It’s your basic don’t-give-up-on-your-dreams story.  Santiago dreams of becoming a performer, but at the audition for the school play he freezes.  When he confesses to his dad that he didn’t get the part, dad tells him not to give up on his dreams, so he keeps practicing on his own time, which makes him ready to jump in and save the day when the lead in the play is suddenly ill.  It’s fine.  It’s a good little story, with a good message. Just perhaps a bit of a cliche.

It’s a collection of 21 traditional stories from around the world, mostly fables, each told in 4 pages.  It’s not that it’s bad, exactly.  But there are way better versions available of all these stories.  The format keeps the telling of each to a minimalist bare-bones version, and the illustrations are cute, but not necessarily culturally relevant.

The traditional tales of native peoples are a niche in our libraries which can sometimes be difficult to find.  This story offers an introduction which gives the reader a context for the tale, setting it within the tradition from which it comes.  The illustrations capture the adventurous nature of the story, drawing the reader in.

The real strength of this alphabet book lies in its illustrations, which are bright and stylized and incorporate each of the letters they are representing.  The text is somewhat limited in the information it provides, really more it spark one’s curiosity than to quench it.  It uses a lot of slang of the time and genre, which some readers may find confusing, but it includes a glossary of terms in the back to explain itself.  The two-page introduction at the beginning sets the stage for the rest of the book by offering a basic, straight-forward history of the development of jazz, which even made sense to this musically illiterate reader

On the one hand, when I was 10-12 years old,  I would have been delighted with this book, and anxious to try it all, and I know plenty of girls today who would like it, too.  On the other hand, reading it now as an adult, I can imagine my mom would’ve been very discouraging to my youthful enthusiasm, and now I understand why.  The crafts that are included require expensive and hard to locate items (although, to the book’s credit, they do offer suggestions of where to locate the more obscure items), and are unlikely to turn out quite so tidily as those in the photos.  It would have been helpful if the step-by-step directions included more photo support.

The story is that of the Biblical narration of the first Christmas, with some elaboration to add dialogue and expand on the setting.  What really recommends it are the illustrations — they’re beautiful, full of rich colors and soft edges.

It tells the story behind the creation of the famous Christmas carol, setting the scene in an Austrian village in the early nineteenth century, where the people are downtrodden by war and cold.  It tells a bit about the background of the writer and composer who collaborated to create it, and it tells a bit of how it spread around the world.  The illustrations suit the tone and era of the story.  But it’s not told in the most direct manor, and I’m not sure there’s enough here to compel young readers to be interested.

I don’t know if it’s a problem with the translation, or if it’s the fault of the editor, or if it’s just a cultural difference in story telling.  According to the information on the dust jacket, there are thirteen books published in this series in Japan, which would seem to indicate it was  popular there.  The illustrations are cute, and will attract certain readers, but the story really rambles.  It’s essentially about a community effort to raise funds to restore an old abandoned house that had once been a cafe.  They hold a homemade cake contest, selling pieces of the entries to raise money, then they all work together to rebuild the house, and everyone made themselves at home as they liked.  Except it took a long time to tell it, and the reader is never really sure what the point is.

I like the end papers in this book.  Unfortunately, that’s about all I like about it.  When a young girl wakes up to a horrible hair day, both her parents are too absorbed in their own interests to care, so the girl imagines a bunch of if-only scenarios that would make it better, until at the end she runs home, and this time her mom decides to pay attention and she brushes it.  It’s just a bit odd.

I guess there’s nothing bad about it.  I just couldn’t find much to get excited about, either.  I’m not sure what the point of the books is.  I can tell from the back flap that it is apparently a sequel to Cats Got Talent, and maybe if I had read that one as background, I would care about these further adventures of the cats.  But as it is, there’s here to actually make me care about this trio of cats getting kidnapped by an untrustworthy talent agent who uses trickery to make them famous.

It’s boring. It tells the story of a sloth who ventures out once per year to attend a sleeping party with a bunch of other animals. They all bring their comfort items, scope out the best place to sleep, watch the pajama parade, and fall asleep during the first lullaby.  And the next morning everyone goes home.  And sloth goes home and goes back to sleep.  I’m not sure what the point is supposed to be.

