It’s kind of a reverse of The Little Red Hen. When a wimpy cook applies to be the king’s chef, it turns out he’s scared of every step along the way, so the king keeps offering to help, and essentially ends up doing it all himself. In the end, the king loves the meal so much, the wimpy young cook gets the job. The illustrations are fun, full of details that invite the reader to linger; they add a lot of personality to the book.

It’s a cute spin on the books to help young children prepare for their first day of school. The narrator is telling a young fairy what to expect on her first day of school, and so many of the things she predicts are similar to things a kindergartener or preschooler might experience, except twisted for the fairy world (e.g. flying to school on a school bird, hanging backpacks on dandelion leaves, sitting crisscross berrysauce, raising her wand when she wants to say something…). Fairies seem to be perpetually popular, and even students who are already well familiar with their own school experience will enjoy for looking for similarities and differences within the fairy world.

Each book in this series “Just Like Us!” begins with very basic similarities and then moves onto differences in detail.

In ” Just Like Us! Fish” the similarities include we both need oxygen to breathe and there is safety in numbers.

There is good information about exotic fish, even if the comparisons between the fish and people are very general.

I keep coming back to the books in this series for the artwork composing each page. David Clark does a marvelous job of characterizing the fish in humorous poses, then layering these on top of photos of the real fish in action. Who would not want to see a picture of a porcupine fish dressed in a suit of armor carrying a lance in its fin?

Each book in this series “Just Like Us!” begins with very basic similarities and then moves onto differences in detail.

In ” Just Like Us! Cats” the similarities include: being loving parents and great diplomats , taking the easiest path, defending their territories, napping by the young is considered boring, mom is the cubs first teacher, and “some types of cats are great swimmers”.

There is good information about wild cats, even if the comparisons are very general.

I keep coming back to the books in this series for the artwork composing each page. David Clark does a marvelous job of characterizing the cats in humorous poses, then layering these on top of photos of the real wild cats in action. Who would not want to see a cheetah running upright in track shoes?

Here are the facts about the United States flag we would desire all of our youngest people to know: the number and color of stars and stripes, when the first flag was made, and it should be held with respect. “The United States flag is a symbol for freedom and unity.” (4)

There are one or two sentences, in large font, on the left hand page opposite a photo, on the right, of the United States flag being displayed on a government building or being held in the hands of waving waving people.

The six word glossary containing : word, picture, and definition, is followed by a short list of books and the www.factsurfer.com web site for more information, and an index.

It’s a beautiful book. The illustrations are absolutely stunning! It’s a poem that follows a repetitive form, in which each four-line stanza requires a page turn to get to the final line, providing opportunities for predicting what might come next. Unfortunately, I found some stanzas more confusing than others. I know I don’t exactly have a poet’s soul, and I admit to getting caught up on the lack of capitalization or punctuation, but some of the stanzas letting me going, “huh?”

The main body of the book is a series of illustrations of different kinds of lizards, with rhythmic, repetitive, rhyming text asking a series of questions about different behaviors exhibited by these different lizards. Informational pages in the back of the book offer additional information about lizards in general, as well as details about the specific lizards and behaviors mentioned in the main body of the book. My one wish for the book is that the informational blurbs about specific lizards could have been in text boxes directly on the pages illustrating the lizard they discuss. Children are so much more likely to ignore the fine print when it’s at the end of the book, separated from the illustrations.

It’s a series of poems, all imagining what assorted toys and household items get up to when all the people in the house are asleep. The illustrations are bright and child-like and support the imagery of the poems. A wonderful spark for activating kids’ imaginations.

Kids love to ask, “What if…?” This story is a series of adventures had by a couple young polar bears whose imaginations jump into high gear to address a series of what-if situations, beginning by finding themselves lost and alone floating on a chunk of ice, and ending with setting off in a rocket made from their backpack. It’s one of those books in which the illustrations really add meaning to the brief text, often offering previews of things to come alluding to past pages. This book would be a great launching tool for a conversation or writing assignment asking the students to generate or complete other what-if scenarios.

This edition is a reprint of a book originally completed in 1982. It’s a poem imagining a world without war. The illustrations are paper-cut images where partial pages turn one image into another, showing the transformation of a war-torn world into a land of peace. It begins with a hawk who transforms itself into a dove; a tank becomes a tractor; bombers become butterflies…etc. I just don’t think young kids are going to get the symbolism involved.

It’s one of those picture books that combine a story with informational text. The story tells of a group of children visiting a neighbor who keeps bees, but the story is just a vehicle for the information the book is sharing about the importance of bees to our ecosystem: their needs and what they contribute. The cartoonish illustrations and story invite the reader in and the non-fiction text is straight-forward and clear, while still offering significant depth of knowledge.

This non-fiction picture book tells the story of the invention of Crayola crayons. Crayons are such a ubiquitous part of childhood, it’s fun to hear the back story of how they came to be. This is a great way to introduce children to non-fiction connected to something they are all familiar with. The illustrations are colorful and inviting and help set the stage for the turn of the twentieth century, when this childhood toy came into being.

