A beautiful celebration of all the dreams inside us all.  The illustrations are fanciful, in fitting with the topic.  The text reminds us all that no matter what the world is demanding of us on the outside, we all hold the power to escape into our daydreams.  It also recognizes that within us we can hold many different kinds of dreams.  It concludes by asking the reader what kind of a happy dreamer are you? And then opens up a double-fold-out spread illustrating two dozen different kinds of happy and different kinds of dreams.

A really approachable and informative non-fiction picture book that I think has a wide grade-range of appeal.  The illustrations are cartoonish enough to be inviting, but still do a good job of providing the reader with a visual context for the time period.  The text is written with a chatty voice that makes it approachable for both the curious elementary student who has heard of this Shakespeare guy right through to the high school student reluctantly struggling through a Shakespeare class.  The book is designed so that the paragraphs on the left of each two-page spread describes the life and times of the great playwright, bolding specific words which were used by the bard himself.  On the right is an inset providing the definitions of these bolded words and phrases still common today, while also linking them to the original Shakespearean usage.

The opening line of text declares, “I love round things.”  And the rest of the text goes on to describe why, and to share different examples of roundness and why it’s to be admired, but there is definitely some artistic license taken with the term “round,” making this more a poetic ode to that which is (at least somewhat) round, rather than a true concept book that sticks to accurate examples of the true geometric term “round.”  Seeds and eggs are used as examples of round, and those pictured are, but not all eggs or seeds are round.  The mushrooms pictured, though rounded on top, are not truly round; neither are the rocks that have been smoothed by the sea.  More detailed paragraphs in the back share why rounded shapes are beneficial to the examples shared, but again the term is used loosely.

I LOVE the illustrations!  They are rich and detailed and evoke a certain fairy-tale element to the setting.  Cleonardo is a young inventory is a family line of inventors, daughter of Geonardo and granddaughter of Leonardo.  With the town’s Grand Festival of Inventions approaching, Cleo is determined to help her father, but though indulgent, he’s a bit dismissive, sending her off out of his way.  With her grandfather’s help, Cleo sets up hr own workshop in the woods to design her own project.  On the day of the great festival, when her dad’s project runs into trouble, it’s Cleo’s inventions that help to save the day, and “From then on father and daughter always worked…side by side.”

With bright, bold, graphic illustrations and rhyming text, this is a good introductory book for young children about different animal traits.  The text in the main body of the book doesn’t even specify the animals in question: some animals wear hair and some animals wear scales…but it’s up to the reader to look at the illustrations for examples of just what animals fit each description.  A good opportunity for letting young students see which animals they can identify by sight.  In the back, brief paragraphs go into more details, naming the animals pictured earlier in the book and explaining why they need the specified trait.  Not dense with information, but still a good introduction.

The text is simple, as is the bright artwork, but the message is profound:  it’s okay to be different, and to be friends with those who don’t fit in with the crowd. Colin is carrot, and so very different than all of Lee’s other pea friends.  But his differences prove to be what allows him to bring unique talents to the group.

An introductory page how animals develop certain traits in order to meet their survival needs.  It specifically describes convergent evolution: when animals who aren’t even related to each other develop the same or similar traits, due to similar environmental needs. Each two-page spread is dedicated to a particular trait, and how two different animals use that trait for survival.  A final paragraph on each page contrasts the two animals, explaining how they can share similar traits even if they’re not actually closely related.  All of this is illustrated with large color photos that support the text well.

The soft illustrations of friendly forest animals trying to encourage and console and help their friend Badger are charming.  And the story is one that so many of us (children and teachers alike) here in the Northwest and relate to — the anxious anticipation in waiting for snow that is not coming.  They come up with all sorts of ideas, from throwing stones at the sky to punch holes in the clouds, to performing a snow dance, to wearing their pajamas backwards.  Nothing seems to work, but throughout Hedgehog keeps trying to remind his friends that crocuses always bloom in spring, and the sun rises every day, and the stars shine every night; though they always come in their own time.  So eventually the band of friends realize that the snow also will come in its own time, and they’ll just have to wait.

The soft and misty nature of the illustrations add to the poetical nature of the telling of the tale of the origins of a house:  the door that was once a colossal oak, the stones that were once underground, the bricks that were once mud, etc.  A useful story to introduce young children to how humans make use of our natural resources.

