This book is presented in several levels. Across the top of each page (which appears to be old parchment paper) in hand-script type is the author’s telling of Geronimo’s life story as if written by Geronimo in a journal (hence, the book series title – Hero Journals). Another level consists of actual Geronimo quotes set in italics, yet another level of actual photographs with captions set in an old typewriter looking font, another of modern pencil  drawings, and 6 ‘Document It’ insets instructing the reader how to create their own journal.

The reader comes away with a well rounded view of Geronimo’s life in chronological order from childhood, which includes aspects of daily Apache life and culture.

” Since the 1850s, more and more white settlers have come to Arizona. We traded with them peacefully at first, but after gold miners started to attack us, we raided their settlements, too. The U.S. troops were already wary of us. The tensions eased during the Civil War, beginning is 1861, because all the troops disappeared east to fight their own people. But now they are returning in greater numbers, and life is getting tougher for the Apaches.” ( p. 26) This taken from Geronimo’s supposed journal. While it is well written, there are definite terms an Apache of this time period would not have used: Arizona, 1850s, and Civil War. While I understand why the author did this, I hope young readers do not confuse the ‘journal’ enters with Geronimo’s actual words.

Geronimo is presented as a warrior fighting to preserve his peoples’ way of life. “When Geronimo surrendered, General Miles agreed that the Apaches would be allowed to return to their home in Arizona after two years as prisoners. But the U.S. government held them as prisoners of war for 27 years, and their lands were taken. The Apaches were not charged with any crimes and had no chance to plead their innocence in courts of law.”  ( p. 35)

Abdo’s Checkerboard Animal Library is a favorite of my students.  In this series, many breeds are discussed where you learn exciting and interesting facts.  The full-color photos and easy-to-read-text make it quite user friendly.  Each book explains information about the dog family, in general.  We learn, in this text, that Portuguese Water Dogs were bred to work on fishing boats, helping fishermen catch fish, by “herding” fish into nets.  They also help retrieve lost fishing gear.  Answers to questions about what they are like, their coat and color, size, care, feeding, etc…are covered in each of the two-page spread sized chapters.  President Obama and his daughter, are featured walking their Portugese Water dog, Bo.  Back Matter includes Glossary, Websites, and Index.

The title is long, but the cover design is different enough to attract your attention, reminiscent of a time gone by.  Inside are 30 unique fairy tales each accompanied  by either a colored or black and white illustration.  The fairy tales are quite humorous and the illustrations are colorful and finely detailed.  I wish there was some biographical information about Terry Jones, because I had never heard of him before.  But I am guessing he must be a storyteller extraordinaire and story collector.

Sammy is new to the school, small for his age, and Jewish.  This makes him a prime target for the gang of bullies in the school.  He gets his head held in the toilet, made to do the bullies’ homework and intimidated and threatened on a daily basis.  School isn’t so fun for him.  Then a new boy, Skink, starts school and as the bullies approach him ready to show him who is boss, Skink surprises them all by standing up to them, as well as befriending Sammy.  This is Sammy’s first friend and he couldn’t be happier.  Sammy’s Jewish religion means that Sammy must attend Hebrew school studying for his Bar Mitzvah, which is a rite where basically he ‘becomes a man.’  His rabbi tells a story of Golem, made of clay, powered by God, to stand as protector of the Jews when faced with death.  Sammy can’t get the idea of a Golem out of his mind and how useful that would be to use against the bullies.  Sammy’s dad is a potter, so Sammy has access to lots of clay needed to build a Golem, which he does, and calls Gully.  Gully goes to school with him and protects him and life is good for Sammy and his friends.  The rabbi knows that Sammy has created a Golem and pleads with him to destroy him before the Golem destroys him.  If you have any interest in learning about religion, then this is the book for you.  There are many enjoyable moments in this book, such as the developing friendships, the witticism, and the power of the music, and, just plain growing up and learning to take responsibility for your actions.  That’s what makes Sammy a man.

This story would make an excellent movie!  The ‘flower girls’ are three 11-year-old triplets, sister of the bride, who believe their sister is making the biggest mistake of her life.  Their sister, Lily, is about to marry a guy she hasn’t been dating long and doesn’t know so well, but more importantly, doesn’t make their sister happy.  The wedding arrangements are totally taken over by the groom’s mother, who ignores any wishes Lily has for HER wedding.  Enraged, the triplets contact Lily’s former boyfriend, who has returned to town for the summer from college, and invite him to the wedding hoping the sight of him will bring Lily back to her senses.  The lengths the girls will go through to stop the wedding are hilarious.