There are only three words used to tell this story: ours, yours, and mine. Normally I am a big fan of wordless and nearly-wordless picture books. But this one seems to struggle with making its point. I think it’s trying to say it’s better to share than to worry about what’s yours and what’s mine. It begins by showing a young panda entering the cave of an adult panda asking if it’s theirs, to which the adult panda replies that it is his. After a series of “this is mine; this is yours,” the adult panda sends the youngster off with a kite. As the young panda wanders through the forest following his kite, he keeps running into other woodland creatures who are possessive of their stuff. Eventually the little critters all grab onto the string of the kite and are flying away until the grown panda pulls them back to earth and then they all end up hanging out together in the cave, sharing all their stuff. It’s just a little vague.

Beautiful illustrations and poetic text introduce students to the different types of homes animals build. The vocabulary is rich, the illustrations are lush, and it ends by acknowledging that Earth is the home shared by us all. It really is a lovely book.

The story consists of a dialogue between the narrator trying to tell the story and the panda who is intended to be the main character. But when the narrator declares that the panda has a problem, the panda protests that all is well, and turns the table on the narrator, suggesting that perhaps the narrator is the main character and the panda is the problem. The panda suggests a whole series of problems, including raining jelly beans and aliens and a trip to the antarctic, until they are in such a muddle they need the narrator to find them a way home. It could be useful in teaching story elements.

I think maybe I would appreciate it more if I were more familiar with Robinson Crusoe (I keep meaning to read that!). But since my students are probably even less familiar with the famous adventure novel than I am, I suspect they, too, may find the story a bit flat. They would probably relate easily to the uneasy feelings the main character faces when he shows up at a costume party in a costume that gets him teased, and the desire to leave early that results. But when our hero does escape the party to go home to bed and ends up dreaming of a life of adventure on a deserted island, I’m not sure most of my students would get the connection. Though they would appreciate the ending in which his friends show up with apology notes, asking to hear more about the character he had dressed as.

It’s a celebration of the power of imagination. The illustrations are charming and fanciful. A little girl complains to her grandmother that she’s bored, so grandma suggests she go play in the garden, where she’s sure she saw a tiger earlier. Young Nora insists she’s too old for such silly games, so she sets out to prove her grandmother wrong. As she ventures forth, she does find some of the other things her grandmother said she would (dragonflies the size of birds, plants that want to eat her — or at least her toy giraffe — alive, and a grumpy polar bear — which talks, no less), but she keeps insisting there couldn’t possibly be a tiger. When she does indeed find herself face-to-face with a friendly tiger, she asks it if it is real, but the tiger turns the question back at her, asking if she is real, which leaves her puzzled. The two come to a deal to believe in each other, supposing that that will make them both real.

Best graphic novel ever! If you can call a 38 page, 11.25″ X 8.75″ book a novel?

When the world is threatened with the destruction of all books by the evil Doctor Glockenspiel if his demands are not met, who will save the day? The top secret agents fail.

Lyric McKerrigan takes it upon herself to stop this villain using various disguises and a tool box full of books that win over each guard and hunchman that stand between her and Doctor Glockenspiel. When Doctor Glockenspiel releases the book eating moths as his last resort, Lyric McKerrigan “shines a flashlight onto book. The moths love flashlights… The moths like stories even better than flashlights.” Soon Doctor Glockenspiel is back in jail and the world’s books are safe once again!

Illustrator Vera Brosgol has won both Eisner and Harvey Awards and received a Caldecott Honor for her past work. This book is in true comic book style which young and old readers will enjoy.

Fabian Starr wants to be in a rock band. Fab’s friend Emilio would rather be an inventor. Both of their friends, Lola is thinking about giving swim team a year off. Together they agree to give being in a rock band a chance for one month, but they need a drummer badly. After posting audition posters in the middle and high school wings of their school, two people show up at Fab’s garage for auditions. Thank goodness the strange high school student (Zee), who just moved in across the street from Fab, comes over to audition. Zee’s audition is over the top! The band is formed! Lola gets the band their first gig playing at her 6 yr old sister’s Princess birthday party.

Emilio is not too confident about the band. He builds a dog-sized unicorn which shots “a small jet of rainbow sparks”(80) out of its horn to ‘wow’ the party-goers, in case, the band does not. Never fear, the band is fantastic! When asked the band’s name, Fab yells out, ” ‘We’re called Electric Zombie!’ ” (101)

Lola’s cousin thinks the band is ready for the middle school fair, with their adrenalin pumping Fab, Emilio, and Lola agree to sign up. Will Zee agree, too? Fab is not so sure. Fab is beginning to wonder if Zee might actually be a zombie. The reader is left with this cliff-hanger. Read book two- “Shock and Roll”, maybe it will give Fab the answer he is after concerning his neighbor Zee.

