This informational book describes the physical characteristics, habitat, and behavior of rabbits. Full page, color photos accompany each page spread demonstrating the information being reported.

The art of storytelling is celebrated as a life-giving force in this enthralling picture book set in Morocco.

A nameless, thirsty boy meets a storyteller and is drawn to return day after day to listen to intricately linked stories and to learn the older man’s art. The stories bring not only sustenance to the boy’s inner life, but water to his lips, for in this world, storytelling and water are symbolically connected. Stories will ward off the great drought if the Sahara encroaches on the cities, but only if young people keep the tradition alive. And so, in the manner of Scheherazade, the stories unfold, and the protagonist retells the story of the boy who saved the city from the sandstorm that arrived as a large djinn by telling him a story, day by day. The life force of cool blue water appears in the illustrations, the antithesis of the destructive brown sand. Beautiful swirls of blue dominate many of the intricately bordered double-page spreads, fighting against the tans and browns of the djinn and the sands he represents. Each spread takes on a life of its own, sometimes highly geometric, other times full of swiftly crayon-drawn individuals, and still others with heavily inked and outlined figures.  Vibrant picture book!

In 1843, fourteen-year-old Hanson Gregory left his family home in Rockport, Maine, and set sail as a cabin boy on the schooner Achorn, looking for high-stakes adventure on the high seas. Little did he know that a boatload of hungry sailors, coupled with his knack for creative problem-solving, would yield one of the world’s most prized and beloved pastries.  Lively and inventive cut-paper illustrations add a taste of whimsy to this sweet, fact-filled story that includes an extensive bibliography, author’s note, and timeline.  Kirsch’s charming watercolor collages liberally employ round motifs: on many spreads, the circular illustration on the right page is “cut” from the left, freeing up a circle of white space for text. Endpapers sport scores of holey doughnuts, many decorated nautically. Miller shares the true story of the invention of the doughnut with the hole in its center. Delicious!

This new series – Piper Morgan- will fill a niche for those girls where there is a working mother with no father in the picture.

Piper is a 6 or 7 year old girl who loves to please. Piper wants to make friends, but Piper often jumps to conclusions about the new people she meets. Sometimes she is right and sometimes she is not. Piper’s mother works hard at her job, but her jobs never last very long. “My mom’s new job was as an assistant. That means she takes care of stuff for people. A person will send her jobs to take care of stuff for people, but the jobs are only temporary … For now, we were going to live with the traveling circus people.” (3) So begins the first book in this series.

While Piper’s mother is working, Piper becomes part of the ‘Little Explores’ section of the circus. The Little Explorers are the young children of the circus staff and performers. The Little Explorers do little acts between the major circus acts in the rings. Piper is to be a dancer along with the other Little Explorers. On her first night, she forgets her dance steps, then falls on another dancer, causing a domino affect of fallen dancers. The other Little Explorers are upset with Piper, but Big Top Bubba explains to all the children mistakes happen all the time. Circus is family and family helps each other. Big Top Bubba then has Lexie become Piper’s mentor.

Piper is set for the next performance. This time April starts the Little Explorers’ dance too soon, but the others follow her. Everyone’s timing is off. Piper starts doing cartwheels. Then, she bumps into a clown, who bumps into a dog act, who bumps into another act. The audience loves the chaos that follows as Piper tries to catch the dogs that are now out of control. The other Little Explorers help, too. The show most go on. Soon everything is back to normal.

Then, mom’s job is over and Piper leaves the circus. Stay tuned for book two in this new series.

Author, Stephanie Faris, has placed “Fairground Facts” trivia at the end of each of the ten chapters. Illustrator, Lucy Fleming, has two or three soft pencil drawings intermixed throughout each chapter. These sketches often show just the right facial expressions.