The illustrations are cute and cartoon-like, and will draw kids in — I mean, with a dragon and giant orange polka-dotted underwear on the cover, it’s gotta be good, right?  The story itself is likely only to appeal to a particular audience of very young children who may find the struggles to dress the dragon reminiscent of scenarios they may have experienced when they were small.  Others drawn by the illustrations may find the story a bit disappointing.

With very simple text, and much repetition, this is a book intended for very young students, celebrating the power of imagination.  It consists of an argument between a duck and a cat, as the cat tries to convince the duck to act like a duck, even though the duck keeps insisting he’s a cat.  The argument wraps up when duck decides to be a parrot, explaining that the day before he was a squirrel and last week he was a rooster, and tomorrow he intends to be a cow. The cat gives up.

Recommended as a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy.  If you’re going to purchase this for your library, you’ll want to get the first two books, How to Catch a Bogle, and A Plague of Bogles, too.  Each book does provide enough context individually so that if a student picks them up out of order they will still make sense.  Set in the streets of England in the days before there were social services available to look after children on their own, these books tell the tales  of street kids who make their way in the world as assistants to a Bogle Hunter, working to clear the sewers and basements of London of the child-snatching bogles terrorizing the town.  It’s dangerous work, and the books are descriptive enough to offer a few goosebumps, but not overly done in the gruesome department.

A very readable, very informative biography of Benjamin Franklin, it includes discussion of his role as one of America’s Founding Fathers, but focuses on his role as scientist, in an era when the word scientist was not even yet in use.  It tells about his curiosity and inquisitiveness, about his lack of formal education, but his constant pursuit of understanding through reading and experimentation.  It shares how much of his experimentation stemmed from the desire to solve real-world problems, from the invention of a better stove to help folks stay warm, to the invention of bi-focal lenses so that he didn’t have to keep changing glasses.  It shares how his fame as a scientist opened doors to him in his role as ambassador.  It shares enough to give the reader a real sense of knowing him as a person, not just as a list of accomplishments.

A solid little early chapter book for beginning readers.  In four chapters, it tells the story of animal-loving Lulu trying to bring her less-than-enthusiastic grandmother around to her way of thinking, when a large, cantankerous cat is found left in a bag on Lulu’s front porch, while her parents are away.  The first time the cat runs away, grandma is thrilled, but after it find’s its way back into their lives through Lulu’s open bedroom window, when reeks all sorts of havoc, and still manages to leave even grandma sad when she disappears again.  When she’s found again, with a new batch of kittens, it’s reluctant grandma who agrees to take them in and find them homes.

Okay, so you don’t need me to tell you these books are recommended for school libraries.  Their legendary popularity speaks for itself.  However, let it be known that my recommendation has more to do with how popular I know them to be with kids than with my own opinion of the writing.  When it comes down to it, it’s the kids’ opinions that matter.  It took SSBRC to get me to finally read a complete one of these books, with the impetus that it would be good for me to educate myself as to what it is the kids are reading.  The character, and the situations he faces, are relateable, but the writing babbles on like a rambling string-of-consciousness.  Even reading silently, I felt out of breath, as if I’d spent two hours listening to a motor-mouth who doesn’t stop for breath, or require any response, but just shares non-stop every thought in his/her head, no matter what tangents they go down.

It’s a book about digging your way out of a bad mood.  Child-like art accompanies the tale of a girl’s giant bear helping her accomplish her to-do list, which includes such things as driving to the moon, polishing stars, and finding a baby unicorn.  If you do decide to purchase a copy for your library, I would recommend either finding a library-bound copy or settling for a paperback, since the publisher’s hardcover is sewn so loosely it’s going to fall apart quickly.

It definitely has the cuteness factor going for it:  full of fluffy baby animals with over-sized heads and big eyes.  It’s not really a book to be read to self — it’s really intended as a book for a parent to read to a small child:  it’s a litany of, “Next to you, the softest puppy in the world is only kind of cute,” and more of that ilk.  It would get a certain amount of traffic in a school library just because of the cuteness factor, but it seems more like a book you give as a gift at a baby shower.