I get some of the best books from Australia, and this is another one.  Machine Wars is about machines with artificial intelligence warring against humans.  The head machine goes rogue and begins warfare with its creator.  This robot, called Ahriman, thinks for itself, builds actual destructive weapons and is able to learn as it makes mistakes.  He builds soldier robots, drones, is able to hack into computer systems to locate people and to transmit misleading information, such as putting out APB’s on its creators family members and friends.  Its goal is to control the world and projects its persona onto a hologram in order to control people.  The concept is new and refreshing.  Apparently you’d have to be a total genius to understand how A.I. works, so the author doesn’t bother to explain; you just have to accept that it does what he says it does.  The story does start to drag a bit after the main character, Bram, and his friend, Stella, have to continually keep running to keep safe from Ahriman.  Their job is to keep Ahriman distracted while  Bram’s mother, the genius creator of Ahriman, finds a way to disable him.  A great adventurous, exciting read.

Calling all members of the secret Silver Jaguar Society!!  Members are throughout the world and have sworn to protect the world’s artifacts.  In this installment, there have been art heists all over the world from famous museums, all happening at approximately the same time.  Jose, Henry and Anna aren’t actual members of the Secret Jaguar Society, but a close family member is and this membership has been passed down from generation to generation originating with an original artist, creator, or inventor in their families.  In a previous story, the character of Goosen was introduced who reappears and takes responsibility for the art thefts.  Goosen had also been a member of the Secret Jaguar Society at one point, but had turned traitor and instead of protecting art, he stole it.  The three young friends end up in Paris and help to solve this mystery.  One exceptional part of Messner’s book is at the end, where she has placed photos and descriptions of the places in Paris where the three friends investigated.  This element adds a touch of reality as her descriptions are based on facts.  Lots of adventure awaits in this book, and perhaps a little art history, too.

The Mystery of the Stolen Snowboard is one of 153 Boxcar Children books created by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  Warner actually only wrote the first 19 stories and the rest have been written by ‘ghost writers’ giving credit to her as being ‘created by….’.

In this book, the four Alden children are at a ski facility watching Henry’s friend compete.  After the first event, his snowboard is stolen.  Other minor incidents occur giving the Aldens the clues as to who took the snowboard and why.  Although the story is fine, there are some other issues which could be brought up for discussion from this story.  First, there is a coffee shop owner who is concerned about the environment.  He’s afraid that big international companies will come and build and cut down trees and basically ruin the town.  Second, there is burger joint owner who wants the snowboarders to all wear hats and pins that advertise her establishment.  Plus she is pushing for development and wants ownership of all the restaurants.  Not that that is bad enough in itself, but the food she serves is tasteless and unhealthy. And, third, is the subject of pushing kids into sports which demand all of their time so that their lives aren’t their own any longer.  The mystery is solved without too much effort or drama and the side stories make it interesting.

I have not heard of Terry Jones before, and I believe he is British.  However, he has written 30 wonderful fairy tales which, when read aloud, leave the listeners spellbound.  Very funny and refreshing, and each fairy tale is accompanied by a beautiful water color illustration (some black and white) by Michael Foreman.  In checking online I see that Terry Jones has other such books as well, which I will certainly purchase and add to our elementary school library, as should any other librarian.

Franklin has been a popular book character for young children for decades now, and has also branched out into his own TV cartoon show.  This book is a compilation of eight episodes of the TV series titled Franklin and Friends.  Each story is about Franklin and his friends at school, playing, making discoveries, investigating, and so on.  Each story is wholesome and interests children.  The illustrations are vivid and almost seem to leap off the page.  The cover is a hologram which gives Franklin a little movement.  This is a well made book with strong binding and would be perfect for all elementary school  libraries as well as public libraries.

Greg and the Mural is one in a series of books featuring Greg and his cousins, who  portray important characters in the story.  Greg is in sixth grade and enjoys art.  He has entered and won an art contest, the prize being a scholarship.  I am not sure where the story takes place; the blurb on the back of the book mentions ‘Trinidad Community’ but I cannot find it in the story.  However, it is known that Greg lives with his cousins and grandparents and there is no mention of his parents.  Both grandparents work at low-paying jobs.  The boy who came in second in the contest, Mark,  lives ‘at the top of the hill’ and when Greg goes there he is amazed that people can live in those poor of conditions.  Mark and his gang buddies have been tagging buildings in Greg’s community and Greg and his cousin James work together with the police to try to stop the vandalism.  There is quite a bit to discuss in this short story, choices to make that can effect your future.  There are also discussion questions at the end of the story.  This book is a very simple to read story and is intended for reluctant readers of grades 3 through 6, and maybe older.  The cover art doesn’t seem to jive with the intended audience.

