Cutter Boy explores many issues with sensitivity including self-harm, bullying, dysfunctional families, mental illness, rape, trauma, and post traumatic stress disorder. It also focuses on a topic that typically is thought of a concern for teenage girls, but in fact also occurs in boys. The main character, Travis, is bullied at school and feels that he ignored at home. He has a secret: he cuts with a razor blade, and finds that this makes him feel in control of the pain in his life. He becomes friends with a new girl at school, Chyvonne, but worries how he can get close to her without her learning his secret. As he spends time with her, he to tries to discover why his mother can’t acts like he doesn’t even exist.

In an interesting plot twist, Travis finds a way to cope.

This is a high interest, large font, fast read. It will appeal to readers who enjoy “teens in trouble” stories.

This is a DISNEY PRINCESS Story based off of a character in the movie The Princess and the Frog. Most readers will probably be familiar with the Disney movie. If so, this will build in added enjoyment due to familiarity with the characters and the setting.

Tiana is a restaurant owner in New Orleans, who married a Prince. Tiana is indebted to Mama Oldie from when she was a frog, now turned back into human form. Mama Oldie has sent a messenger to Tiana saying she needs help. Tiana quickly readies her restaurant for a day without her, then leaves in the morning to help Mama Oldie.

Mama Oldie had a set of twin magical pearls. One is now missing. The pearls need to be together for the magic to happen. Mama Oldie asks Tiana to take her remaining pearl back to New Orleans with her to find its matching twin. “When they are close to each other, they’ll glow”. (42) Tiana agrees to help.

Back in New Orleans a plan is developed to throw a fantastic party at Tiana’s restaurant with a pearl theme.  The entire town will come. Tiana’s dear friends Charlotte and Louis the Alligator help with the party preparations. Little does anyone know, Charlotte’s little known cousin Lucinda, who just came to visit, turns out to have a long history with Mama Oldie. As Tiana begins to make the rounds to all the tables, as hostess of the party, the pearls begin to glow. Cousin Lucinda tries to escape, but does not make it with an alligator sitting on her. Lucinda turns the stolen pearl over to Tiana. Lucinda had only taken it to annoy Mama Oldie.

There is a BIG bayou party when Tiana returns the pearl to Mama Oldie.

The giant comic book style ant illustrations on the front cover will grab the prospective  reader’s attention immediately. Then as the reader leisurely studies each ant will he or she discover that three of the ants on the front cover are actually enlarged photographs of ants. This continues throughout the book. It is a wonderful mix of silly verses factual, side by side.

The text describes the the ants life cycle, including jobs and duties from construction, to babysitting, to cleaning, to feeding, to farming fungus, to milking aphids, to building bridges between trees, and to building rafts in flood situations.

Humorously fun while being factually accurate.

Set in an elementary school, with characters who are the animals their names sounds like.

Quillan Lu Hedgeson aka: Q (a hedgehog) and her best friend Ray Ratzberg (a rat) are school age wanta be detectives. As the scene opens, Q is in disguise and fooling the school as a new student from France. Q’s classic French beret, clothes, and raccoon eye mask  are very convincing, but her mannerisms quickly cue Ray into her deception. Later, the school has an assembly featuring a magic show starring the Great Dan Revealo. Ray has some magic background. Ray explains to Q at lunch how the tricks are done through distraction and misdirection.

A few days later the school goes on a field trip to the Elm Tree Art Museum. There they will have a chance to see the famous Mola Lisa by the famous artist Leonardo da Squinty. Suddenly the lights go out. When the lights come back on the painting is gone! Ray  and Q find two clues inadvertently left behind- a piece of confetti (like that used in the magic show) and a store receipt from a magic shop.  Ray & Q follow the clues. They lead to fingerprints left at the scene by Ms. Boar, who was in charge of the field trip. They quickly rule her out as a suspect. Then the clues lead to Ms. Easel the art teacher. Ray and Q think Ms. Easel was in disguise as the Great Dan Revealo for the assembly, but they do not have any strong evidence connecting her to the art theft. As Ray and Q fit the clue pieces together, Ms. Easel finally admits, ” ‘ The Mola Lisa should be mine. I’ve written papers on it. I’ve written poems about it.’ ” (42)

In one last disguise, Q finally fools Ray with her newspaper reporter disguise thanks to a trench coat hiding the stilts Q is using to double her height.

Readers will enjoy matching the characters in and out of their disguises, especially the curves of their noses, in this first book in the graphic novel series.

