Evil books have been released from the library. There is only one hope, the League of Librarians. On a bus, a book is loose, sliding along the floor. It only contains one sentence among many, many blank pages. A student picks up the book, reads the sentence and instantly disappears. Each person on the bus who reads the sentence disappears. However, a hero jumps on board the bus to stop the book from its evil actions. It is the Blind Librarian to the rescue. This gripping mystery is followed up with discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary. This book is written for students who have a lower reading level.

This is the fifth Nancy Drew Mystery in the long line of Nancy Drew mysteries. The suspense holds up more than 80 years since it was written. The reader may notice the absence of cell phones, lack of air conditioning in the car, and watching a movie in a theater instead of at a drive-in, but this all adds to the mystery and suspense of this, now- period, piece. New readers to the mystery genre will enjoy this book as much today as when it was new in 1931.

Nancy has just flown into Phoenix, AZ, for a vacation with her friends at their aunt and uncle’s Shadow Ranch. Uncle Ed and Aunt Bets are the new owners of the ranch which they acquired in payment for a debt. Now things are starting to go wrong at the ranch beginning with the appearance of a mysterious glowing phantom horse who runs through the pasture at night right before something goes wrong. Once after the phantom horse appeared  the ranch’s only source of power and the water stopped working. Sabotaged! Another time the phone lines were cut (and even if this was in today’s time, the ranch would be in a dead cell zone, considering how far out from town they are). Nancy’s friends are very confident she will be able to solve the mystery of the phantom horse in time to prevent their aunt and uncle from loosing their ranch. Nancy analyzes the events. She is full of suppositions and suspicious of everyone outside of the family. Trips into town to talk with the sheriff and get supplies add new clues and suspects into the mix. As it turns out, Nancy is gifted an antique watch from the 1880s, which once belonged to the daughter of the original ranch’s owner, for helping stop a thief. This watch becomes one of the first real clues to solving the mysteries. The watch’s original owner was in love with a robber who had buried a treasure somewhere on the ranch. Horseback rides into remote parts of the ranch, a near kidnapping of Nancy, and setting a trap in an ancient Indian dwelling keep the suspense and intrigue going through until the end.

The cover art was very appealing, but the horse’s rider should have been wearing Western attire, not English riding clothes.

Young primary grade readers will immediately identify with the photos of children with missing baby teeth.

Factual information on the number of baby teeth, permanent teeth,  ages for beginning and ending of childhood tooth loss, and how to care for teeth is given.

This book does not talk down to its readers. Page 18 states, ” Eating right builds strong teeth. Eating too many sugary foods can cause cavities. germs in our feed on sugar. The germs make acid that attack teeth. The acid can lead to cavities.”

There are 9 Fast Fact trivia factoids spread throughout the book.

This 6″ X 7″ includes an activity page asking the child to count their own teeth and a second page with a pictorial mini-quiz on how to maintain a healthy smile.

Includes: glossary, index, and web site:  www. factsfornow.scholastic.com   keyword Teeth.

Smick! is a picture book story told in extremely simply drawings using a total of 15 different words.

Smick is a dog. He listens. He follows the command to, “Sit, Smick.” He is rewarded with, “Good, Smick.”  Someone, off page, throws Smick a “stick*“, off Smick goes. Then, Smick hears a “Cluck!” and a “Chick” flies into the story. Smick and the chick have fun with the stick.

The stick* is an actual photo of a forked stick. The chick is a single bi-colored geranium flower petal with eyes, beak, wings, and feet drawn in with a black pen/marker.

Beginning readers will enjoy the simplicity of the easy to read text in combination with the easy to understand dog and bird behaviors.

The Yellow Fairy Book is a compilation of fairy tales from all over the world.  Originally published in 1894, this book has stood the test of time.  With a fresh new cover, it’s ready to be read by today’s children.  Many children, especially those in the U.S., might have trouble understanding the language used in elaborate descriptions of settings, actions, and characters, but this is only because for the past few decades Disney has taken over the telling of fairy tales and has dumbed down the language so all children can understand.  Reading tales from The Yellow Fairy Book is mezmerizing with it’s rich embellishments of characters and settings.  In the past one hundred plus years since it’s original publication, literature and language has taken a beating.  This book was originally published because people, especially children, clamored for books with intriguing, entertaining stories and by reading them learned to speak and write for themselves.  Before the advent of technology, books were a safe haven for children to lose themselves in.  However, technology has changed that.  No longer do many parents read fairy tales to their children, but they haven’t been read to themselves.  People don’t take the time; technology has sped up living.  But by reading and explaining the words and meanings in these timeless stories, you are giving your children the gift of time.  Not only the gift of knowledge but the actual gift of taking time to teach and care about them.  That is what makes reading so special to children–the connections it makes.  This book should be on all library shelves (it has been on mine for over 50 years) and in every home that has parents who care about their children.

