Ellie May wants to the class flag leader but she hasn’t been picked yet. She sets her sights on being the class flag leader on President’s Day. This books follows along has Ellie May plots and plans ways to get her teacher’s attention. After many distractions and mishaps, perhaps now is the time for Ellie to be picked.

Lottie has a secret that no one knows. Lottie takes swim lessons but she never enters the pool. Along comes Walter and he helps Lottie realized that she does have courage.

Nugget convinces Fang to attend Mini Minnows Elementary school with him. Fang isn’t comfortable at school. He wants nothing more than to go home. Then the teacher ask Fang to share with the class. Fang couldn’t think of anything to share until he spotted Nugget.

SumoKitty is about a stray kitty that is looking for food and warm home. He follows Sumo wrestles home. When he proves his worth by catching a mouse, he earns his place. Over time he gets fat and the mice come back but he is out of shape. The sumo wrestlers teach SumoKitty patience and moves to catch the mice.

In this book, the author included the Japanese words for the wrestling moves.

Cake builds a fort that Monkey is not allowed in. When it is done, Monkey tells Cake about his fort.

Stink’s parents won a sleepover at the aquarium for the family. Stink has never had a successful sleepover. With his friends and an aquarium guide, Stink gets to visit many parts of the aquarium. At the end of the tour, his group had a “campfire” and Ms. D tells them a scary story. As everyone settles down to sleep, Stink is wide awake. After pranking his sister, Judy and doing some snooping around in the dark, Stink was finally able to fall asleep.

Knock Knock is a hilarious book about Bear settling down for his long winter nap. His friends have a different idea. Enjoy the jokes!

Dragons love tacos. Dragons love parties. Dragons love taco parties. But there is something that dragons don’t like. It may ruin the party.

A quaint book reminding children, especially girls to be who they are but a nice reminder to the adult that is reading it. Beautifully illustrated emphasis the message.

Frank Li, the main character, is a son of Korean immigrants. Frank’s parents left Korea with a group of other young couples who have continued to keep in touch, meeting monthly for dinners. Frank and the other children of these couples feel as though their parents are keeping all of them within a bubble. Franks parents wish for him to find a nice, Korean girl to date and marry; they are not accepting of any other type of girl. Frank falls for a white girl named Brit, with who he has much in common. Frank knows his parents will not be accepting of this relationship, so he makes an arrangement with one of the daughters of his family’s Korean friends to pretend to date, all the while hiding his true relationship with Brit. What Frank fails to mention this detail to Brit; embarrassed to have racist parents, he tries to juggle the fake relationship along side his real one, bringing a lot of confusion and secrets.

This is a coming of age story, where the characters are trying to define themselves and learn about love along the way. Written with humor and a witty cast of characters, I highly recommend this book.

It’s Valentine’s time and the monsters are having a party. All the monsters tease Frankenstein for being too nice and “normal.” Frankenstein is confused. Then he finds a Valentine in his pocket. The intrigue of which monsters put it there. The other monsters are baffled by the idea that someone likes Frankenstein.

Stewart found his best friend at camp. They did so much together. One day, Stewart lost his best friend. He searched high and low but, alas he couldn’t find him. Then he received a letter from Japan. Was it from his best friend? Would he ever see his best friend again?

Amy find a sloth in the park and brought him home. The only problem is her family did everything fast. Sloths are slows, Amy’s family is fast. How is that going to work? Read this book to find out.

The book is every student’s dream of what a school should be, Between the hover desks and wind tunnel skydiving in PE, there is something foe every child to enjoy. I appreciate the author’s honesty when Jack said, “Don’t ask me how this works, I really don’t know.” It truly encapsulates a child’s imagination and creativity, leaving ways to get it to work for later, A great read as we are getting ready to build our own new school and for use with our STEM projects.

A great read-aloud book about a young girl and how she deals with nightmares. It will be especially helpful for children who deal with monsters and nightmares.

The pictures are colorful but not scary.

This book is follow up to Charlotte the Scientist is Squished.

Charlotte is excited that Grandpa has moved in with her and her family. He visits her lab daily until the day he falls ill. Along with other forest creatures, Charlotte wants to find a cure. The book follows along as Charlotte does all the things that scientists do. Does she find the cause of the illness, discover the cure, and heal her Grandpa?

