I love this book!  I have loved this book for over 20 years!  I look forward to reading it aloud every year, and I am using this opportunity with the 25^th Anniversary Edition available to spread the word to anyone who does not have this book or is unfamiliar with this book needs to get this book.  It makes a fabulous picture book read aloud for older students, with opportunities to discuss inference and prejudice.  Van Allsburg’s illustrative style does an amazing job of setting the mood and tone of the story.  It makes a great read aloud around Halloween, without being blatantly a Halloween story.  The twist at the end is implied without being explicitly spelled out, allowing readers to put the pieces together for themselves.  And it leaves you cheering for the main character.

The illustrations are rich in blues and purples and greens, a palate that seems appropriate for a bedtime story, and full of details that give the characters personality and give the reader something to study.  The rhyming text describes a variety of troubles the Goodnight Train encounters on its journey which threaten to wake the sleepers aboard, but each challenge is met by the crew, with the refrain of, “Chugga! Chugga! Shhhhhhh! Shhhhhhh!” signaling that calm has once again been restored, and the sleepers are once again slumbering peacefully.

The cotton-candy sweet illustrations are full of warm and fuzzy texture and pastel colors that will be a certain lure to some small children.  The message  is a positive one, if somewhat pedantically delivered.  When a young unicorn is feeling blue over not believing she has any special power, her birdie friend tells her to cheer up, believe in magic, and follow her heart.  Throughout the story this uncertain unicorn encounters several friends who are struggling with applying their special powers, and shares Birdie’s words of wisdom, encouraging each to success. In the end all those she encouraged come to thank her for her gift of friendship, and just as she laments again that she wished she knew what her power was, they reminder her about what she told them, and a rainbow sprouts from her horn as they all cheer that the very best magic of all was believing in themselves.

A fabulous companion book to O’Brien’s other book, I Am New Here.  We see the same characters in the same situations, facing the struggles of being new in school in a place where you don’t speak the language or know anyone, and things all seem different.  But this time the story is told from the perspectives of the children who have been at the school and have been asked to welcome the newcomers.  We see how they want to be welcoming but are unsure what to do, and how they overcome their uncertainties to make new friends.

I am a fan of wordless books, and this one offers many details for the children to hunt out and share what they notice.  The story begins in black and white and gray drawings of a young girl getting up to start her day when everything seems to be going wrong, from mom running late to brother throwing food to getting splashed by a puddle on the way to school in the rain.  And she’s not the only one having a rough day:  around the neighborhood we see someone falling off his bike, another facing a flat tire, a mom dealing with a crying baby, etc. After a thoroughly boring day at school, she notices a butterfly on the way home (the first spot of bright color in the book), and when she follows it, it leads her to a bright pink pair of glasses laying on the ground.  When she puts the glasses on, we turn the page to see them turning her world to one full of bright colors, where everything seems to be going great for everyone.  She wears the glasses for a day, seeing the world in a whole new way, but on the way home the next day she drops the glasses into a stream in the park.  At first she turns all gray again with a look of dismay upon her face, but then she looks around and notices that even without these glasses her world is still full of joy and good things and color (if perhaps not quite the same Technicolor intensity as with the glasses).  The final page turn shows another black and white a gray drawing of a boy looking glum as he comes across the magic pink glasses where they have drifted ashore.

We tend to think of “fake news” and doctored photos as a modern-day phenomenon, a product of the internet and digital photography, but this book tells the tale of two young girls during WWI who used an early camera to convince their parents to believe their tales about the fairies they entertained when playing by the local brook.  Things snowballed, and before they knew it, their photos had become a worldwide sensation, being discussed and evaluated by famous people, including Arthur Conan Doyle.  We so often skip reading Authors’ notes, but in this case, the note in the back of the book is one of the most valuable parts of the book, adding context and perspective, pointing out similar issues between this prank of the past and the modern-day need for discerning truth in what we view and read.  The illustrations are very much in keeping with the era of the story, thus inviting readers in and providing a sense of setting for young readers unfamiliar with the time.

The main body of the book is written in an almost poetic manner, with rich illustrations that evoke the mood and sentiment of life in an ancient wilderness.  It tells about the life cycle of a giant redwood tree, but more as a story than as informational text, yet it is still full of scientific explanations.  Toward the end, it also shares the historical/sociological aspects of work that has been done to protect the Giant Redwoods from over harvesting.  Several pages in the back are dedicated to “Facts about Coast Redwoods,” expounding in a more expository manner to some of the phrases used earlier in the tree’s story, adding more information/details.