This “Ready-to-Read” book is chuck full of photos from the latest 2016 Ghostbuster movie.  That is one way to get reluctant readers to open a book up and read. This a an informational book introducing the ghostbusters and their work to the reader. Each of the five ghostbusters is given a two page mini bio: Abby, Erin, Holtsmann, Patty, and Kevin. One page being a photo with the opposite page being a description of her or his work. It is very tongue-in-cheek: ” When you hire the Ghosterbusters, we’ll bring the very latest in ghostbusting equipment. (Not the safest, but the latest.)” (18) On and on it sings the praises of the ghostbusters and what they do to help keep their community safe from ghosts.

There is not much meat to this book, but it is fun.

In Westaway’s first picture book, originally published in Australia, a whale has invaded the bathtub of a boy named Bruno; worse, it isn’t even an especially nice whale. “You could have knocked!” says the cetacean before shooing Bruno out of the bathroom. Bruno tries to explain the situation to his family, but no one believes him. “A “shower” courtesy of the whale’s blowhole keeps Bruno from getting in trouble for not bathing, though, as his mother notes, “You smell a bit fishy!” While there isn’t much of a story line, illustrator Jellett makes the most of the improbable situation, filling the bathroom with bubbles and white spray to emphasize the mess the whale is making and using crayonlike red scribbles on Bruno’s cheeks to highlight his growing irritation. Good, clean fun!

As this presidential draws near, I remember my mother working at our local polling place. Until I read this book, I never realized my mother would have remembered when women gained the right to vote in a national election in 1920.  STORIES OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE: Votes for Women tells of five women, in particular, who diligently worked over a fifty year period to gain this right for women.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton began her work prior to the Civil War when many laws were unfavorable towards women. First she worked as an abolitionist before moving into women’s rights. In 1851, she met Susan B. Anthony and began collaborating with her. During the Civil War Elizabeth helped the abolitionists as she could. Then after the war, “Elizabeth and many other campaigners for women’s rights to vote became frustrated as more people began to support the right of black men to vote. Elizabeth refused to support the vote for black men only, instead demanding that this right should be extended to black and white women, too.” (22)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony made a good team. Elizabeth liked working behind the scenes and Susan liked being out in front of the crowd. Elizabeth was the mother of seven children, while Susan never married. Susan traveled around the country giving speeches. She was very good at strategy, such as, scheduling her talks “just before politicians were due to discuss changes to the law. This got the attention of the newspapers and the lawmakers themselves.” (34) Susan used the 14th and 15th Amendments as the basis of her arguments. In 1872, Susan registered to vote, voted, and was then arrested for voting.

Across the Atlantic Ocean in Britain, Clementina Black was working to improve the lives of poorer working women. Clementina was asking for equal pay for equal work, breaks during the work time, limited hours to a work day, and a legal minimum wage. “Clementina’s work and writing has helped lay the ground for other campaigners for women’s rights, who were ready to give their lives for the right to vote.” (61)

Carrie Chapman Catt married newspaper man Leo Chapman and “became co-editor of the newspaper.”(65) Sometime after Leo’s death, Carrie married a wealthy George Catt who agreed with her views on women’s rights. George, on occasion, spoke for women’s rights with Carrie at rallies. Carrie’s strategy was to get women the right to vote at the state level and then finally get an Amendment to the Constitution.

Emmeline Pankhurst, in Britain, saw that peaceful protests were not achieving the results women wanted. Her motto was, “Deeds, not words.” She wanted the issues in front of the public everyday, in every way, even if it meant chaining women to fences shouting about women’s suffrage, so they couldn’t be removed and arrested.

Britain’s women could vote by 1918, if they were 30 years old, which changed to 21 years old in 1928. In the United States, the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, though women in varying states could vote on local issues before then. Washington state women could vote by 1910.

These longer bios are followed by five one page mini-bios on: Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Millicent Fawcett, Annie Kenney, and Emily Davison.

Then, there is a timeline, Facthound.com, glossary, and index.

At first glance you might think this is a picture book for grade schoolers, but you’d be wrong. Oh, small children might sit still while you read it to them, but on a deeper level, this is an allegory poking fun at uneducated, simple people.