I love this illustrator’s artwork.  There’s something charming and enchanting about it that draws  the reader in.  The story is somewhat Velveteen-Rabbit-esque, telling the tale of a boy whose family doesn’t believe his beloved stuffed lion is real, even though he’s sure he is.  When they’re out for a walk one day, the lion gets left behind.  The family searches high and low when they get home, but must postpone their search until the next day when it gets too late.  A wordless sequence in the middle shows the lion in the woods, found by some other animals who help him find his way home.  When morning dawns and the family’s search resumes, Leo is found in the bushes right outside the front door, much to the surprise of everyone who insists they’d looked in just that spot the night before.  I will confess there are some elements to the artwork that I don’t completely “get”: a coffee pot and cups in the bushes? and crowns floating over the heads of all the people, also floating over the heads of the animals at night but not during the day?  But I think that’s okay, in fact I think it makes the artwork more compelling to leave it open to discussion/interpretation/possibilities.

It’s obviously the sequel to The Boss Baby, which I’ve never read, but would like to get, base on the recommendation of this book.  The illustrations and text work together to tell the tale of the arrival of a new baby sister, from the perspective of the toddler big brother, who is used to being the boss, but is finding himself displaced, that is, until baby sister manages to wrap him around her little finger.  It’s fun, and a fresh twist on the new-baby-in-the-home theme.  For librarians who have parents who might object to such things, you should be aware that the illustrations include mom breast-feeding baby (or providing “organic catering service”), toddler stripping down and peeing in the flowers (backside view), and parents sipping martinis together when peace is restored to the household.

A cute reminder that art is in the eye of the beholder. When a hippo is impressed by a mouse’s painting of the sea, he asks to have his own portrait painted.  After posing very carefully, he is very impressed with the mouse-sized paper that gets painted solid gray because that’s all of him that would fit on the paper.  When they swap roles, and the hippo paints a portrait of the mouse, it turns out like a tiny dot in the middle of the paper, with which mouse is delighted.

It’s not getting a high recommendation, but there is a certain population of library patrons who will eat this up, for the illustrations alone, loaded as they are with pink and purple and rainbows and unicorns and princesses and sparkles and a mermaid, too.  Frankie, a fan of fairy tales, is surprised one day to find a princess in her bedroom, seeking refuge from a witch.  As soon as she gets the princess hidden under her bed, the unicorn arrives, also needing someplace to hide.  After Frankie has hidden the mermaid and the knight and the king and the frog, the witch arrives, and though Frankie does her best to keep her new friends’ secrets, the witch’s broom rounds up them all, but it’s okay in the end, because it turns out they’re just playing hide and seek, and Frankie gets to be “it” next.

A sweet, comforting, reassuring book to remind small children that there are grown ups in the world to keep them safe when storms rage.  Rhyming couplets and charming illustrations describe a series of young animals being protected by their grown ups while a storm rages:   the moles snuggling  close under ground and touching noses, the duckling under mama’s wing, the rabbits cozy in their burrow, etc… On the final page the puppy is reassured that, “A storm will always end.”

It could be titled, “Dozens of Ways to Die.”  Ninety percent of the 24 possible ending end in death.  Which makes it a great choice for those reluctant reader boys who will be eager to try a new path and find a new way to die.  And they’ll get a little history along the way.  The interactive nature of the book, the simple text, and the comfort in knowing you don’t have to read the whole thing before you get to “The End” are other contributing factors that will draw in the reluctant reader.  It even kept the actual dialogue to a minimum, which I appreciate, as that is one element of these choose-your-path-through-history books that I think calls the non-fiction designation into shady territory.

It is a really quality work: very thorough and well-written, illustrated with lots of full-color photographs.  This is a series I have been generally very impressed with, and I would probably recommend it for middle school or high school, but I hesitate because this is not my area of expertise.  As an elementary librarian, I am happy to put it on my shelf, and it may find some limited interest (particularly if I make a point of pulling up the video feed to the webcam that watches the nests).  The photos would draw some students in, and the text is broken up sufficiently into assorted captions and sidebars so that younger readers may browse through the photos, reading bits and pieces, but I doubt elementary students would read the whole thing, as it’s a bit text dense.

This is fun! I want to try it out with my students! And I want to get the other books in the series (there are 4).  It begins with a basic introduction to what coding is, and defining some key concepts like input and output.  It explains that there are different computer languages and tells where readers can download, or access online two different free resources, Logo and Scratch.  It then goes on to explain quite clearly how each of these work, giving lots of simple exercises to try.