Theo’s classmates help him understand his feelings about becoming a big brother as they share their good moods/bad moods  for Monday morning’s Mood News.  Since each child has a different mood (proud, jealous, afraid, mad, confused, grateful, cheerful, etc.) , the story becomes a great introduction to a  rich vocabulary of “feelings” words.  I found the stylized  and  colorful illustrations quite engaging.  The main character was named after the author’s father, Theodore.  One classmate was named Ameen, which I took as an acknowledgment to our country’s cultural diversity.  After reading this book, I was feeling LUCKY to have found a story to help kids learn more  about moods and feeling vocabulary.

Max and Zoe are schoolmates looking for a really cool science fair project.  Max comes up with an idea that includes his love of dogs.  He decides  to do tests on his own dog, Buddy, plus neighbor dogs, to prove that dogs understand facial expressions.  They used staring, frowning and  smiling…recording each dog’s reponse.  The dogs acted very differently to a frown vs a smile, proving his hypothesis.  What a delightful Early Reader…perfect for those late first and second grade readers.  Characters show persistence,  collaboration, and cooperation.  The book is brightly illustrated in primary colors and  sweet cartoon-like drawings.  Large print text  shares the page equally with the fun illustrations.  Back Matter includes author/illustrator information, Glossary, three Discussion Questions, Writing Prompts, and a recipe for Dog Treats.

As the sun comes up, birds awake.  This beautiful picture features a different bird on each spread, using spare text and focusing on each bird’s call.  Each page is large and the background colors get progressively lighter and lighter, along with the imagined sky.  Crisp illustrations of each bird jump off each page.  Because, like all of Genechten’s work, this was published in Dutch originally, some of the sounds the birds make do not conform to American norms.  This does not bring down the quality of the book, however, as each type of bird is so specific.  The spare text, large clear illustrations and font choices, as well as the focus on animal sounds, will make this a lovely choice for group sharing, and children will enjoy pouring over the beautiful illustrations at a more individual pace as well.

Shortly after Abraham Lincoln died, a group of forgers got the idea to attempt to steal the former president’s body.  This is their story.  Narrative nonfiction for youth is an art form.  This title brilliantly takes an intriguing subject that not many heard about in their history classes and connects it to topics that are more familiar.  Many people have heard the story of how Lincoln was assassinated from an early age.  But they generally don’t know much about the context in which the assassination occurred.  Here, we learn about forgery, body snatching, medical research, the early days of the secret service, and undercover spying.  Sheinkin has made a living of telling stories from history in an engaging way to children and teens, and this book is no exception to that track record.

Trixie has always felt like an outsider.  So, in some ways, it isn’t that big of a surprise when she’s invited to join a circus which travels from planet to planet through space.  There’s just that niggling worry about the creepy guy in the mask who keeps turning up.  In this bizarre setting, Fagan takes on talent, rivalry, finding your place, and being a good friend.  Trixie must decide what she wants to do in the circus, and the ring master has more than a few secrets.  The plot of this book is more complicated than it seems at first, even though it revolves around familiar themes.  This is playful science fiction with a unique setting and will be a winner with the right crowd.

Pirate treasure, art forgery, and the Peruvian mob, oh my!  When Tom spends a week with his Uncle Harvey, he finds himself on a quest to find a hidden stash of ancient gold!  Along the way, Tom and Harvey follow clues, dodge bullets, and jump off of boats.  It’s an adventure in the tradition of Indiana Jones and Tintin with a dash of history to top it off.  Tom is an approachable, trouble-seeking everykid, and Uncle Harvey is as believable as a well-meaning white-collar criminal can be.  The story is packaged in a flashy, pulpy way, fitting the mood.  This will attract reluctant readers and fans of video games and is a great addition to the world of tween adventure fiction.

You have NEVER stayed at a hotel like this!  Leo is the son of the janitor at the most amazing hotel in the world.  Each room has a theme – for instance, there’s the room dedicated to pinball, which turns into a giant game of – yes, pinball!  When the owner of this fantastic place disappears and the hotel starts to show signs of sabotage, Leo finds himself uniquely qualified to protect his beloved hotel. Carman’s Whippet Hotel fits comfortably beside the likes of Roald Dahl’s Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and Jody Feldman’s Golly Toy & Game Company.  Although Carman inserts a cast of wacky characters and an intriguing mystery into this book, the world-building is the real appeal.  Each room is vivid and exciting, and kids will enjoy exploring the entire hotel as Leo solves problems and mysteries throughout the plot.  Children who enjoy solving puzzles and exploring new places will love this book.

