. Each page contains photographs and one to sentences about the breed. There are several text features used throughout the book including bold words, glossary, map, and an index. Students who love dog books may be interested in this book.

This book is a fascinating up-close look at dragonflies. The photographs are large and bright allowing us to look at dragonflies in more detail. There are photographs of the different stages of dragonfly life. While the book does not use bold or colored words to highlight key words, it does include a glossary at the back and an index. There are also text boxes that have “xtreme facts”. Students interested in dragonflies and insects will enjoy this book.

There are four chapters to this nonfiction book: clouds, water vapor, condensation, and stormy weather. Each page has several pages and photographs to go along with the text. It is a very simple look at the formation of clouds. There are several text features that are used as well as QR codes and a website at the front of the book to find more information. I visited the website, but found the information to be sparse and more teacher and parent friendly than kid friendly.

Each page of the book takes a number from 1-10 and talks about something in nature for that number. “Here is one moon in the night sky. See the hawk flying high with its two wings spread wide.” Some pages include good to know boxes with information about the nature item on that page. The book topic is geared towards a younger age, but the amount of text on the page would make the book a better read aloud.

A nonfiction book from the series Native Americans gives us just a small overview of the Ojibwe. There are many text features used such as captions, text boxes, bold words, maps, timeline and a glossary. Each page has one to two paragraphs of information. At the end there is a few pages about their fight for their land.

What can you make? This book has colorful illustrations and rhyming text. It encourages exploration and creating whatever you can think of with the objects around you. It ends with the girl building a playground for all of the neighbors to share.

Charlotte is back, but this time everyone in the forest is sick with a mysterious illness. Charlotte is determined to find out why everyone is sick, but when the doctors come they tell her she is too little. Charlotte decides not to give up and goes through a scientific process to come up with a cure. 

A nighttime city storm creates a beautiful lullaby. The rhythmic text soothes the worried child in the story making the storm not as scary as he thinks it is. And finally it soothes the child to sleep.

The illustrations in this book are vibrant and flow beautifully with the text.