Two little yellow goslings explore their little world in this 6″ X 6″ book meant for little hands.

Gemma, the older sister, wears a pith helmet and  binoculars around her neck. Gus dutifully follows her around looking into an old barrel, a patch of cattails with frogs, from the top of a large upside down terra cotta flower pot, and from the top of Molly the sheep dog.  Then “Gus peeks underneath  the hen”, back to the flower pot, “jumps into the pond”, and up onto a rock.

A cute, sweet, easy read with two goslings inquisitively and curiously looking at the big items around them, as well as, the small snails and grasshoppers.

Originally published in 1893, The Green Fairy Book is a compilation of fairy tales from all around the world.  In his preface, Lang explains that it’s not a book about fairies, but about fairy tales, stories that have a magical quality.  Also, it’s not a ‘green’ fairy, but it is simply his way of making the books separate, and has titled his volumes according to colors: blue, red, green, and yellow, and so on, rather than I, II, III or IV.  The stories can be centuries old, from anonymous sources, from many different countries, and also from the Grimm Brothers.  What makes these fairy tales stand out from our more modern, traditional published fairy tales is the quality and quantity of language.  Many of the fairy tales are familiar and well known, yet still vastly different.  The basic story is the same, but the descriptions of the settings, actions, and characterizations are much more embellished.  These embellishments give readers a much better understanding of the characters and locales and paints us a better picture of the story.  Today’s children are used to ‘Disney-fication’ of fairy tales and many haven’t been read the original fairy tale.  The Green Fairy Book gives children language from which to learn by.  How wonderful!  This book has been in my library for over 50 years, and this fresh new copy will be here for another 50.

Guy Fieri is known for his Food Network television shows and his restaurants.  “Fieri never attended culinary school, but he has written several popular cookbooks of original recipes.” ( p. 4)

During his elementary school years, Guy and his father worked together to help Guy make a business selling pretzels from a three-wheeled bicycle push cart.  He sold pretzels for six years. During his high school years, Guy moved to France as an exchange student, after meeting his mother’s requirement of learning the French language to her satisfaction.  Back in the United States, he attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas earning a degree in “hospitality and management”. Guy first managed a restaurant, then a restaurant chain. Then came his own restaurant, with a partner, Johnny Garlic’s California Pasta Grill,, followed by Tex Wasabi’s Rock n’ Roll Sushi BBQ, and then Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. Guy was encouraged to enter a Food Network contest which he won out of more than 1000 entries. The prize was six episodes of Guy’s first show- Guy’s Big Bite. His next show- Diners, Drive-ins and Dives evolved from a TV special in November 2006.

Fieri works on ways “to educate kids on healthy eating habits” (p. 26) through his TV shows and through the California State Legislature.

Includes:   a recipe, timeline, glossary, and index.

Six Degrees of LeBron James: Connecting Basketball Stars is actually more of a historical accounting of the greatest basketball stars than just about LeBron James.  James is in his prime and students are very aware of who he is, however, this book isn’t about him, it’s about how basketball players are linked to one another and to the past.  Much of sports involves lots of math; statistics of who’s the best at what.  This book covers who’s the best.  Those interested in basketball will enjoy reading why people consider the greatest, the greatest.

An eight year old boy is “pleased” to be invited to the dinosaurs party, but he soon has doubts once he arrives. “There are plenty of meat eaters in here. Are you sure you want to go?”  The invitation reads, ” Dear Special Guest    you are invited to be (‘be’ is crossed out) dinner at the dinosaurs’ party at 3 pm on Saturday. Yours   Mr T. Rex   xx”

The boy squeezes between the other dinosaur guests who are playing musical chairs. The bouncy house pops when the stegosaurus jumps in it.

Some uncalled for, pointless bathroom humor surfaces when a line begins to grow outside of the bathroom. Various dinosaurs are shown dancing around and crossing their legs while waiting for T. Rex to step out of the bathroom.

Then the boy decides to leave and grabs a party bag. The T. Rex begins to chase him. The boy finally looses the T.Rex after a wild bus ride home. As the boy rests at home on top of his bed with the dinosaur bed spread, he thinks,

“ I mostly enjoyed the dinosaurs’ party,

There is just one little snag.