The story is told in three parts. Part one, the LEEKS, tells about how uneventful a leek’s life is in the vegetable garden. So, when a cow comes along telling them he is Santa they get very excited. The cow invites them to come home with him. “The leeks line up, orderly and disciplined, and one after the other they squeeze through the fence.” Right into the waiting cow’s mouth.

In part two, the CARROTS, in the garden are laughing at the leeks and their demise. Then the carrots begin to worry the reindeer might come and eat them, too. After long discussion where nothing is accomplished, one carrot suggests digging a tunnel a escape from the reindeer. The plan is carried out in teams. The carrots’ tunnel soon runs into a colony of bats. At first the carrots are worried the bats might eat them, but the bats are friendly. The bats are going to a party. The carrots ask if they can come along. No problem. The bats and carrots emerge from the tunnel in a warren full of wild rabbits.

In part three, MIXED VEGETABLES, off in another section of the garden a leek named Romeo finds a carrot named Julienne. They spend their nights whispering together, away from the other vegetables, until one dawn they are discovered. The Leeks are against the Carrots and vice versa. Then the other vegetables from the garden get involved in the insults. Romeo and Julienne sneak away.The vegetable garden is a battle zone. The gardener sees the aftermath and turns the smashed vegetables into soup. And the cow and a rabbit enjoy Romeo and Julienne.

Perceval Barrier’s illustrations are all done in varying shades of orange and green with cartoon conversation bubbles, in addition to the regular text.

Sixteen tales of trailblazing homesteaders, entrepreneurs and fable-rousers who overcame the hardships of the 1840’s coming west and settling.  The stories are researched through diaries, journals, letters and written songs.   Excellent for women’s studies, or history of the west.  Includes notes for each chapter, bibliography and index.

Gerta’s father and brother visit West Berlin when the Berlin wall went up, nearly over night, trapping Gerta, her mother and second brother in East Berlin and separating their family for four long years. Meanwhile, the Stasi police has bugged their apartment so the family cannot talk freely in their own home about the government’s horrific control. Then Gerta spots her father on the other side of the wall signaling her to dig. Getting a secret note from her father, she realizes the location and risks her life to dig an underground tunnel under the width of the wall to freedom. Excitement and danger mixed with complications and setbacks make this book a great read.

It is unfortunate that Larissa’s family has been cursed with family members’ untimely deaths throughout the generations. Well, Larissa helps her parents by cleaning the family’s antique shop where she encounters a creepy doll that has been in the family for years, and then gets strange calls on a disconnected, antique phone with messages to trust the fireflies. Larissa finds the fireflies at the Bayou Bridge where she time travels learning of her great grandmother’s disrespect which caused the curse. It is up to Larissa to save her family’s future! This story is written so mysteriously that it will entice readers!

This is a story set at Christmas time. It begins in a forest with a winter storm blowing through the bare branches of trees. Only the little fir tree is calm, quiet, and comforting to the forest animals in need of new homes due to the forest’s broken branches. The storm calms at midnight “For far away, a baby had been born beneath a star, while heaven’s angels danced and sang for joy.” Later, “stars from the angels’ cloaks drifted down through the still air.” The trees with their bare branches all wanted the stars to land on them, but the stars only landed and stayed on the soft green branches of the fir tree “the place where there is love.”

The first half of this lovely story illustrated  in soft colors describes the coming of winter in nature with snow and wild animals in their dens.Then the story branches off to people making paper decorations, singing special songs, baking cookies and other special foods. Finally, “Hanukkah is Here!”

This book could easily be used for compare and contrast Hanukkah and Christmas by simply substituting the word Christmas for Hanukkah. Then asking if this is true for Christmas as well as for Hanukkah. This activity could be as simple or as complex as the group doing the comparing and contrasting is ready for.

“Test your knowledge about the beautiful game, the world’s most popular sport and one that’s making new fans in the United States every day. This book features informative sidebars, a trivia quiz, a glossary, and further resources”.

Four chapters from “Rookie” to “Hall of Famer” are written in a Q & A format.  Beautiful, colored photos on every other page related to the information shared. The trivia quiz on pages 44 & 45 helps the reader check his/her own comprehension.  This book is part of a series which includes baseball trivia, basketball, hockey, football and Olympic trivia. Kids will probably read this juvenile nonfiction over and over!

