The artwork is cool:  a lot of diverse folks in an urban setting.  The text is philosophical: a series of questions, each a variation on the theme of why are we each who we are and not somebody else? I was a bit disappointed in that I hoped it would eventually have some philosophical thoughts to share as to possible answers to such questions.  It’s meant to be targeting a childhood audience, but I fear it will find a limited number of children who truly appreciate it.

Steve Jenkins.  He never disappoints.  Here he presents a whole host of animal statistics with the visual graphs and charts to put the numbers in perspective.  It’s visually appealing and highly informative.

It tells the story of a part of the civil rights movement that was unknown to me, and certainly one whose story deserves to be told, both to recognize this bit of history and to inspire young people to do their part for things they believe in.  The end papers provide several dates for significant events throughout the civil rights movement, providing the context/timing for this bit of the struggle.  When MLK Jr. tried to organize marches in Birmingham in May of 1963, the adults feared losing their jobs if they marched, so the children stepped forward, offering to march instead.  Over three days thousands of children marched, were arrested and fire-hosed, while televisions across the country broadcast their treatment.  Days later city leaders begin to negotiate plans for desegregation.  The illustrations are rich in color and emotion, contributing greatly to the impact of the story.

When the children gather for story time at the library, but the librarian is missing, the clues lead to a bear behind the librarian’s desk.  The bear stomped and growled and roared his way through story time, much to the children’s delight.  When the librarian finally returns and introduces “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” as the day’s story, they find baby bear missing from the pages of the book. After urging the bear to step back into the story, they begin again, only to find Goldilocks missing this time.  It’s fine, but not exactly gripping.

It’s a simple story about a girl’s day out with her grandfather to celebrate his birthday, riding the streetcar together to a nearby beach, having lunch out, and returning to the rest of the family and cupcakes to end the day.  It reminds us all to enjoy the simple adventures to be found close to home, that the adventure is in the attitude rather than the destination.

A fun story, full of classic David Shannon illustrations that add to the fun and appeal.  It’s also got a good message, reminding us all of the value of stopping to smell the flowers.  Mizz Lizzie is very proud to be the busiest bee around, and highly accomplished because of it.  But when she pushes herself too hard preparing for the big spelling bee, she ends up collapsing in exhaustion right at the crucial moment, missing her chance to meet the queen bee.  When enforced rest is thrust upon her, she finally joins her friend who loves lazing in the garden, and ends up meeting the queen after all, who is also fond of the garden.

Oooh. Ick. Avoid this series.  I don’t like to be mean, but I was only part way through the story before I had to check the publisher to see who was responsible for letting this get to print.  It’s meant to be some kind of hybrid between fiction and non-fiction — on the back of the book it bills itself as a tool for “understanding and comparing literature and informational texts.”  But this is a far cry from literature.  The fictional part of the story is lame and stilted and lacks any kind of character development, and the information is limited.  Stick with straight forward volcano information books.

Even the end papers and the title page bring the reader into the genre of the classic detective story.  The story is about an out-of-work Pigeon P.I. who is brought back to service when several birds turn up missing.  The clues lead him to his former partner who was tired of being a plain gray pigeon and kidnapped a multitude of colorful birds to provide feathers to add to his own plumage.  Both the illustrations and the tone of the story telling evokes a Dick Tracy type gumshoe story.

It gives a clear account of many aspects of Chickasaw culture.  It is careful to acknowledge the injustices they faced at the hands of the U.S. government.  It is illustrated with color photos of actual artifacts.  It recognizes the tribe as a unique nation.  It’s got a good sturdy binding.  I am delighted to see that the list of significant dates that recaps the history of the people is not mistakenly described as a “timeline” as so many books do.  My one criticism of the book is that it deals almost entirely with the history of the Chickasaw people:  the one page dedicated to “The Chickasaw Today” merely states rather vaguely that many people continue to honor the traditions and stories of the past, without really telling us anything about the people of today, other than to say that there were about 49,000 people in the Chickasaw tribe in 2011.  I would like to know more about what those 49,000 folks are experiencing and contributing today.

The illustrations really add to the interest of this book.  The writing is a bit flat.  It does the basic job of telling many different aspects of Lena Horne’s life, but it seems to leave out some basic details: since it never actually says when Lena was born, when it mentions other specific dates later on, the reader has no way of tracking how old Lena was at different points in her life story.  It does include a lot of information about the roadblocks Lena faced as a woman of color in the days before the civil rights movement, as well as efforts she contributed within the civil rights movement.

A picture book biography about the man responsible for developing the scientific classification and naming system used throughout the scientific community today.  The water color illustrations do a good job of evoking the time period (1700s) in which Karl Linne, aka Carolus Linnaeus, lived and worked.  The book shares his early love of plants and insects, his confusion as he began his medical studies and found so many different names used for the same plants, the wrath he faced from other scientists who found him presumptuous in declaring his own name for things, and the eventual fame and fortune he received (even being knighted) when his ideas caught on.  Final information pages in the back share how his system has needed to grow and adapt as new scientific knowledge grows.

It’s okay, but I thought a bit flat.  It’s basically a story about a girl who feels like she can’t always summon a smile when she wants, and she’s worried as picture day approaches.  When she’s assigned to be the photographer’s assistant, she gets the job of bringing out everyone else’s smiles.  When it’s her turn, they all join forces to return the favor. Smiles all around.

