I like it. It acknowledges that it’s okay to have mixed feelings about big events, like starting school for the first time: Lena wakes up excited about her first day of kindergarten, but when she goes to get dressed, she discovers her shoes are nervous. She encourages her headband and her shoes to have a heart-to-heart talk, and after the shoes explain that school is big and loud and different and they’d really rather not go, the headband reminds the shoes about other times they were all scared but decided to be brave together (the illustrations indicate doctors’ visits, ending with a lollipop, a scary movie that turned out funny, and meeting a big dog who turned out friendly). Shoes still aren’t quite convinced until Lena threatens to wear her slippers instead, at which point they decide to be brave together. When they reach the playground, the shoes get a little nervous again, causing Lena to walk slower than usual, but not for long. I like that it is told in a way that is respectful of all the feelings churned up by this new experience.

It’s a lovely book. The illustrations are warm and rich. The story tells about a walled village where the townspeople are painting a mural on the wall to welcome all to their town, but they face the problem that no one in town is tall enough to reach the top part of the wall. When Billy expresses concern about this, his grandfather tells him not to worry, as he knows just the fellow for the job. He reminds Billy of all the times the local giant has come to their aid, but young Billy refuses to believe his grandad’s stories are anything other than stories, because he’s never actually seen the giant, despite hearing the stories for years. When he asks why the giant would hide if he’s so nice, his granddad explains that people are often scared of things that are different, and can be unkind, and he encourages Billy to visit the wall at Dawn to see what he will see. When he does indeed see the giant painting the top of the wall, he runs away in fear, until he realizes he has behaved just as others have, and has contributed to the giant feeling unwelcome. He is determined to make things better, and he does indeed find a way. It’s a sweet story that encourages kindness and believing in things we cannot see.

It’s a repetitive tale, based on the pattern of “The House that Jack Built,” except it’s about the building of a piñata and party preparations. The illustrations are bright and help support the text of the story. It’s a good introduction to some Spanish vocabulary, even though the bulk of the story is told in English: the first time used, all words are in English, but as phrases are repeated, certain vocabulary switches to Spanish. The illustrations help support determining the meaning of the Spanish words. It ends with instructions for making one’s own piñata and songs in both Spanish and English for singing while smacking it.

With three national parks in our own state’s backyard, it is fitting we should expose our children to other national parks, as well.

This book tells the what, where, and when of the Grand Teton National Park dating from February 26, 1929, in the state of Wyoming. The what will enthuse the reader to go see this park in person some day.

The what includes: mountains and valleys, lakes, and plants like white bark and lodgepole pine, flowering yellow balsamroot,and scarlet gilia. The animals will include cutthroat trout, calliope hummingbirds, elk, moose, red squirrels and black bear. And then where is the horseback riding, hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, along with the scenic drives.

This is presented in large font type, in two or three sentences on the left page opposite the full color photo on the right page. The book includes a glossary, index, table of contents, and the abdokids.com website where the entire book is presented, plus much, much more through links to the national park’s links for Grand Teton National Park.

A beautifully illustrated picture book biography of Sue Hendrickson, the woman responsible for finding the biggest, most complete skeleton of a T-Rex that has ever been found. The telling of the story, beginning with the habits she developed as a child, encourage readers to be curious and observant, and to explore. It describes the many years of searching, and the serendipitous nature of stumbling upon her famous discovery. It describes the long, laborious process and the teamwork required to uncover the full skeleton and transfer it to its eventual home in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The author’s note in the back tells, too, of the dispute over ownership that arose from Sue’s discovery: did it belong to Sue Hendrickson, who found it? Or the Sioux tribal member who owned the land where it was found? Or the federal government who held the land in trust? Or the institute which organized the dig of which Sue Hendrickson was a member?

The quality of the information is good. It is well-organized, and thorough. It is illustrated with detailed color photos and labelled diagrams. The photos zoom in close to show students details that might not be noticed from casual observation. Unfortunately, the quality of the binding is kind of flimsy and does not feel like it will stand up well for library usage.