SennTech is pleased to announce its latest and finest creation: a Hart-style Bot who can see individual DNA signatures. Her first assignment: find Edmond West and stick to him like glue. She’s not the only one obsessed with the former-inventor; hostile forces are converging on the little island where Edmond and Hart are hiding and all seems lost. But General Liao isn’t the only one with a secret weapon…

Plot was difficult to follow having not read books #1 and #2.  This book is a YA read and I would suggest only purchasing it if you are able to also purchase books #1 and #2.

This young adult book has violence (bullets exploding through people’s heads, suffocation) ‘bad’ language ( bastards, sons of bitches), and non-descript sex all making this book for high school and above reading audiences.

This is book two of three in an action packed, macho political/military battle of not one or two sides of a story, but three and four sides of the story because that is what life is truly like. It is thought provoking!

I gathered from the bits and pieces of the characters memories that in book one, Divided We Fall, the state of Idaho is seceding from the United States of America, sometime in our near future, because citizens’ rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been taken away.

As Burning Nation begins, Idaho is being blockaded from supplies of food by the Federal Government until the Idaho rebels turn themselves in to the U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Idaho to re-establish the peace. “  ‘Attention!’ A loudspeaker on the tank called out into the dark. ‘All Idaho military, militia, and law enforcement personnel must surrender to federal authorities immediately. All Idaho civilians must disarm, remain in their homes, and await instructions from federal authorities. Failure to comply will be met with deadly force.’  “(25)

Tension runs throughout this story. The tension felt by the armed high school students in the Idaho National Guard hiding from the federal troops, the tension of the families of Idaho National Guard members not knowing if their sons and daughters are safe, the tension of the non-violent Idahoans as to whether or not food shipments will be getting through the blockades, the tension in the New England states and Southern states calling all of their National Guard units to active duty locally so they won’t be sent to fight other Americans in Idaho, and the tension in Idaho caused by not knowing what is going on in the rest of Idaho and the United States because President Laura Griffith has cut off all communication to and from and within Idaho, only official United States propaganda is being released about the ‘Idaho crisis’ throughout the country.

Daniel Wright and his armed unit are hiding out. They have a high school friend, TJ, in their hometown of Freedom Lake, Idaho, who is secretly keeping them abreast of what is happening in the town and bringing them needed supplies when he can. After Governor Montaine and the Idaho state legislature “declare our home to be [the] fully independent Republic of Idaho. We hereby dissolve all formal ties with the United States of America …” (73)   Wright and his unit begin running recon missions, shooting at Fed troops, and bombing Fed buildings. On one of these missions, Wright is caught. Major Alsovar tortures him using extreme heat, waterboarding, and electric shocks in his effort to extract secret base locations from Wright in Alsovar’s effort to end this Idaho war. While Wright is in captivity his unit joins with another resistance group, ‘the Brotherhood’. Weeks pass. Wright is rescued.

Outside of Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana are forming plans to defy the strangle hold President Laura Griffith has put on their states citizens’ rights and freedoms. In a coordinated effort, these states force the federal troops to retreat and redeploy.

As Burning Nation comes to an end, the reader is left with the Wright’s thoughts, “We’d fought hard, risked everything, to win freedom and start a new country. What kind of society was this?” (417)

Lynch’s Vietnam War series concludes with the final narrative of four friends caught in the chaos of war. Casualties of War (Book Four) gives Beck his turn to tell his story. Morris, Ivan and Rudi have told their stories, but it is not necessary for the reader to know their stories in order to understand this 4^th book in the Vietnam Series.