National Parks have not been around forever.  There were many steps required to create a protected lands system in the United States.  Theodore Roosevelt played a pivotal role during one of those important points in history.  This book tells the story of one camping trip which influenced Roosevelt’s passionate advocacy.  In the middle of a busy trip across the states, President Roosevelt spent several days with the naturalist John Muir, camping in the land which would become Yosemite National Park.  This is an approachable piece of a much larger story, told in simple, concrete terms.  The men are referred to using their childhood nicknames, and the story is told chronologically, with short paragraphs on nearly every page.  The text is complimented by full color illustrations, which are surrounded by white space until the men enter the wild land, and which then engulf the pages.  Mordicai Gerstein’s depictions of redwood forests and Yosemite Valley are particularly stunning.  This is a lovely story spotlighting a little-known piece of history in a way that will be approachable to young and old alike. 

Boxers, long johns, trunks, and underpants!  The rhymes in this book describe the undergarment preferences of the occupants of a zoo obsessed with underthings.  The animals are illustrated in goofy bright colors, and depicted in semi-realistic zoo settings.  While some of the rhymes are clumsy and there are better examples of adjacent themes, the illustrations are engaging and silly and will pull in readers.  Librarians and teachers will likely choose other titles for group sharing, but this title will attract individuals who enjoy giggling at ridiculous pictures of animals in underwear.

My kids grew up with Franklin, and he was one of their best friends.  Franklin had fears just like all kids and learned how to deal with it, and in doing so, taught other kids how, also.  This book has beautiful, fresh illustrations.  Also included is a copy of Paulette’s first manuscript, a copy of Brenda’s storyboard, and some history of the series.  It’s a beautifully bound book perfect for the younger kiddos in the library.

I began taking my children to museums when they were young, because I believed it helped their creativity, imagination, and understanding of the world.  I wish I had this book during that time, because it explains so nicely how the museum works.  Did You Know factoids appear in colored bubbles on every other page.  In the back, the book mentions how to make a museum of your own, explaining who you are.  I guess that how I can explain the boxes of stuff I’ve kept for each of my children.

This book teaches language, but in a very round about way.  This non-fiction book, aka picture book, has monsters as the theme and different ways they can walk.  The purpose is to understand that words can have the same meaning, but words also convey attitude and intensity.  This book would be good to use in teaching writing and word choice.  The very last page explains this well.  The illustrations are engaging and highly detailed.

This is book number six of this series, so someone must like them, however, I find that hard to believe.  This story goes all over the place.  The first scene is the pet shop owner is no longer selling pets and instead is purchasing odd supplies for odd animals.  No wonder he’s going out of business.  Then, as he needs to sign for a delivery, he can’t find the pen that’s obviously behind his ear, and calls it a store robbery.  C’mon, kids aren’t that easily entertained or fooled.  This is a waste of ink and paper.

For little girls who love fairies and love to draw, this is the perfect book for them.  Curto shows a step-by-step process to create four different fairies in different poses and includes pages of specific hairstyles and clothing.  Also included are how-to-draw various foods, butterflies, birds, and accessories.  Curto’s process shows how to look at common objects and view them from different angles. The step-by-step drawing techniques  make drawing successful and  pleasurable.   This will be a popular drawing book in our school.

Alphabest is a language book/picture book meant to help children learn how to use comparative adjectives.  The picture book portion is how it is arranged, giving alphabetic examples in a picture book format.  The setting is at circus or carnival and gives illustrations of each adjective, comparative and superlative of one specific word.  In a few of the examples, you can’t really tell the difference between the comparative and the superlative.  However, kids will be drawn to the illustrations and enjoy them.

This is a great non-fiction book all about ‘wolf’ spiders–who would’ve known that there are around 2,400 species of just wolf spiders.  Wolf spiders differ from regular spiders in how they catch their food.  Regular spiders spin a silky web and wait for it’s prey to become trapped.  Wolf spiders hunt food and jump on them and inject them with venom; they use their silk to line their homes.  This amazing book gives detailed information, and within the text, there are words written in red that can be found in the glossary in the back of the book.  When you open to a page, you’ll find one page of text and the other page a full-page photograph, showing the most minute details of the wolf spider.  Also is included an interesting factoid or caption info.  I am anxious to check out the other 40 non-fiction books about animals in this series.  They would make an excellent addition to any school library.

Frank, the frog, noticed that his pond and the stream which feeds it, has got garbage and an oil slick floating on it.  He turns into ‘Superfrog’ and jets off to find the source of the pollution.  His presence is noticed by masses and masses of children, who follow him.  He goes to the head guy of the factory giving off the most black smoke and tells him to ‘stop spoiling our pond,’ and threatens him with some of his own pollution. The intent to stop pollution is a commendable one, but it falls short when Superfrog propels himself with his own natural gas and threatens the head guy with an expulsion of gas.  The meaningful lesson turns into a gag and detracts from the cause.

Science facts made fun through visual humor! The mummies in this book aren’t your parents’ quiet ones. These mummies are full of life and so- full of vibrations and sound!

Let’s begin with the book’s cover, “Walk Like an Egyptian” is most likely the song this mummy is strolling to as he listens to his walkman through his big headphones.