It’s got a large font and bright formatting, with color photos, to make it inviting, and yet with limited text per page, it doesn’t feel like it skimps on information. It discusses the traits that make Golden Retrievers unique; it considers issues that should be considered when deciding if a Golden Retriever would make a good pet for a specific family (e.g. they need lots of exercise, and room, and company); and it describes their needs for proper care: diet, toys, vet visits, etc. It also shares a bit about their origin, and roles they play as service dogs. It includes all the basic non-fiction text features for teaching purposes, including table of contents, index, glossary, and further reading suggestions. A solid choice.

I grew up watching the television specials by Jacques Cousteau in the 1960s. In this graphic novel formatted story, we read about Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, Fabien Cousteau carrying on his grandfather’s love of the ocean and research. This is a work of fiction, but I am finding myself wanting to display this book in my nonfiction shark section so all the shark lovers will find it. This is a story about shark conservation and research with Fabien Cousteau as the lead on the research team. The author’s note states, ” Great White Shark Adventure is a work of fiction based on actual expeditions and accepted ideas about the ocean and its inhabitants.”

Illustrator Joe St. Pierre makes this adventure come to life! I liked it better than a live action show because the action is obviously freeze framed. Nothing advanced until I was ready to turn the page.

Fabien and his crew, along with two junior expeditioners- Bella and Marcus, are off to research local South African tuna fishermen’s claims of seeing a massive great white shark off the coast of Gansbaai. Twelve and thirteen yr. old Bella and Marcus taking part in the research ship’s mission gives author James O. Fraioli reason to explain shark behavior, ecosystems, habitats, boat equipment, local area history, and much more to the reader as part of the story, whereas the rest of the ship’s crew already know this information. It is all masterfully woven into the story.

The crew find sharks right away. The massive one they are searching for is very elusive. It takes several tries and several different types of equipment over the course of several days before the crew successfully locates THE one shark they are after. The shark is tagged with “A PSAT TAG, WHICH STANDS FOR ‘POP-UP SATELLITE ARCHIVAL TAG’…WILL ALLOW US TO ANSWER MIGRATORY PATTERNS, FEEDING MOVEMENTS, DAILY HABITS, AND EVEN SURVIVAL, SHOULD THIS SHARK BE CAUGHT…” (43)

Shark fans will love this book!

This Disney Junior book based on The Disney The Lion Guard television show retells the story of Bunga giving poor advice, not well-thought out advice, to many of the African animals. It all begins with the stopping of a seasonal flood. At first this was a wonderful thing, but when the dam breaks later on, the solution proves short sighted. Bunga can live with the fact his future solutions need more thought.

The artwork is fun, but the story line needs more development like Bunga’s own solutions.

The physical dimensions of this book will give the reader the appearance of reading an average intermediate grade book. The story itself appears to be for a hi-lo reader, short and sweet, with more illustrations and less text than an average intermediate grade book. Four quick chapters that will satisfy the need for a World War II adventure story.

One or two key words per page have each been printed in different texts adding to the reader’s comprehension and enjoyment.

Young Samuel , his father, and uncle have been dropped off onto a damaged ship that needs repairing below the water line. All of the crew are gone.

Samuel falls into the flooded cargo compartment when he goes looking for a ship’s map. There Samuel discovers the ship has been torpedoed by the Germans.”The Germans planned to S I N K the Maiden before Samuel’s father could repair the ship and return it to service.” (35)

Samuel must go tell his father and uncle. The Germans are back aboard the ship. The Germans have captured his father and uncle.

The suspense mounts as Samuel swims to place the Germans’ own scuttling charge on their own submarine and save his father and uncle.

The physical dimensions of this book will give the reader the appearance of reading an average intermediate grade book. The story itself appears to be for a hi-lo reader, short and sweet, with more illustrations and less text than an average intermediate grade book. Four quick chapters that will satisfy the need for something a little bit creepy.