Beck, now in the Air Force, was always the smart one, the one bound for college. Upon discovering Beck’s plan to enlist, his father had said, “The universe has better plans for you.” And in Vietnam, Beck does feel as if he has “just been handed the keys to the universe itself.” He is, literally, above it all, as he watches the war from on high in his C-123 aircraft, his goal somehow to not kill anyone as he defoliates forests with Agent Orange. He finds the countryside gorgeous and rues the “danger and destruction in all its variety and in every direction.” Beck’s hope is that when the friends get back together, no matter what else has happened, “the universe will tilt back where it belongs.” This volume lacks the sharp character development and pacing of its predecessors, as much of the narrative concerns all four players and how to contrive the requisite reunion. When it does occur, it brings disastrous results and an abrupt ending to the series.

An excellent war saga that will leave readers feeling they have been through something monumental.

In their second STEAM-powered exploration (Full STEAM Ahead!, 2014), mouse twins Sydney and Simon investigate the problem of garbage.

Sydney’s foray into trash tracking starts with a field trip to the aquarium, where a green sea turtle is recuperating after eating plastic. It doesn’t take much of a leap for Sydney to make a connection: “The more trash we make, the more there’s a chance that some of that trash could end up in the ocean.” The two keep a tally of their family’s trash for a week, and the results are eye-opening. Their school is an even larger garbage generator. Ms. Fractalini helps the twins use science, technology, engineering, arts, and math to come up with a way to raise awareness and encourage the community to participate in a solution. A sculpture of Greenie the turtle made out of trash and a song about going green are the start of a community-wide movement to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Along the way, readers will learn lots about decomposition, how quickly garbage adds up, and ways to reduce trash. Ink-and–watercolor-wash illustrations help break up the text and put pictures in readers’ heads that will stick with them, making them likely to want to get on the green bandwagon. Hopefully, readers will focus on Sydney and Simon’s problem-solving, and see it as quite doable in their own communities. (glossary, author and illustrator’s note)

I picked this book up with hopeful anticipation having already read and enjoyed another book by Elana K. Arnold.  I was not disappointed.

Living in an RV is the last thing 12-year-old Odette Zyskowski wants—in fact, it tops her list of “things that aren’t fair.” But her father took a “voluntary layoff” from work, and the family is selling its California house to care for Odette’s ailing grandmother in Washington State. The family sets off on an eventful road trip. Between cramped quarters, car trouble, her parents’ rocky marriage, and endless hours of driving, Odette is miserable, and everyone knows it. Arnold’s The Question of Miracles dealt equally well with topics of leaving home and losing a loved one, and she has a knack for sympathetically expressing Odette’s confusing emotions about those events, as well as feeling disconnected from her best friend and liking a boy she meets. Arnold’s descriptive prose and short, episodic chapters warmly relay the family’s struggles.

There is one reason, and one reason only, why I will not put this book in my school library. Ms. Arnold has written a number of books for young adults and is trying her hand at middle grade fiction.  Because this book asks 4th and 5th graders to wrestle with the question of doctor assisted suicide (of Odette’s grandmother, because it is legal in WA) I cannot in good conscience place it on my shelves. Children ages 10 & 11 should not have to picture their own grandmothers taking the pills that will kill them.

This short books five chapters include: Cheer as a Career, Professional Cheerleader, Coaching and Teaching, Behind the Scenes, and Cheer Business. I was pleasantly surprised by the content of this book because I had never thought past the very visible cheerleader. A career in this profession can include being a teacher and or coach for cheerleaders, a choreographer, a judge for competitions, a designer of uniforms and accessories, being a professional cheerleader, and operating a gym or cheer leading training center. A career in cheer requires skills including: “working together as a team, encourage others, manage busy schedules and organize events.” (7)

Professional cheerleaders practice during the week, spend time warming-up before the game, cheer for several hours during the game, often sign autographs after the game, and attend other publicity events. They usually need to have a second job, as professional cheerleading does not pay well.

in addition to the obvious job of being a high school, college, or professional cheer leader for a national football or basketball team, there is also work on the CHEER CHANNEL – an Internet show. “The Cheer Channel website has a lot of content for teens and tweens. It has cheer and dance news, fashion news, cheerleader profiles, and live and taped competitions.” (24) AND closer to home (Washington state),  “CHEER Seattle is a nonprofit adult cheerleading squad. They do not perform for a sports team. Instead the squad performs to raise awareness and money for charities.” (28)

There are usually one or two paragraphs next to a full-page photo.