It’s a straightforward text for young readers that provides the basics of how seeing-eye dogs are trained and what kind of services they provide.  It explains for children that when such a dog is in its harness it is in work mode, and they should not attempt to pet or play with it.  It describes some of the commands dogs learn, as well as some cues they may give to their owner.  Because it is a text intended for young readers, the depth of information is somewhat limited, as there are only a few sentences, in large font, per page.  The text on each page is supported by full-color photos on the opposing page.  The book contains all your basic non-fiction text features, including table of context, index, etc. I wish they had kept with the more traditional academic vocabulary of “Glossary,” instead of “Words to keep” though.  Also, although there is another book in this series dedicated to other service animals, I thought it would have been nice in this book to include a sentence or two explaining that Guiding for the blind is only one type of service dogs (and other animals) have been trained to do.

It’s fine I guess, but it wasn’t my favorite of similar type books.  This one seemed more concerned with being cute than with being informative, and I’m not sure their cuteness attempts always hit the mark. When the book is explaining that carrots aren’t really that good for rabbits, and could give them cavities, I don’t know how many modern kids are going to understand the point of the illustration of a rabbit with a kerchief tied around its face.  It makes the bold statement at the beginning of the book that no matter what kind of pet we have they love us, but is that really true?  I know dogs and cats can develop relationships of affection with their owners, but how does one know if a tarantula or a gold fish loves one?

A sturdy binding and some nice color photos are not enough to be worth almost twenty dollars. With only one or two brief sentences per page, this book is so thin on information, both its audience and purpose are severely limited.

It’s not a bad book. I actually learned quite a bit, given that it’s been more than 20 years since my college astronomy classes, and this is an ever changing branch of science. It’s got a good sturdy binding and current information.  The trouble is that it’s hard to judge who the target audience is. Follett lists it as interest level 3-6, and reading level 6.5. It looks designed for younger readers, but it deals with some pretty sophisticated science. In order to make sense of it, the reader must already have some understanding of protons and neutrons and atoms and quarks and plasma, as only some of those words rank a place in the glossary, and then the definitions are pretty minimal. Also it’s guilty of my pet peeve about timelines: listing chronological events horizontally does not a timeline make, unless the spacing along the line represents the passage of time. In this one, two inches once represents less than half a million years, and later on the same line represents 8 billion years. Ugh!

I would probably only have given this an “Additional Purchase,” even if it was better than it is. Given how little interest my students generally show in reading authors’ biographies, it would have had to be something truly exceptional to get a Recommended from me.  But it’s not even well-written, On the first page it describes Sendak’s work as “realistic,” which doesn’t jive at all with the rich fantasy worlds he is famous for creating. On the next page it tells us that,  “The Brooklyn Bridge is the most famous landmark in Maurice’s hometown.” Never mind that I might argue that the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building might outrank the bridge — no comment is offered as to how New York landmarks are relevant to the person or work of Maurice Sendak. On the page where the text is trying to convey that WWII impacted our author by showing him that the world could be a scary place, the accompanying picture shows everybody smiling and having a grand party to celebrate the end of the war — doesn’t exactly convey scariness.

It’s got a good message and cute pictures. An apple-growing mouse lives next door to a bee-raising bear, and all live in happy, helpful harmony until one of the bees stings the mouse and misunderstandings grow into an all-out feud between neighbors. Throughout, the bees and the trees remain above the squabble, continuing to help despite the argument, which is eventually brought to an end by near disaster. It’s a fine little story, but I found it a bit pedantic.

It is the truly fabulous sequel to the Caldecott Honor, The Red Book, a wordless book whose pictures tell the tale of a city-dwelling child who finds a red book in a snow bank, in which this child sees another child on a tropical island who is reading a red book about her. Through the pages of the original book, we see the city-dwelling child drop her book n the sidewalk as she sets off with a bunch of helium balloons to visit the friend she met in the book. This sequel begins exactly where the first book ends, with another child finding the dropped book. This new child in the same city connects with another child from the same island as the original, and this time the island child comes to visit the city (by means of pelican-powered dinghy). In the excitement of noticing his new-found book friend in person, our new lead character drops the book again, and we see it landing in a snow bank, where it ends, exactly as the first book began. Thus the two books circle round on each other.  Every school library should have both.