Page 48 contains FUN FACTS about the real Leonardo da Vinci.

Love is Love is a YA LGBTQ story involving Emma, who gets sexually involved with a popular classmate in an effort to boost her weak self esteem. Overweight with a low self-image, she thought this relationship would help her social standing. She soon realizes that the guy is merely using her, and she escapes this humiliation, and her unhappy home life, she leaves home in Winnipeg, MB to stay with her uncle and family in Vancouver, BC. Once she is staying with her cousin, a girl she perceives as perfect, and spending time with Paige’s cool friends, Emma is surprised to learn that the friend that she thinks is the coolest of them all is transgender. Emmy is attracted to Jude (formerly Judy), and spends time at shop where Jude works. She puts herself out there, beyond her normal comfort level, to impress him, and even performs at the poetry slam Jude hosts at the coffee shop.

Emmy worries about how Jude feels about her, and has doubts that such a cool and popular guy would actually be interested in her. She receives warnings from her mother back home, as well as from her cousin. Both try to warn her, telling her that Jude likely is just using her.

Will she succumb to his sexual advances, or will she find the confidence to wait until she finds someone who really does love her?

A short, quick read, this book will appeal to readers who are interested in LGBTQ issues, and those who appreciate “teens in trouble” stories.

Things I Should Have Known is a coming of age story featuring two sister. Chloe is a popular teen whose older sister, Ivy, is on the autism spectrum. Ivy is lonely and Chloe decides what Ivy needs is a boyfriend. Ethan, a very nice kid in Ivy’s special needs class, is the perfect match.
Problems arise with Ethan’s brother, David, who Chloe thinks is a real jerk.
Things are complicated by Ivy and Ethan not being comfortable going out on their own, resulting in both Chloe and David having to tag along on to movies and frozen-yogurt shops.

This is an enjoyable YA romance that authentically portrays autistic teens and their families.

Trigger Warning: This book deals heavily with suicide and suicidal thoughts.
The Rapids is the story of a fourteen year old girl, Tamika, who has been living in foster care. While standing on the banks of the Missouri river in a deep depressive state, she encounters Jesse and Mala, a young couple on a kayaking trip. They are voyaging from the source of the river down to the sea. She joins the couple, although this makes her a runaway. As they kayak down the river, the group encounters a series of dangerous situations on the river, and Tamika is faced with whether she will carry out her plan of drowning herself, or if she will decide to live.

This is a fast-paced, easy to read, large font book that will interest readers who like adventure and “teens in trouble” plots.

Just a Normal Tuesday is the heartbreaking story of the aftermath of the suicide of sixteen year old Kai’s older sister. Reeling with grief, Kai is now the only child in her family. She cannot make sense of her sister’s decision to end her life, and Kai loses control. She skips class, lashes out at those closest to her. She even takes the same pills that caused her sister’s death. As she bottoms out, her parents search for help, and find a grief camp for teens. Kai doesn’t want to attend this summer camp, but once she gets there, she finds comfort in meeting other teens who have suffered similar losses.

This “slice of life” story was written by Kim Turrisi, who reveals in the acknowledgements that she lost her own sister to suicide. Turris is known for writing the ABC Family’s webisode series Pretty Dirty Secrets, the online companion piece to the Pretty Little Liars.

Niko with his dog, Tag, and copilot, Radar, are on their way out to his spaceship buried in the snow when Niko spies a Snow Monster (who looks like his sister). Suddenly Radar is missing and they have to get into the spaceship to look for him. Could the Snow Monster have taken Radar? Then his dog is captured by the Snow Monster. Niko must defeat the Snow Monster and the Killer Bunny to find his friends. Written in a comic book style with comic book style illustration this would appeal to those who like a mixture of picture book and graphic novels.

I love my fluffy, puffy curls.

I’m so happy they are mine.

When I believe in myself,

They shimmer and they shine.

Princess Truly has sparkling curls that take her to new and exciting places. She has a race with dinosaurs, visits the pyramids, climbs into a submarine to explore the ocean, and zooms off in a rocket to visit space. Written with rhythmical, rhyming text, the author spreads the message that if you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything. The watercolor illustrations are bright and create the sense of wonder and imagination.

This is a beginning nonfiction book. The text contains one to two simples sentences per page with a full page photograph. There are a few informational text features such as color words, headings, table of contents, index and a picture glossary. The information contained in the text is very basic, but would work well for younger students to attain informational text reading skills.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner Josh Schneider has aged his character James a little , since he appeared in Tales for Very Picky Eaters.