It’s cute. It’s kitschy. It’s got vintage, graphic illustrations that are reminiscent of picture books of the past.  On the way to school, Matthew’s father’s car has trouble starting.  As dad drops him off at Kindergarten, the what-ifs begin.  Matthew begins by asking what if the car doesn’t start when it’s time for dad to come get him, and then for every answer dad has to offer, Matthew has a new what-if question, exposing his fear that dad might not make it back.  But in the end, dad assures him that if all else fails, he will run on his own two legs back to Matthew’s side.

It reads like a poetic love letter.  It feels like it has romantic overtones, but could also be read aloud as a parent reading to a child.  It’s a series of, “I was a flower with no pot. I was a polka with no dot….” etc. etc. etc. And then a series of all the things the listener brought to the reader’s life. It ends by asking, “What took you so long?”

It’s a book that would be a great tool for interactive story-telling, or as a writing prompt.  In a lot of ways, it’s a story that never really comes out and tells a story.  An adult and a child mouse travel through a series of illustrations with a lot of rhyming and repeating text saying, “I’ll tell you a story of this, and I’ll tell you a story of that. I’ll tell you a story of…” but those stories are never so much told as suggested.  The illustrations definitely add to the meaning of the text.  Careful observation reveals clues in each illustration leading into the next.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t find any redeeming qualities in this book.  I didn’t find it funny.  I didn’t find it clever. I didn’t find it interesting. It’s about a toddler who isn’t sleepy at bedtime, and her dad gives into whatever she demands, whether or not it makes any sense at bedtime.  Then she finds her Aunty Fairy who gives her a birthday present a day early — a spinning wheel.  She doesn’t prick her finger, but she does break it and then throw a tantrum. By the time she finally falls asleep, she sleeps right through time for her birthday party the next day, and none of her guests can wake her up.  By the time she finally does wake up, she declares it’s time for a pajama party.  Basically I found it to be the story of a spoiled brat who expects the whole world to revolve around her whims.

It’s your basic life-cycle-of-a-frog book, but it’s a very well-done version for young readers.  The text is direct and simple yet doesn’t lack substance in its simplicity.  The large color photos do an excellent job of supporting the text.  It’s got an excellent binding, and all the usual non-fiction text features.

Visually, it’s a really cool book.  The illustrations use light and shadow to great effect as the story tells of a little rabbit being carried home through the city at night, describing all he sees in the windows they pass, and what he wonders about his neighbors.  But you need to be careful about your patron population if you’re going to choose to put it on your shelves.  I really like most of the book, except the last sentence: “But every night, we all go home to bed.”  I’ve worked too long with kids in poverty to believe this to be true, and I worry about the child reading it who doesn’t get to go home to a bed every night.

It’s fine for what it is, but it’s very limited in the information it provides.  Strictly a concept book for the very youngest students.  One or two sentences per page is accompanied by color photos of places in our lives where circles are found.  The circles are highlighted in each photo to make them stand out.  It does have an excellent binding and all the basic non-fiction text features (in a very limited fashion).

The illustrations are cool and colorful and inviting, but there are other books that convey the information and concepts of this book better.  This book is written in first person, from the voice of the sun.  But it rambles a bit in its explanations and doesn’t connect all the necessary dots.  The subtitle is “how the sun moves water around the earth.”  Several times it describes roles played by “my winds.”  Now I have enough of a science background to understand the role of the sun in creating the convection currents in the air which are our winds, but this book didn’t offer any connective tissue for young readers as to why the sun could claim power over the winds.

A good description of many animals’ behaviors that resemble those of humans.  Drawing the similarities with familiar human behaviors gives young readers a connection to relate to the different animals, but the book goes on to explain why those animals behave as they do, which may vary from human motivations:  humans may dance simply for the fun of it, but for honey bees this is a means of communication.

This strikes me as a book that started with a title, as the publisher decided they wanted to write a series about the technologies of the different wars, and then they sat down to write this one and realized they didn’t have a whole lot that was specific to the topic to write.  It gives a good overview of the war in general, and it does point out that this was the first time helicopters were used as ambulances, but most of the technology used during the korean war  had also been used in WWII.  It does have a good binding and photos from the time as illustration.  It’s also guilty of including one of those inferior timelines on which the spacing of the line has absolutely no relation to the passing of time.

It’s a story about taking things too far, about sticking to your guns, and about a community rallying together to stand up to a tyrant.  The village of La Paz started out as a place where everyone sang all the time, but when the noise became too much to take, they hired a mayor who instituted such rules as to make the village completely silent.  The mayor finally met his match in a rooster who found such joy he could not help but sing.  One by one the mayor took away all the things that were giving the rooster joy, but there was always something more worth singing about.  When the mayor finally threatened to turn the rooster into soup, the rooster insisted that a song would never die as long as there was someone to sing it, at which point the entire village joined together to take up the rooster’s song and drive away the bullying mayor.

If your students are fans of the rest of this series, they’ll enjoy this one, too.  It’s got the same rhythm and rhyme, and the same colorful, friendly-looking dinosaurs engaging in everyday human activities, in this case deciding how to choose a pet.  It offers up all sorts of silly options involving smuggling non-pet-like animals out of the zoo before suggesting that a dinosaur would never do such a thing, but instead would choose a harmless critter from a farm or shelter or pet store to love.  A good mix of fanciful imagination and everyday kid issues.

Different formatting could have made a big difference for this book.  The illustrations are cool.  Animal camouflage is always a topic of interest.  Poetry doesn’t seem like the most natural genre for the topic. There are information pages in the back of the book with informational paragraphs about each of the animals in the book, but too many students ignore the back-of-book information.  This book would have been stronger if the information had been included in side-bar blurbs right alongside the poems in the main body of the book.