Here is a brief overview of the time period in United States history dealing with the post Civil War of the 1800s. “In December of 1865, [eight months after the end of the Civil War,] the Thirteenth Amendment  was added to the Constitution. It abolished slavery in the United States.” (10) The former slaves were now free, but without jobs, land, or a place to live, life was not any better than it had been. “In 1865 African Americans were allowed to apply for land in the South. Most of the land had been abandoned or taken during the war.(14)…  But by the middle of 1866, half of this land had been returned to its original white owners. “(15) The Freedmen’s Bureau sought to help fight jobs, build schools and churches, and settle disputes between freed slaves and white landowners. Laws known as Black Codes began to appear which restricted what African Americans were allowed to do in the South, in favor of segregation. President “Johnson’s approach of letting the South  control how African Americans were treated was not working.” (23) The Ku Klux Klan burnt houses, schools, churches, and African Americans. “The Ku Klux Klan killed 20,000 men, women, and children between 1868 and 1871.” (24) The United States Congress stepped in with the Civil Rights Act of 1866,  the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Each one of these helped, but not by as much as they were intended to do. Southern whites used violence and intimidation over African Americans. African Americans were able to go to school, but their other rights were very controlled.

Spread throughout this book there are 6 side bars dealing with such topics as ‘Frederick Douglass’ and the ‘Challenges of Voting’.

Between chapters there are opportunities for further reflection and research.

The text is written in simple sentences which get the point across. The illustrations are historical reproductions from the era.

The book ends with a two-page outline recapping the book’s content, two-page “Stop and Think” section, a glossary, an index, and two web sites.

I have watched various Hollywood movies of this battle, but this graphic telling of it definitely put things into perspective for me.

“HITLER TOLD SKORZENY THAT HE WOULD TRAIN AND LEAD GERMAN SOLDIERS WHO SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH TO MASQUERADE AS AMERICAN SOLDIERS. THEY WOULD WEAR AMERICAN UNIFORMS AND DRIVE AMERICAN VEHICLES AND WOULD CAPTURE BRIDGES, CHANGE ROAD SIGNS, AND SPREAD FALSE RUMORS AND PANIC IN THE AMERICAN REAR LINES. “(8) Hitler would not budge on his “Watch the Rhine” plan in December 1944, even though “FIELD MARSHAL GERD VON RUNDSTEDT …AND FIELD MARSHALL WALTER MODEL… FELT THE PLAN WAS TOO AMBITIOUS…” (9)

The retelling of this piece of war history goes back and forth between the German and American forces’ various victories, surrenders, defeats, massacres, and lack of food, fuel and supplies. Week by week, sometimes day by day, sometimes hour by hour, and even inch by inch the troops moved from one strong hold to another. The graphics in this retelling are as much about facial expressions, body postures, and tank and troop movements, as it is about the dialog of various generals. “TO THE SOUTH, PATTON GATHERED HIS FORCES TO DRIVE IN THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF WHAT IN NOW CALLED, “THE BULGE.” THESE FORCES INCLUDED TH 26TH AND 80TH INFANTRY DIVISIONS, BUT IN THE FRONT WAS HIS VERY ABLE 4TH ARMORED DIVISION.” (46) The scope of sequence of these weeks in the snow and cold of December 1944-January 1945 (differing from the warm summer/fall weather of D-Day) are much more understandable than I have ever experienced through any other retelling. The Battle of the Bulge ended January 16, 1945, with Germany surrendering a few months later on May 7, 1945.