I don’t think the bag I picked up… 

Was really a PARTY BAG!” 

His ‘party bag’ has a T. Rex hatchling  emerging from an egg.

Hercules makes Hera, the queen of the gods, so jealous she “drove Hercules mad with rage. In his madness, Hercules killed his wife and children in a fire.” (p. 4) To gain forgiveness for this action Apollo’s oracle tells Hercules he must “Perform 10 tasks for your cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.” (p. 5)  So begins this accounting of the 12 labors of Hercules. This retelling is an “adaptation of Hercules’ story is based on the book The Library, written by Greek historian Apollodorus.” The labors have Hercules killing the Nemean lion, which his cousin purposefully omitted to tell “was invulnerable to weapons.” This is not the only time Hercules’ cousin, King of Mycenae, keeps valuable information from him, either. Hercules kills Hydra, but since his nephew helped him, the king won’t count it as one of Hercules’ labors. Hercules captures the Cerynitian Hind , brings back the Erymanthian Boar, cleans the king’s stables by diverting a river, and chases away a flock of nesting birds. Some of the other labors include bringing the king the Cretan Bull and feeding King Diomedes to his own cruelly mistreated horses, so Eurystheuscan  can have four of the mares.

Author- Blake Hoena and illustrator – Estudio Haus do not pull any punches on telling Hercules’ story just because it is in graphic novel form.

Includes: glossary, www.facthound.com, and index.

High Hopes is a stable where people can board their horses as well as take riding lessons.  Libby, an almost 12-year-old girl, has dreams of earning a blue ribbon at an equestrian show, and spends most of her time there.  When she is saddled with a challenging horse, it seems her dreams will never come true.  But riding teaches Libby quite a bit:  learn to be confident and be a leader, work hard, be patient and understanding, be a good friend, and to be kind, because things aren’t always as they seem.    For girls who love horses, this book is for them.

In this fantasy adventure graphic novel, a young boy named William goes off in search of his sister who is trying to find their father’s spirit. In the process, he meets a mercenary named Barbant, a magical goat, and a troubadour named Counterpane. Together the trio go on an adventure across the magical lands. They meet many monsters and kings in the pursuit of what happened to William’s father.
The book’s plot is rather dull and confusing. The artwork is just OK. The reader is led to believe that the adventure will be a grand one but, the adventure is rather short and boring. I rate this book as a marginal purchase for a school library.

— Kellyn S.

I noticed that this book was originally written and published in 1982 and that might explain why it seemed a little dated.  The illustrations are cheerful, highly detailed and colorful.    In this story Mrs. Hen’s egg rolls out the her next and down a hole.  Friend Pakkun the wolf (he doesn’t resemble any kind of wolf I’ve ever seen) volunteers to go and get it.  Underground he encounters strange creatures and they go to sea where he swims with other strange creatures.  They go to dinosaur land and meet Mr. T Rex, who is friendly beyond belief.  They finally travel up Mt. Sulfur and in a cave find the ground littered with eggs, all starting to hatch.  Mrs. Hen’s egg is the smallest and he takes it back to her above ground.  All is well.  Kids will enjoy looking at all the details.

Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body is a non-fiction book which looks back over time as to what were accepted medical practices.  It begins with mummification in Ancient Egypt, includes leeching, and goes through time rather quickly until the past 100 years when medical knowledge expanded rapidly.  This book is for the older elementary student, however, this age of student typically likes actual photographs rather than watercolor illustrations.  Good idea but falls short.

Anyone who has small children knows that this book is non-fiction.  Beautifully illustrated it tells the story of Fred who is up and about on his adventures at night while everyone else sleeps.  In the story the everyone else is animals.  In real life, it’s the parents.  Lots of rhyming and lyrical couplets, the story is a great read aloud.  However I would hesitate to recommend purchasing for a school library simply because the audience is so limited.  I would recommend it for a parent with a young child.

I Feel Sick! is a version of the boy who cried wolf, in which the little princess didn’t want to do pretty much anything the grownups told her, so she pleaded illness.  And it’s really no surprise because each page is littered with junk food droppings so she probably really did feel sick.  The doctor says to eat lots of vegetables.  Funny illustrations as the doctor is covered with red spots and has a hacksaw in her pocket.  Interesting also that the grown-ups humor her and keep giving her junk food.  Finally she’s invited to a party of a friend and while there eats more bad food and dances and actually ends up sick.  Yup, that’ll do it.  I wish the parents hadn’t let her go to the party or had done something about her eating habits, in which case there would be a benefit to read it to child.