This story begins innocently enough with Jimmy doing his homework. When “an extremely annoying howl” causes him to head to the secret door in his bedroom closet where Jimmy will transform into KID AMAZING. Now dressed to keep his identity secret, he answers the commissioners call to stop the howling. Kid Amazing reassures the commissioner he will take care of his ‘arch-nemesis, the Blob!’ Kid Amazing follows the ‘stink trail’ to the Blob’s lair. With tools from his utility belt, he spritzes the stink cloud with his de-stinking spray. Then, he cleans up the floor with his clown print de-sliming wipes. Kid Amazing is now face-to-face with the Blob, but his utility belt is empty. “The howl is melting his brain. He dives for cover. Then he sees it: the Blob’s howl neutralizer.” Kid Amazing pops the howl neutralizer ( a binky / pacifier) into the Blob’s mouth. The commissioner [aka: mom] will see about getting a reward [ a cookie] for Kid Amazing’s services.  Kid Amazing lets the commissioner know that the Blob also “needs a new stink-containment unit.”

Spoiler Alert! There is a surprise ending.

Toby is a very literal little boy. When his little sister argues that he never gives her anything, Toby replies, “Just last month I gave her a cold!” (31) This is the typical line of humor in this graphic novel formatted book. There are many one-liners, and a few sections where the humor revolves around a particular person or place: little sister, younger friend, mother, parents, or school and teacher.  There is no plot. It is innocent humor the likes of Dennis the Menace.

On page 35, a traveling salesman asks Toby if his mother is home. Toby replies, “Oh, yeah…”. When the salesman returns to Toby after ringing and ringing the door bell with no one answering the door, the salesman states, “I thought you said your mother was home?!” “She is!…but I don’t live here…”, states Toby.

Or on page 44 where Toby asks his little friend George, “George, what’s the difference between broccoli and boogers?” George replies, ” I never eat broccoli!”

MARVEL comic AVENGER hero Falcon is in trouble when Red Skull hits him with “a powerful mind-control blaster.” (6) “Now Falcon is afraid to fly!” (8)

When Red Skull attacks the city with flying robots, Falcon is less successful because of his fear to fly. Iron Man helps fight the robots. Afterwards, Iron Man encourages Falcon to keep trying. There are more flying robots the next day.  This time Captain America helps Falcon. Afterwards, Captain America encourages Falcon.

“Falcon practices everyday… at first, he can not fly very high.” (23) Falcon overcomes his fear to rescue his partner – Redwing. In Falcon’s next battle with Red Skull the mind-controller no longer works on Falcon. Red Skull is taken to jail.

Perseverance is the theme of this superhero book for young readers.

Benton Bluff Junior High School’s band director, Mr. Byrd, is going to have a student teacher, Natalie Tate, begin just before winter break. This divides the band members into old versus new teacher style discussions. Some are not willing to give Natalie a chance because of bad experiences with former student teachers or due to her approach to what should be taught in band. Different does not mean bad or wrong.

Meanwhile, Mr. Byrd has assigned a group of students to come up with the music for the local theater groups’ production “What’s Your Holiday?” to showcase the diverse ways people  celebrate the season. Our band has been asked to participate.” (5)

When Mr. Byrd goes to a Band Director Conference, Carmen asks Natalie to help with the holiday music production, just hours before the first practice. “Change can be scary for some people.” (70) but the older band members finally apologize and the show turns out wonderfully.

Each chapter has a black and white sketch showing the drama that takes place between this diverse group of good band kids: Hispanic, wheel chair bound, athletic, and stylish / popular.

Louie the Unicorn continues his tale of student life at the New York School of Performing Arts in book two of the Unicorn in New York series.

The  New York School of Performing Arts will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary. For the event,  the New York School of Performing Arts will be putting on the play “The Handsome Prince and the Princess Pointlessly Stuck in the Tower” for one night only, on Broadway. Auditions will be taking place soon. Louie believes he will get the lead role. Louie asks Arnie the Unicorn (the only other unicorn at school and the school’s top actor) for audition tips. Arnie ruthlessly tells Louie to practice circus tricks for the audition. Naive Louie begins learning quite a few circus tricks, spinning plates on his unicorn horn and  juggling torches to name a couple. During Louie’s audition he is asked,  ” ‘I wanted to stop you so I could ask, at what point in the show do you think this will be appropriate?’ ” (32) Louie does not get to part of the Prince, Arnie does. But Louie will be Arnie’s understudy. When Louie shadows Arnie’s every move so Louie can be the perfect understudy, Arnie turns Louie into his gofer. “Miranda and Danny said Arnie was treating me like a “gofer.” I like gophers and I’m sure Arnie does, too, but I think the phrase they were looking for was BFF.” (55)