In this sequel to William S. and the Great Escape, William is now a Hardison and lives with his Aunt Fiona, a school teacher, who adopted William, Jancy, Trixie and Buddy.  Life is somewhat normal, and after a year, William decides to spend his summer in the city, auditioning for the role of Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  His time is spent budy working on sets and lines and costumes,  yet his past somehow manages to worm its way back into his life, and not in a good way.  Snyder is a master at what she does.  This story is set in the 1930’s which is pretty much only demonstrated in the fact that kids didn’t have many rights at that time.  Being able to beat kids, threaten them, and intimidate them was behavior that, although not condoned, also wasn’t reported to authorities.  This story wouldn’t have stood up had it been written with a modern setting.  Also, having it take place so long ago slows the story down.  Conversations were done in person, face-to-face, with time in between to do some thinking.  Nowadays anything controversial is on YouTube immediately, or some other social media, which demands a different style of story.  Snyder gives you the opportunity to get to know the characters and do some thinking.

Froggedcould be called a ‘fractured fairy tale’ with a twist.  You rememberThe Frog Princein which a prince has been turned into a frog by a witch and must be kissed by a princess in order to break the spell?  Princess Imogene, a rather impetuous young lady, meets a frog who can talk and who has told her that he is a prince and a witch has cast a spell on him and unless she kisses him he will forever remain a frog.  So she does.  And poof, she’s a frog.  She took the place of the frog, the lying frog who said he was a prince.  Now the only way she can revert back to being a princess is to get someone to kiss her.  That doesn’t sound so hard, but when people (the poor servants) hear her talk, they can only see the money she would bring them.  She gets taken with a traveling sideshow to be the star attraction and no one wants to believe that she is what she says she is, besides, who wants to be a frog?  A real prince who wants to do the princely thing and save her, willingly offers to kiss her….but her conscience cannot bear the thought of him becoming a frog for eternity.  Very clever story with detailed descriptions and great character development.

There isn’t anything worse than witches, at least not in this story.  Rupert, an 11-year-old, fifth grader, has a real witch for a teacher.  No….a REAL witch.  When students tell their parents about all the awful things their teacher, Mrs. Frabbleknacker, makes them do, they just laugh and say that the kids have great imaginations and are prone to exaggeration.  But witch or not, Mrs. Frabbleknacker scares the kids into doing as she says, and it’s not pretty.  Rupert answers an ad for a witch’s apprentice and he helps her practice spells and potions so that she will pass her witch exams.  They also become best of friends.  The more he learns about spells and potions, the more he realizes that his teacher really is a witch.  Together, Rupert and Sandy (his witchling friend) learn how to stand up to the witches.  This is a very funny and quick paced story –totally farcical, but great fun.

Once again, Steve Jenkins has created a fascinating animal book.  In a question and answer format, 25 animals with distinct features are showcased.  Each animal is addressed by name and asked why it has such a unique adaptation.  Answers are in a conversational tone.  “Dear pufferfish: You’ve got me worried – are you going to explode?”  “No, I won’t burst.  I’ve inflated my body with water to make it tougher for a big fish to swallow me.”  Each animal’s impressive characteristic is a collage of torn and cut paper.  A final two page spread show the animals in proportion to an adult human along with their diet and where in the world they live.  Each background is a vivid solid color which complements the animal.  This is another beautifully presented book.

Margret and H.A. Rey’s trademark Curious George continues his adventures!  George and the man in the yellow hat go to a grand opening of a local bookstore where his favorite author is signing her new book.  The line is long and moving slowly so George began to explore while they waited.  He found many fun books to read, a small café with free samples, and a whole section of dinosaur books on display.  George discovered unopened boxes of the new books and made a display of his own.  The manager was impressed and George got to spend time with his favorite author.  Illustrated in the style of H.A. Rey, this is a fun, new story for all Curious George fans.

Butterflies are the theme of this book from the first endpaper to the last.  Lizzy, Jack, and their new cat visit their butterfly-loving grandmother.  She tell them that they can turn into a butterfly if one lands on the very tip of their nose.  As they are having a snack, a butterfly lands very, very close to Nana… until the cat bursts into the room.  First they have to chase down the cat and put him outside.  Then they have to return all the butterflies to the greenhouse.  It is a busy day for all.  When the children go home, Nana settles down for a rest in her greenhouse with her butterflies.  The artwork is colorful and creatively detailed.  The story itself, though, is a little bewildering.  Does Nana really turn into a butterfly or is it just imagination?

Living in both salt and fresh water, eels can be found in oceans and seas around the world.  Eel bodies are snake-like in appearance and allow them to be fast swimmers.  Not picky eaters, they find most food by smell and prefer to hunt at night.  Text is easy to read.  Xtreme Fact boxes add extra information.  Photographs are close-up, colorful and detailed.  Human behaviors are mostly responsible for a drop in European eel populations so they are on the endangered species list.  Glossary and index included.