The book is divided into five easy chapters. Chapter One – ‘What is Sound ‘  includes a graphic of three mummies toasting marshmallows around a campfire with the boxed caption, ” Energy is the ability to do work. Without energy, plants couldn’t grow. Fires couldn’t burn, and mummies couldn’t do… whatever mummies do.” From there- vibration, molecules, and the speed of sound is introduced with memorably humorous illustrations of mummies discovering  facts of sound transmission. Chapter Two – “Picking Apart Sound” covers: volume, decibels, frequency, pitch, and hertz. Chapter Three – “Sound on the Move covers: absorb, reflect, refract, and vacuum. Chapter Four – “Making Sounds, Hearing Sound” covers the biology of hearing with organ, eardrum, and cochlea. And in Chapter Five- “Sound All Around” the uses for sound, such as, sonar are introduced.

Includes three questions in a section entitled, “Critical Thinking Using the Common Core” , but no immediate answers are given. Page numbers are given referring to the item in question, as well as, (Key Ideas and Details) and (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas).

Wonderful illustrations make this nonfiction book a feast for the eyes!  Interesting formatting with each page being a little bit different and then mingled in with captions.  This is bound to capture the interest of even the busiest of children.  The only critique this reviewer has of this book, has to do with the quality of the binding.  Big, loopy stitches, which will not withstand much handling. Nice Addition to a collection.

This nonfiction book is part of the Graphic Library collection.  This is an excellent source of information which explains how cell phones work and is also in a graphic (comic) format.  This book may be placed in the applied technology section of a library.   The main character takes us through the use of cell phones, the invisible workings, radio waves, roaming, ect.  Lots of information packed into a pleasing format which will certainly both inform and entertain children.  Recommended.

This easy to read nonfiction book about Mo Willems will inform young readers about his career highlights.  There is no information about his childhood, which was a bit disappointing.  But the information about his career was interesting, easy to follow, and mentions his popular books.  Real photographs in the book enrich the format.  This book would make a great addition to a library, but am not recommending it because it doesn’t include more personal information about him as a child, student, or family member.

This nonfiction book includes 25 hands-on projects, which can be completed by students with parents or teachers.  This book covers a vast array of topics with depth and extent rarely seen for children.  The hands on projects are integrated with thoughtfulness and intelligence with the intent and purpose of enhancing a concept in a meaningful way.  Topics such as Machu Picchu, the conquestion, religion, festivals, clothing, etc. are covered in chapter format.  There are illustrations and borders on every page.  It’s a very visually pleasing format, even without color. This is truly a gem! Recommended.

7 bots are advertised on the front end papers, with disclaimers added to the ones printed inside the back cover.

BIG 19″ X 11″  fun is on its way when mum and dad buy 7 of the latest job specific robots to take care of their little girl so they can go out for a much desired night-on-the-town.

Cook-bot prepares spaghetti and Clean-bot takes care of the kitchen. [ Clean-bot looks like a giant Windex spray bottle with 6 arms.] Now it’s Wash-bot’s turn and a downhill domino effect goes into action. Wash-bot’s warning-lights start flashing when the toy crocodile enters the bath tub. Wash-bot “slipped into Dress-bot, who sat down on Teeth-bot’s head.” Dry-bot was dressed while trying to dry the girl and Clean-bot was working extra hard. The little girl put herself to bed, “then everything went quiet until… … my parents walked in the door.” The house is in chaos!

The end papers begin with 7 distinct sets of footprints in sizes, shapes, and colors strolling across the pages. One by one the owners of these footprints are introduced by a dog, the narrator, who followed a set of legs home from a park. When the first new set of feet is added the dog is not immediately fond of them. Months later, tiny pink socks show up, followed by blue boots, then small feet with green rubber grippers, and finally on Sundays by a visitor – probably a grandmother. With the arrival of each set of feet there is something the dog doesn’t like, but there is usually more food landing on the floor for her. The story ends with 3 new sets of puppy feet joining the home. There is always room for family feet.

The pictures from a dog’s point-of-view and sentiment are cute, though the rhythm and repetition are not quite on the mark.

Henry goes to superhero elementary school. Henry isn’t the best in his course work there. He isn’t strong enough to “juggle refrigerators”. He hasn’t learned to fly yet. He doesn’t seem to have super powers. “Maybe I should just leave Superhero School.”  Then one day, “a gigantic monster appears outside their [classroom] windows!” The superhero students go on the offensive to capture this monster, which illustrator Philippe Goossens, has made to look like a 4-story tall giant blue furry Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. When the superhero student collective cannot successfully subdue the monster, in steps Henry with his pranks and saves the day. Then the other superheroes return to tie it up and “shoot it right back to the planet it came from.”

I was saddened to see the superheroes immediately jump to the conclusion this gigantic blue furry creature was something bad. Neither text nor illustrator show the creature is actually bad before the superheroes go after it.