Meanwhile, Frank the nice troll is about to loose his part in the play as the scary giant because he is not scary. Louie helps out his friend and roommate Frank by introducing Frank to method acting.  Frank states, ” ‘Finally! I think I can do this giant thing if I imagine I’m protecting the princess rather than scaring the prince. ‘ ” (68) Now Louie moves on to create a big school-wide surprise for principal Madame Swirler whose birthday is the same day as the school’s 50th anniversary.

Arnie has ordered Louie to polish his tap shoes until he can see his face in them. Louie does one better by polishing the bottoms of the shoes, as well. When Arnie preforms his tap dance number at the dress rehearsal, he slides right off of the stage and brakes his leg. Louie, the understudy, will have to perform in Arnie’s place. After the curtain call, Louie hushes the audience and presents Madame Swirler with a slide show and photo album of her 50 years of performances at the New York School of Performing Arts. Louie can tell Madame Swirler likes it because she looses just a teeny tiny bit of her sternness and cracks a small smile which Louie hopes won’t make her face muscles too sore.

Once again, Louie closes this book by writing home to his parents telling them about his latest experiences at the New York School of Performing Arts.

Illustrator Oscar Armelles livens up the pages with his sketches of Louie and his schoolmates.

Out in the snowy woods, little Wade, the moose, is having daily fun with his friends when he discovers his antlers are loose. (Young readers will identify with having their 1st loose tooth.) For four days, Wade is careful at play because he does not want to loose his antlers. His antlers are so useful. But then, after four days Wade decides to go tobogganing with his friends. “At the bottom, everyone tumbled off and headed back up–everyone except Wade. He stood stock-still. Something was different. He reached up to check his antlers. They were gone!”

His mother gave Wade a party and put the antlers in a special box. Wade soon noticed how much lighter his head felt and how much faster he could run.

In summer, little by little Wade grows a new set of antlers.

Christine Battuz’s illustrations are full texture, color,  and whimsy as the forest changes from winter, to spring, to summer, and then to fall.

An informational book about Earthquakes. This book is apart of a series about Natural Disasters geared towards younger students. There are two to three simple sentences per page and the book is full of text features. This book has a STEAM focus and gives information about the forest and how it relates to science, technology, engineering, art and math. The art section seems forced where the other sections are teaching us about earthquakes.

An overview of a forest habitat. This informational text includes many text features such as table of contents, glossary, index, and key words. The photographs are full page and sometimes a two page spread. This book has a STEAM focus and gives information about the forest and how it relates to science, technology, engineering, art and math. This does make it seem to bounce around a bit, especially for those looking for information about forest habitats. The science section and the key stats give the most information in this area.

Louie the Unicorn , who lives with his parents in Story Land, is going off to New York City for fame and glory after seeing a flyer fly by on a breeze advertising the NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS. Louie’s parents do not want him to go, but could not possibly allow him to be SAD, what a disgrace that would be in Story Land.

Louie is so naive and optimistic about everything he encounters in New York. Candy wrappers on the street are decorations placed there for him. Honking cars are cheerful greetings to him. Louie’s responds, “Tallyho, humans.” (14) Everything is rosy to Louie, even select words in the story are in red ink, which matches the cover of the book.  Louie finds the  Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe. He eats literally everything there, only to find out about ‘paying’. This is a new concept to Louie. Victoria Sponge, the cake-lady, and Louie work out payment by using Louie’s horn to make the perfect holes in Victoria’s doughnuts. Then off Louie goes to NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS which is just around the corner from the Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe.

At NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS Louie soon meets follow student Arnie the Unicorn who is the exact opposite of Louie. Arnie is rude, self-absorbed, and has an active fan club at the school. Arnie wants to be the only unicorn at the school. When Louie asks for directions to the first set of auditions, Arnie gives Louie a map to the boiler room. Somehow, Louie gets locked inside the boiler room until after the auditions are over and Arnie is named the lead in the latest school play. Naive Louie sees no connection between missing the audition and Arnie’s map.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s cafe will be closing permanently if it can not get customers. Louie and his roommates decide to put on a show of their own to help out Victoria. They make and hang up posters all over town, only to have Arnie’s fan club take them down or deface them saying the show will be in the supermarket vegetable aisle. Never fear, optimistic Louie goes to the supermarket and brings the audience through the streets to the cafe in a conga line. The show is a success! The Sunshine and Sparkle Dust Cafe will be staying open.