This is a story about something that has happened to everyone at some time or another:  saying something embarrassing.  In First Grade Dropout,  a boy accidentally calls his teacher mommy and his classmates howl with laughter.  He’s so embarrassed by it he doesn’t want to return to class the next day.  He thinks of running away, inventing a time machine, disguising himself into someone else, anything to avoid being laughed at.  Even his best friend laughed.  But at the end of the day he meets up with his friend who accidentally says something wrong.  Instead of being embarrassed, well..maybe he was for a second or two…but instead of letting it get him down he just laughed at himself.  And that was the key…everyone does it, it WAS funny, and he learned to laugh it off instead of crippling himself with embarrassment.

A colorful, imaginative story, Starring Shapes, has book characters which are the actual shapes and they are auditioning for a school play. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and the school (Shapeton Elementary) building and other buildings in town are all easily recognizable shapes.  All shapes play an important part of the play.  Young students will enjoy identifying the shapes and making their own Shape Town.

Can a story be too cute?  If so, I think Maple and Willow Apart is that book.  The third story of the sisters by Lori Nichol has Maple beginning kindergarten and Willow is home learning how to entertain herself.  As Maple comes home each day she excitedly tells Willow what happened at school that day, and Willow starts to come up with equally exciting news to share with Maple.  They are each a little jealous of each other.  It isn’t until Willow invents a new friend named Pip, that Maple realizes she misses being with Willow each day. Over the weekend they play together, and when the new week starts, Willow tells Maple that Pip wants to go to school with her.  Pip is actually an acorn but throughout the story you see a little boy wearing a knit cap that actually looks like the top of an acorn.  Both the story and the illustrations are simple and beautiful.  This book would be an excellent addition to any library and parents of young children could use it to guide their children.

In Scissors and Needle, originally published in Korea, Little Witch is out walking with her bag of fabrics.  As she needs something, she stops and fishes out the fabric she wants and cuts and sews what she needs.  And so it goes.  The illustrations look like quilts and objects are made using just three common shapes,  triangles, squares, and circles.  Young children will enjoy finding and naming all the shapes as well as creating some objects of their own.

Sport-O-Rama includes 22 different sports, each sport on a colorful two-page spread depicting the terminology, actions, and equipment of the sport.  Interesting choices in actions and all are worthy of attention.  Students will love to find their favorite sport and learn about others as well.  The end of the book includes descriptions of the alphabetized sports as well as a glossary.  This should be a popular book on the sports shelf.

Starting school as a kindergartener can be a scary experience and intimidating for little kids.  Princess Cupcake Jones is no different.  In this second installment of the series, Cupcake (her first name) doesn’t want to go to the first day of school and comes up with a full menu of excuses.  But what her mom manages to get out of her is that she is afraid no one will like her–a common fear among kids.  She goes and gives it a try and meets another girl who loves tutus as much as she does.  The story is told in rhyme and the illustrator does a nice job of incorporating various ethnicities into the story.  Kids should be able to relate well to Cupcake.  But I hope she loses the tiara in future installments.

Like many little girls, Princess Cupcake Jones has a favorite article of clothing–her tutu.  One day it goes missing and Princess Cupcake Jones searches everywhere and finds lots of lost things, but not her tutu.  She cleans her room–mops, dusts, polishes–and still cannot find it.  But as she looks up she sees it stuck on the ceiling fan where it landed when she took it off and threw it the night before.  All is well.  The fact that the main character is African-American fills a gap in children’s picture book collections.  However, what I’m confused about is the ‘princess’ part–many parents call their daughters princess, but moms don’t go around wearing tiara’s–is she really supposed to be a real princess?  Would a real princess clean her room while chefs are in the palace kitchen cooking?  I wish she was just her parents’ princess and not a real princess, then maybe kids could relate better.

Glamorous Garbage is pretty realistic in the fact that kids don’t see messes, especially in their own rooms.  Bobbie loves to have her best cousin, Joanie, come over to play but it isn’t until Joanie gets upset over the messiness of Bobbie’s room and stomps off that Bobbie realizes she needs to do something about it.  Together, she and her mom sort, paint, and organize and transform her little girl’s room into a big girl’s room, without spending any serious money.  The illustrations are colorful and relevant.  Kids, especially girls, should love reading this book for inspiration.