A reasonable selection for those with a large preschool population, but it will have limited audience in most school libraries, as it seems to be targeting the youngest set.  When Pig shows up for a camp out with Rabbit, the shadow cast by the lantern startles Rabbit.  When Pig insists she’d not be scared even if there was a monster, Rabbit goes on to offer a series of what-ifs, to which Pig answers each with a brave plan, until Rabbit suggests turning out the light, at which point Pig has to admit she’s scared of the dark. In response, Rabbit points out how well the stars shine in the dark, and they end with a plan to watch the stars together and scare off whatever monsters come around, also together.  It’s got a good balance of recognizing that we all have things we are scared of, but the power to stand up to our fears with a little help from our friends.

Some of the illustrations are cool.  The bright colors of geometric shapes overlaid to create pictures was what caught my eye, but some the pictures have so many shapes and colors layered on top of each other that the point of the illustration becomes muddled, which is sort of fitting, as the message of the text is also less than clear.  It begins by talking about how humans used to walk everywhere, then it goes on to describe all the inventions and developments that have allowed us to take traveling great distance at ease for granted, then it shares how some of the animals manage to travel even greater distances, or at greater speeds, but then points out that the animals do so without disrupting the balance of our planet, while human transportation feats reshaped the landscape and cause pollution.  I’m not saying it’s not a worthy message, I just think neither the illustrations nor the text manage to deliver it very effectively.

When Monkey sees a sign advertising a rhyming contest in which the winners will win a three-day cruise, he spends the bulk of the story attempting to talk Duck into being his partner for the contest.  Monkey suggests rhyme after rhyme to get Duck into the spirit of things, but every time it’s Duck’s turn to finish the rhyme, all he says is, “Quack.”  In the end Monkey figures out how to work with Duck to make their team a success.  Kids will  enjoy making suggestions for what Duck ought to say each time, they’ll probably predict the solution before Monkey figures it out, and they’ll enjoy the little surprise twist at the end.

Does any child make it through growing up without wanting to run away at some point?  Little Loula is fed up with her little triplet brothers, so she decides to set off on her own, being sure to pack the true essentials:  her stuffed cat, her tea set, and her best drawing.  Wanting to get as far away as she can, she announces to her family that she’s leaving for Africa, and proceeds to climb a large tree in her front yard.  When the family chauffeur, Gilbert, stumbles across young Miss Loula, he enters into her adventure and accompanies her around town in their search for Africa, with all sorts of everyday things they encounter taking on African guises within their imaginations (e.g. the sandbox in the park becomes the desert they must cross, the kids on the monkey bars become chimpanzees).  After a full day, in which all the essentials she packed play a part, Gilbert leads his tired mistress home.  It’s just sweet, and I think kids will both relate to the sentiment and enjoy spotting the differences between the imagination-laden text and the reality portrayed in the illustrations.

A cute story, with childlike illustrations that teaches an important lesson about the downsides of greed and the importance of moderation:  as the story begins, Mr. King is living in a little house on top of a big hill, but he wants a big caste, so he starts chopping off pieces of his hill to create the blocks to build his big castle, not noticing the holes he’s leaving behind; by the time he’s finished and proudly looks out his window, he realizes there’s not much of a view anymore, and his friends are complaining about things they miss.  In the end a nice compromise is found when they work together to put things back mostly the way they were before, surprising Mr. King with a little castle.

It’s an adequate selection for libraries wishing to add books about adoption, but I think there are better choices out there.  This one is a fairly straightforward account of a young girl describing what it means for her that she was adopted, covering the usual basics: not looking like one’s parents, having both a birth mom and a forever mom, attending cultural classes to stay connected with where she was born, knowing that she is loved and belongs right where she is.  I thought the connection to the title was a bit clunky, an I can’t say I was thrilled with the illustrative style as a fit for the story, but it’s okay.  Like I said, adequate.

Not impressed.  I’m not sure what the point of this book is.  I guess it could be used to teach days of the week, or using your imagination, or career possibilities, but there are better books for all these things.  The only audience for this would be very young kids, and since Pre-K kids don’t come to my school library, I wouldn’t actually spend money on this.

I liked it.  There’s something every so very childlike in the simplicity of both story and illustrations. It’s rather Madeline-esque.  A rhyming tale set in London of a boy venturing through the city to visit the possum exhibit at the London zoo, while dragging his doggy pull-toy behind him, never noticing that when he left the exhibit, the five baby possums followed nose-to-tail with the doggy all the way home again.  The young boy takes it all in stride and is busy fixing a picnic for his guests when they next grab onto the string of some helium balloons, which end up carrying them right back home again.