It’s a not so subtle, yet still cute and charming, reminder of the joys we miss when we spend too much time in front of a screen and not enough outside.  It tells the story of a small robot who spends all day plugged into her computer, until there is a blackout and she trips over her cord.  She tumbles down the stairs and out the door where she spends a day of adventure, pursuing activities that are similar and yet so different from those she does on the computer, all while making new forrest-animal friends. As the sun sets, little Blip returns home and plugs herself back in, but can’t stop thinking about being unplugged. The illustrations take a tip from the Wizard of Oz, with the plugged-in pages in black and white, while the outdoor adventures are in full color.

It’s a sweet story, enhanced by charming illustrations. It introduces us to Little Robot, and walks us through his daily routine.  He has a peaceful life, but he sometimes feels alone. He solves this problem by building himself a little robot dog to share in his daily routines.

A great book for exploring ways in which human customs are the same and different around the world:  everybody needs to bathe, but traditions vary from culture to culture.  The illustrations are vibrant, the text is straightforward, with extra information in the back for curious readers.

The main character loves to paint, but she can’t decide what color she should use to paint a kiss.  As she ponders each choice, she considers things she does and does not like that are that color, along with other things associated with that color (like red being the color of anger and blue the color of sadness).  In the end, she just can’t decide, so she asks her mom. The book ends with an illustration showing mom giving her a kiss, and the background filled with hearts of all colors.

This is a beautiful book that celebrates the power of imagination and believing in one’s dreams. As a young girl ponders all the things she’d like to be, a little voice inside keeps protesting with all the what-ifs that could interfere with the pursuit of those dreams, but the little girl is always ready with a come-back to silence the voice. intermixed with all the dreams us grown-ups would consider possible, like being president or a firefighter or an artist or a scientist, are the more fanciful like being a bird or an alligator or a vet who treats dragons or having tea parties with aliens.  And in the end it gets in an endorsement for learning and reading, as the girl declares that first she must read about all she’s going to do.

The text is current and direct, written in accessible language for early learners, and is supported by full-page color photos. The binding is sturdy, and it’s got all the appropriate non-fiction text features. I am often reluctant to spend full-price for biographies of sports figures, or celebrities, as their shelf-life popularity can be so limited, but this book makes the case for Phelps’s significance in Olympic history.

Really sweet illustrations accompany and enhance the simple, repetitive text of this book.  The text itself is a series of three-word sentences, all following the, “I _____you.” pattern.  The illustrations add meaning, creating the story of how the parents and children of different animals on a farm and in the surrounding woods express their love for each other. The repetitive text and supportive illustrations are both good for emergent readers, and it’s a good conversation starter for how we express our feelings, and it’s just plain sweet.

Eh. The illustrations are fun, but I thought the story was a bit flat. As an assortment of sea creatures are filming an Underwater World live broadcast, Shark shows up, and keeps starting to do things completely in character for a shark to do: eat a smaller fish, eat a baby seal, follow the smell of blood to a group of human swimmers. Each time the host of the TV show calls for Shark to stop, and not do anything heinous while the people are watching, Shark declares he’s been misunderstood: he was just showing the little fish his new tooth, returning the baby seal to its family, taking band-aids to the wounded swimmer. And then he eats the host of the TV show. A few “fun facts” about sharks are scattered throughout the story.

Love Steve Jenkins’s work! This one addresses the reasons and methods by which some animals draw attention to themselves in the wild. Kids are often familiar with the need of animals to camouflage camouflage themselves in order to hide from predators or sneak up on prey, and this book points out that sometimes an opposite need exists, either to attract a mate or frighten off potential predators. Jenkins’s bright collage illustrations provide stunning details, and introduce students to a variety of uncommon animals from across the globe.  The main text of the book focuses on the means and reasons for animals to draw attention, but further information pages in the back provide extra details for the curious reader.

There are a few clever poems included, but the quality is inconsistent, which makes a certain amount of sense, given that they are all written by different authors. The illustrations don’t do anything to enhance the appeal of the book: the color scheme is drab and dull.

It’s a very simple book, with a simple, straightforward message: that we don’t need to be just like others in order to just like each other.  The illustrations are sweet and inviting, using a whole variety of animals to represent differences. The text is limited, with lots of repetition and rhyming, which is helpful for emergent readers, and the message is an important one.