Casualties for the Americans, British and Germans are each listed in wounded, killed, and missing. The numbers are in the tens of thousands. Then, there is a brief  “AFTER THE WAR, THE PEOPLE OF BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG BEGAN THE PROCESS OF REBUILDING THEIR HOMES AND VILLAGES, THE MARSHALL PLAN, WHICH BEGAN IN 1948, WAS AN AMERICAN INITIATIVE TO AID AND REBUILD WAR-DEVASTATED EUROPE, MODERNIZE AND BUILD EUROPEAN INDUSTRY AND TRADE, AND PREVENT THE SPREAD OF SOVIET COMMUNISM.” (94)

Page 96 lists the Allied and Axis Divisions, with pages 97-101 illustrating the different U.S. and German tanks used in this battle.

We have yet another book on a Native American tribe featuring them wearing regalia, as if it is what they still wear in everyday modern life. Not true. Do not get me wrong, the regalia is wonderful, but these modern photos mislead our youth into thinking Native Americans still wear this style of clothing daily.

This book gives very general information about the Nez Perce tribe of the 1700-1800s before white settlers came. The page headings include: Nez Perce Territory, Home Life, What They Ate, Daily Life, Made by Hand, Spirit Life, Storytellers, Fighting for Land,  Back in Time ( a timeline), and The Nez Perce Today ( again a photo of a Nez Perce in regalia).

I shared this book with my Native American- Nez Perce colleague from a Native American school.  He was only disagreed with one point, on page 16, ” The Nez Perce were named for shell bead decorations in their noses.” According to my friend, this was not the Nez Perce but a totally different tribe altogether. He was disappointed that this inaccurate information is still being taught.

This is the sixth book in the Furry and Flo series. Author – Thomas Kingsley Troupe does a nice job of recapping the vital information from book one giving the reader enough background to make this a book that can stand alone from the others in this series. Readers of the series will enjoy the golem, the latest monster to escape through the portal, from another world, hidden behind the washing machine in Flo’s apartment building’s basement laundry room. In previous books, the portal has let giant spiders, goblins, mummies, and skeletons escape. The giant golem, made of rocks, is on a mission from his master Krigg to bring back Wolf Son, AKA Furry, who is a werewolf, when not in human form. Garvel, the golem, only wants to take Furry back to Krigg because Krigg has promised to give Garvel back his brothers and sisters. Flo is drawn into Garvel’s problem. She wants to help him, but Furry isn’t so sure. What does Krigg want with Furry? It could be a trap, but Flo convinces a reluctant Furry to help. To get Garvel back through the small portal opening, Flo and Furry have Garvel stand inside a dumpster then pull out the magic pin which keeps Garvel together. Boulders, once Garvel, tumble into the dumpster which Flo and Furry push through the portal. Back on the other side of the portal, Flo and Furry a-line the boulders before replacing the magic pin bringing Garvel back to life. Garvel leads them to Krigg. Flo notices Krigg is wearing a belt of magic pins. Krigg commands golem Number 20, made of metal, to hack Garvel apart for not following his orders.  Afterwards,  Number 20 proceeds to attack Flo. At this  “Garvel gave the iron golem a push backward, and Number 20 tripped over his own legs. He fell against the far wall, smashing a giant hole in the rocky border. Garvel moved to help his brother up, but when he saw through the hole in the wall, he stopped in his tracks. Number 20 turned to look too.” (92) There in pieces were the other  eighteen golems. Now, Flo commands Number 20 to get the pins from Krigg. Much to Krigg’s dismay, Number 20 is no longer under his control. Krigg drops the pins and runs for his life. Flo, Furry, Number 20, and Garvel begin to piece all of the disassembled golems back together, with Garvel and Number 20 doing the heaviest parts. They finally have them all together but one. They can’t find the pin to bring it back to life. Flo and Furry go to look for the missing pin inside of Krigg’s cottage. There they find the missing pin, but also a WANTED poster for Furry, put out by Furry’s father. “This poster thing says my dad will pay a fortune in bellims to whoever manages to return his son–and the portal shard.’  ” (112)  It is getting late, Flo needs to get back home. When Flo and Furry get back to the portal they find that Krigg has smashed it. Will Flo and Furry be trapped in this other world forever?

After this cliff hanger ending there are 3 “Questions form Flo” and 3 “Prompts from Furry” for discussion and or writing.

One action packed black and white illustration per chapter.