Afterwards, Louie goes to see Arnie in Unicorn and the Chocolate Factory. It is wonderful. Then, Louie writes a letter home to his parents telling them all about his recent experiences in New York, especially about his new friends. Louie will be staying in New York at the NEW YORK SCHOOL of PERFORMING ARTS.

Be watching for book two of the Unicorn in New York series – LOUIE Takes the Stage!

Written in first person with illustrations of Louie, his friends, and sights placed in front of photographs of New York sprinkled very generously throughout the book.

This is a lovely story about neighbors helping neighbors. The opening pages show a sign, with little tear-off phone number strips, stating “BUILD UP NEIGHBORS       Fix a neighbor’s house together!”

Wilson’s grandmother’s house needs some fixing up. Wilson tells all the things he will do to Gigi’s house one day, a fresh coat of paint the color of the sun. To which Gigi replies,” ‘I will like that but today, you are all the sunshine I need.’ ” Wilson tells the ice cream truck vendor how he will fix Gigi’s windows, so they will open to let in the breeze. A fence, so Gigi can have a dog for companion. Wilson will fix the balcony, the chimney for the fireplace,  and the leaky roof Wilson mentions to the librarian. Wilson will have Gigi’s piano tuned. Finally, Wilson tells his teacher and classmates about planting flowers for Gigi.

” ‘One day.’ said Wilson… ‘one day is here!!’ ” In three glorious, untexted, double-spread pages, Gigi’s neighbors all come together to repair her house.

A Junior Library Guild Selection

The old song you learned as a child will take on a fresh new life of enjoyment as Gris Grimly’s whimsical illustrations fill your field of vision.  Large bulky farm animals with skinny legs, a hundred year old barn leaning in several directions, gnarled trees, old split-rail fences, and a weather vane all precariously being held together by make-shift repairs.

Old farmer MacDonald happily tours his farm in his knee-patched bib-overalls as he tends to his chickens, turkey, ducks, donkey, pigs, caw, and sheep. When they all return to the barn, low and behold there is a bear inside “E-I-E-I…OH! With a GRR-GRR here, and a GRR-GRR there Here a GRR, there a GRR, everywhere a GRR-GRR…Old MacDonald had a farm…E-I-E-I-O”

Includes piano score with lyrics and some of Gris Grimly’s family farming history.

Have you ever wondered what it was like for the civilians of France during World War II? I have.  The Bicycle Spy gives us glimpses of the ordinary day-to-day life in France, in 1942, along with the focal story of secret resistance to the German occupation army.

Marcel discovers his parents, town bakers, have him delivering bread to his aunt and uncle with a written coded note inside it. Resistance?

The Tour de France has been canceled due to the war but the school boys still race their bikes with each other. At school, the new girl, Delphine, talks her way into Marcel and Arnaud’s bicycle race after school. She wins. Delphine and Marcel become bicycle riding buddies. Delphine brings a scrap book of the Tour de France to the old barn where she and Marcel meet after bicycle rides. Later, in the barn, Jewish and Resistance secrets are shared between the two of them after German soldiers have shown up at their school.

The plot thickens as Marcel’s family help Delphine’s Jewish family escape from France. As much as Marcel’s parents want to keep him safely in the dark from their Resistance work, it is not possible. Marcel delivers messages for them on his bicycle under stressful conditions : carrying notes past German check-points, unfamiliar routes, a time sensitive message that arrive too late, and his bicycle getting a flat tire. All the while Marcel keeps his tired legs pumping the bicycle pedals comparing his efforts to the ordeals of riding a bicycle in the Tour de France.

Then one day, Delphine and her family are gone. Months later, a letter from Portugal arrives. No message, just a picture of a girl riding a red bicycle with a cat in the basket torn from a magazine.

“While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction…”

It includes a time line of World War II in France, a short history of the Tour de France, and a glossary of terms – mostly French.

This zebra book isvery thorough in covering the very basic facts about zebras such as their habitat,their body size and stripes, their food, and their babies. Their is an additional fact page in the back along with a glossary, index, and an online address link. Large, beautiful photographs accompany each page spread and support the information found on the page.