A young girl recounts, “I am painting in the garden when Great Aunt Raven finds me. ‘Put your things away, Ella,’ she says. ‘It is time for another odd job.’ ” (4) Great Aunt Raven leads Ella through the boarded-up town and leaves her outside a seamstress shop where someone is waiting for her. Madame Pintuck takes Ella down a hall and asks her to wash everything that is dirty. There are mounds and mounds of clothes. In a cedar armoire hangs a white lace dress. The lace dress is the only one that won’t come clean. Suddenly someone, perhaps a ghost, asks Ella, ” ‘Haven’t you heard of the widowed bride?’ ” (35) She recounted the tale of how long ago on the day of the wedding, the groom “died tragically of fever”. (43) Then she disappears. Shortly after, Madame Pintuck returns telling Ella the girl died of a broken heart.

The Civil War is waging in the south, in 1863, but this is New York City. Here is a story told from a person of color’s perspective. Here “some of the people, places, and events are based on real historical facts, some are inspired by real historical facts, and some are just totally made up.” (242) The biggest ‘made up‘ piece is the domesticated dinosaurs, used in place of horses, carrier pigeons, and airplanes. The Colored Orphan Asylum, Vigilance Committee, and “Richard Riker was a real-life magistrate in the New York City courts, and he did indeed run an organization called the Kidnapping Club that captured black New Yorkers and sent them into slavery…” (244) make this an eye opener for this reader.

New York men are now being drafted to fight in the Civil War. Richard Riker and his followers use this as a excuse to set an area in New York City were blacks live ablaze. Riots ensue. The Colored Orphan Asylum is burnt. Riker captures the orphans and plans to ship them down south into slavery. A few orphans were at the Zanzibar Theater watching an all-black Shakespearean company when the theater caught fire. These orphans escape with the help of the two black actors. They escape the fire and the riots. The stage is now set for the thrilling story of the fiery orphan Magdalys’ rise to a leadership role in recovering the captured orphans from Riker.

Slowly Magdalys realizes she can communicate with dinosaurs and get them to follow her instructions. Magdalys’ knew ability helps when the orphans need to ride a sauropod ferry across the river to Brooklyn. It helps when she flies on the back of a dactyl to Manhattan (dactyls are not dinosaurs- a character informs) and when triceratopses are needed in the final battle charge to release the orphans.

The dinosaurs do not detract from the historical events and issues of this period in time. This is a fun ride, so get ready to fly into the action.

Book #2 in the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls series takes off a year after the first book. Abby is now in her second year at The Smith School for Children, a private boarding school. It is also a “training facility for the Center, a government organization that uses kids to ferret out information no one else has any hope of acquiring. The theory is that kids are invisible…and therefore make really good spies.”(8) A few things have changed. The first and foremost for Abby being the interim Headmaster is her own mother. A new Headmaster means changes will be made. One change is the rule dealing with no playing of the video game Monster Mayhem. (Monster Mayhem is very much like Pokemon Go.) So, of course, Abby is playing it on the sly.

At this day’s Morning Meeting, the guest speaker in Toby’s father -Drexel Cain, the inventor of Monster Mayhem. At the end of the meeting, a smokey explosion has the entire school evacuating the auditorium. A short time later, Toby is sent a ransom note, via text message, for his father. Toby must play and win the latest version of Monster Mayhem, which has not been made available to the public yet, to get his father back. As always, Toby is not to tell anyone about the kidnapping. And as always, people, especially Abby, find out and try to help.

Off the reader goes to see if the kidnapper will be caught by extremely smart, extremely rich, extremely well-connected middle-school students who are secretly training to be spies while figuring out clues to the video game Monster Mayhem which takes them around the world. Yes, they are scared at times, but Abby’s mother used to say,”that being afraid was good because fear let you know when you should be alert and aware. She said it was the body’s way of turning on all the lights and getting ready.” (249)

So get ready readers, the Power Play is is about to begin!

Typo on page 198, paragraph 9, “It” should be ‘If’.