There is a glossary in the back of the book.

Natalie’s Hair Was Wild! is about a young girl who likes her wild hair. A variety of animals agree with Natalie as they move in to nest in her hair. Natalie is not phased by this. Eventually, the animal sounds get to her. Follow Natalie’s story in this whimsical picture book that both boys and girls alike will enjoy.

This is a very interesting non-fiction book about poo, s subject that is rarely explored. The book tells about different animals and their poo. At the end of the story, it explains what zoos do with all the animal poo.

Lola the armadillo spills her juice. Instead of cleaning it up, she runs off to the library. On her way, she encounters friends in the same predicament. She has them join in her journey to the library. At the library, things continue to go wrong until Lola meets a bird. The bird helps Lola and her friends clean up their disasters. This book is beautifully illustrated.

The Hidden Witch is a sequel to the fantasy graphic novel The Witch Boy. In this follow up the focus of the book moves beyond Aster and includes a larger teen group. Some of these are magical while other are not. However, they all have the same desire to figure out their life’s direction. Instead of a battle against a curse dragon, this story’s major conflict revolves around the daily wounds of everyday teenage life. This book is full of colorful images and creates a sweet story that continues the tale from the previous book.

Reviewed by OHS Substitute

Fireborne by Rosaria Munda reveals a fantasy adventure that captures your attention from the beginning. Dragons are present in the book, mostly as side characters who choose their beings and perform/act depending on their human counterparts. The dragons play a role in helping these humans determine their status in society. Told from the perspective of two orphans, Annie and Lee, they are growing up in an ever-changing world and are faced with many difficult choices along the way. Annie is an extremely talented, yet humble character who you quickly learn has a quiet strength that allows her to overcome her own personal doubts, as well as prove her worthiness to a society that often seems to doubt her or have low expectations of her. On the other hand, Lee is often favored by the people, but he still has a modesty about him and is constantly observing and evaluating the people and things around him. As these characters and their relationships develop through the book, you begin to connect with them, their feelings and the decisions that they make in the Revolution that arises.

Well written, fast paced. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by OHS substitute.

The story is gripping from the beginning and gets the reader involved immediately. It’s a combination of romance and action. The novel has young ladies escaping their pasts in Europe to begin a new life in New Orleans in 1872.

Celine is escaping Paris because of a murder she committed there. She and her friend Pippa, from England, were taken in by a convent in order to give them better lives. She meets a mysterious young man who has a profound effect on her. She is enraptured by the city and becomes involved in the underworld where ladies are being murdered by a serial killer. Celine has little fear and Pippa is cautious and fears for her friend, but is still there for her.

It was amazing how quickly the plot was developed. The main characters are: Celine, Pippa, and Sebastien Saint Germaine from New Orleans. It was a romantic thriller, a patent fantasy story. It is a great read and I would recommend it to readers of all genres.

Paris Secord, known as DJ ParSec to the dance/rave scene, is found dead right before she’s about to make it big. Two key figures in her life, Kya and Fuse, who were not friends before the murder are forced to work together because neither of them believe that the police are doing enough or even know what they are doing to find Paris’s murderer. Her fan base, ParSec Nation, work via social media to pull clues for Kya and Fuse. And true to social media form, not all clues lead to the truth.

Lamar Giles provides plot twists and thrill scenes, some of which were hard to follow as the story shifts narrators between the three girls as well as jumping back and for between past and present. As in the best murder mystery writing, the murder is not who you think it might be and will probably keep most teens engaged, especially if they like hip-hop jargon.

This book is like science fiction, what I thought was only capable in Hollywood movies like ANT MAN are now working robots. Robots the size of a penny and robots that can see the small print three football fields away.

The timeline on pages 16-17 has dates from 1914-2014. Military robots clearing land mines, flying rescue missions, dropping bombs, and video recording areas for surveilance.

The book shows what they can do, not how they do it.

The book comes with QR codes, but I watched and read it at popbooksonline.com. This information is more in depth, comes with student activities ( matching and word search), and lesson plans for teachers.