It’s a lovely story that rings very true.  After visiting her famous grandfather in Japan, and being enchanted by his violin playing, she has decided to take up violin herself.  Now, after only three lessons she decides she wants to perform in the school talent show.  Her big brothers scoff at her plans and run from the house when she practices.  When it comes time to go out on stage, Hana is struck by fear that her brothers may have been right all along, but she looks for the reassuring faces of family and her best friend in the audience, and imagines just playing for her grandfather.  Rather than playing a particular song, she shares with the audience the different sounds around her that the violin can mimic, just as she  remembers from when her grandfather was playing:  a mother crow calling her chicks, rain on paper umbrellas, a neighbor’s cat at night.  When she declares she has her own way of playing the violin, even her big brothers come to appreciate it for what it is.  Some inconsistencies in the illustrations (too much changing of the audience and violin from right hand to left hand and back again) were a little big distracting.

Essentially it’s a book about being good, while acknowledging that there’s a time to let your fiercer side out.  After being good all summer, Millie’s mom tells her she can have a sleep out in the backyard.  She’s full of plans, knowing just how she wants it to go, but of course things don’t go all as she plans.  Throughout the story, Millie works to keep her fierce in until something in the dark outside her tent threatens to ruin her sleep out, so Millie unleashes her fierce to venture out to protect her friends…from what turns out to be the neighbor’s dog.  It’s fine, but is it just terribly old-fashioned of me to find it sad that watching movies on a tablet seems to be part of a modern sleep out?

This book almost got a “Not Recommended” from me, but I do think it’s a topic that a lot of crafty kids would enjoy exploring.  The photos and layout are inviting, and would encourage them to try something new, and with significant adult support, I think many could successfully do so with this book.  The reasons I don’t fully recommend it come from inconsistencies and lack of clarity in the directions offered.  It begins with four pages dedicated to, “Tools of the Trade,”  in which they include patterns which are never again mentioned throughout the instructions for any of the projects, and an unnecessary bag in which to store all your tools, but they don’t include several items which are later needed to complete the projects (though they do at least include the additional items in the list at the beginning of each project, but it would have been handier to have them included up front): bowl of unspecified size, markers, felt, cookie cutter, etc.  Most projects try to fit all the directions on one small page, with only three photos as support, and I had trouble understanding exactly what was meant; they would have benefited from breaking things into small steps, with clearer photo support along the way.  And though they do list a tape measure as one of the tools frequently needed, they repeatedly give directions calling for 1/3 of an inch, which I have never in my life ever seen on any standard tape measure.  Why confuse kids?

A good story to help children understand their own power over their own imagination, and how to channel it for the positive.  It opens with Small Blue waking in the dark of night, thinking creepy thoughts, imagining goblins in his room, and calling for help.  When Big Brown comes to the rescue and Little Blue shares his imaginings, Big Brown suggests that if it’s dark, it could just as likely be a “delightful doggies’ Saturday-night unicycle convention” that was in the room.  In search of some soothing warm milk, the two progress through the dark house, with repeated opportunities to face new dark areas, and each time cheerful alternatives are suggested when scary possibilities are proposed.  By the end Small Blue has learned to manage his own imagination when he wakes in the dark.

Part general cultural information, part cookbook, this volume makes efficient use of its 24 pages.  It begins with an overview of how food fits into Chinese culture, and common traits, as well as regional differences.  In the back four recipes are offered, that look both tasty and doable — and this coming from a picky eater and novice cook.  The information is well-illustrated with color photos, including in the step-by-step portion of the recipes.  The binding is sturdy, and all the classic non-fiction text features are included. I haven’t actually tried cooking the recipes yet, but I’m encouraged to do so.  If they don’t live up to my expectations, I’ll update my review to reflect that, but for now I highly recommend the title.

The story tells about a boy and his dog racing along a crowded seaside boardwalk when they get separated.  As the frantic young boy goes looking for his dog, he first only sees a variety of knees, but keeps climbing on progressively higher items in attempts to get a better view, seeing bellies, then hair, before he climbs to the top of a deserted life-guard stand where he gets a decent vantage point, and eventually finds his dog snagged by his leash under the boardwalk, where the two hang out to escape the storm that’s been gradually building in the background throughout the story.  The illustrations are really quite fun, drawn in a rather cartoonish style that captures a wide, exaggerated variety for each body part the boy finds himself surrounded by.  At times the text of the story has a fun rhythm and rhyme to it, but by going in and out of rhyming, rhythmic text, alternated with more prosaic text, it’s got a bit of a clunky feel to it.