Stonehenge is truly an unexplained mystery.  No one knows why it was created or how it was used.  Large, heavy stones came from miles away and were set in a circle in a pattern of large sarsen stones and smaller bluestones.  Some suspect the site was sacred and used for ceremonies.  Some say it was set up to track solar movements.  Scientists have detected other monuments underground in the area.  Others believe aliens built it.  The stones have a bell-like tone when struck so perhaps it was used for festivals.  Scientists believe it took 1500 years to create, beginning around 3000 BCE.  The book presents many points to ponder but offers no answers.  A factsurfer website leads to additional information.  Three books are references along with a glossary and index.

Being true to oneself is the theme of this Helen Lester book.   Sloths do what sloths do, which is very little and very slowly.  All is going along contentedly until Sparky, a new classmate, comes to school.  She is full of energy and bounces around trying to get others to interact with her.  She thinks they were all bores until a real boar came to Sleepy Valley Sloth School – to close it!  The sloths only hope is Sparky, the only one with enough vim and vigor to change his mind.  She convinces the wild boar that the sloths are doing quite well in every school subject, especially in poetry.  They have known the sloth poem since they were babies and could recite it in their sleep… which they did!  This is a reissue of the original copyright date 1987.  A downloadable audio is available along with discussion and activity guides.

This story is about being considerate.  Pookins always gets her way because if she doesn’t, she makes faces, throws apples, or yells very loudly.  She is selfish and demanding.  One day while on a walk, she meets a magic gnome.  She insists on three wishes: new cowboy boots, a crown with plenty of diamonds, and to become a beautiful flower.  The gnome tries to talk her out of it, but a wish is a wish.  He puts her in a pot, dumps soil over hew new cowboy boots, waters her, and leaves her out in the sun.  Hours later, she becomes a flower.  She is not happy but can not do nothing about it because, as a flower, she can not make faces, throw apples, or yell loudly.  Suddenly it begins to rain.  The gnome’s powers will be lost if his hat gets wet.  For once, Pookins feels sorry for someone else and offers shelter to the gnome.  After the shower, the gnome proposes a deal.  He will release her from being a flower if she will give up making faces, throwing apples, and yelling loudly.   Watercolor and pencil illustrations are colorful.  Originally copyrighted in 1987, this is a reissue.  There is a free audio download and a discussion and activity guide for books in the series.

Evidently there are mysterious, hidden creatures living around the world but no one has ever been able to prove their existence.  Collectively called cryptids, they include beings such as trolls, unicorns, the loch ness monster, werewolves, goblins, mermaids, etc.  Blizz Richards is a yeti.  His cousin, Brian, was once photographed and immediately went into hiding.  George Vanquist, a rather inept crytptozoologist, took the photo of Brian and is on the hunt for other cryptids.  Blizz travels from Nepal to the wilds of Canada to search for Brian and to hold a family reunion.  George Vanquist and his underappreciated dog, Noodles, also arrive in British Columbia, Canada to hunt for proof of Bigfoot.  With so many cryptids gathered in one place, it is no surprise that Vanquist stumbles upon the reunion and snaps several photos.  He orders Noodles to put the camera in his bag as he envisions his new success.  Noodles has finally had enough of George and hands the camera over to the cryptids.  Proof gone.  Cryptids live safely on, undocumented.  The storyline tends to wander.  It is lack-luster and sometimes confusing.  Numerous black and white illustrations depict round-eyed, large mouthed characters.  The target audience would be young readers with an interest in friendly monsters.

Louis and his older sister Sarah were out riding when suddenly Louis got eaten by a large creature.  Sarah chases after trying to save him when suddenly the creature who ate Louis is eaten by another larger creature.  This happens three more times.  Finally Sarah catches up the the last and largest creature, crawls in it’s mouth, and into each mouth of each creature until she reaches Louis, who is calmly reading and waiting for her.  She figures out their escape, which works, and then the creatures all turn on her and Louis saves her in return.  First graders loved the story and did not even stop to think of how that could even remotely happen.  They cheered for Louis standing up to the creatures saving Sarah.  Who knew?  The illustrations look to be colored pencil, clear and crisp.  All in all, a fun book.

Caterina is a very organized little girl bird and is about to throw her first party.  Being organized means she has lots of lists.  She has lists of friends, food, decorations, and so on.  She is totally prepared for her first party when, of course, the only thing she cannot control happens–the weather.  But her friends show up and they have the best time ever.  The illustrations in this book are beautiful–each pair of pages has colorfully designed backgrounds, Caterina and her friends look to be typical illustrations maybe done in colored pencils, and then there are photos of real objects and textures and collages of different textures laid upon one another for depth.  To true enjoy this book, you need to look at the small stuff and how Kono gave her illustrations life.