Zombie lovers and middle school rock band lovers will enjoy this book. I am not sure there will be a bigger audience for this book, though.

The book does have one color illustration per chapter.

Modern day Robyn Hood are her sidekicks the Hoods are up against the Havocs. The Havocs pick pockets and steal from anyone and everyone. They poke fun at Robyn and her Hoods “who only took from bad guys to HELP people in need.” (15)

Each time the thefts end with a cloud of smoke and the victims yelling and accusing each other of stealing from them. Robyn and her Hoods decide to look for the Havocs at the open-air market, where there are always large crowds of people. Sure enough Robyn spots a Havoc. They run in their direction, but find nothing. After chasing after another suspicious person, Robyn trips over an open sewer grate. Again they find nothing. Then Robyn concludes they should look down in the sewer. There the Hoods find the stolen valuables. They collect it to return to the victims.

“After returning the STOLEN goods, the Hoods convinced everyone to STAY OUT of the market so they could face the Havocs.” (36) The Havocs want their loot back. When the Havocs ‘LUNGED‘ at the HOODS they trip over ” the camouflaged trip line at their feet.”(43) The Havocs release a thick cloud of smoke. By the time the smoke clears, the Havocs are gone. Robyn and the Hoods have returned the valuables, that is the important part. They “will FACE the Havocs another day.” (48)

Good over evil wins again in this updated version of Robin Hood and his merry men. This version has color graphics on each page by Abigail Dela Cruz. The text has a key word in bold or a stylized font in almost every sentence adding to the enjoyment and to the reader’s comprehension. After four short chapters, the reader is on to the next book in this series.

Book #7 in The Graveyard Diaries series takes place in “The small town of Marshfield … known for its four old cemeteries. Local people call the place Graveyard City.” (29) What better place for an urban legend dealing with a ghost to take place.

This story reads and feels like a reality TV show GHOST HUNTERS. There are no silly little anecdotes.

As Jared and his mother drive home, on a December evening, they take a short cut through one of the town’s cemeteries. There, they almost hit a girl with their car. They volunteer to take her home, as she (Tammy) has hurt herself from a fall in the cemetery. Once they arrive at Tammy’s house, she disappears. The house is terribly run down, looking like no one has lived there in years.

A little by little, Jared researches the house at the public library. Jared meets a local librarian who remembers when Tammy died back in 1961. Jared and his two closest friends (they’ve named themselves the Zombie Hunters) will try to help Tammy if she is a ghost who wants to escape or a ghost who wants to be rescued. When Jared enters the house Tammy tells him to leave them alone. Jared flees the house after seeing an allusion of flames. These ghosts do not want his help. He will leave them alone.

The book concludes with a page of five steps entitled TRACKING GHOSTS and a second page of eight items entitled GHOST FACTS.

This is a fast read for those young people who either believe in ghosts or are border-line believers. The slightly enlarged type hint this is a hi-lo book. The single black and white sketch in each of the ten chapters keeps the mood alive and moving.

Here are ten fairy tales: Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, The Pied Piper, Snow White, The Princess and the Pea, Red Riding Hood, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Hansel and Gretel, and The Swan Brothers ‘reimagined’,”not quite as you remembered.”

Different back stories make these tales more easily relatable to the youth of today who are wise about interpersonal relationships.Sometimes the title character is not always the one who wins in the end. Sometimes the story affects characters from more than one generation. Sometimes characters from other traditional tales make guest cameo appearances in another tale.

I was thinking – “That’s not the way this story goes, but I like this way better!” For example: Rapunzel has twin children, or Hansel and Gretel retell what happened to them for a writing assignment at school, or Snow White has a small glass shard of the wicked witch’s magic mirror which is controlling her, or the prince liked Cinderella best because she didn’t have ‘blue’ blood when the rose the prince gave each attendee to the ball was pricked by its thorns.

Each tale is accompanied by black silhouettes of the characters in action amidst varying tones of gray settings by Sarah Gibb. The cover art is for Rapunzel, while the book’s title refers to Rumpelstiltskin.

Whether you one tale or read them all, this book is a winner.

In Kathy Cannon Wiechman’s novel Not on Fifth Street you explore the treacherous 1937 flood in Ironton, Idaho. The two brothers, Pete and Gus, struggled because of the rising water of the huge flood. Gus falls in love with someone his parents don’t approve of and causes tension with his parents and his brother. Pete has to take care of the family and deal with problems with his brother and his best friend Richie. The boys grow distant because Gus was seeing a girl named Venus Marlowe. The book is action-packed and informs readers about the record setting flood Ironton experienced in 1937. The book is about what the people in Ironton experienced during the flood and how it affected the people. I would recommend this book to people who like to read about historical events and stories of how people survived disaster. When I started reading this book, I didn’t want to put it down even to take care of my needs. The book was intriguing and interesting even though it’s factual. It is full of information and true stories about the terrifying river during that season. Not on Fifth Street is a very good and interesting book about a record setting 1937 flood and the terror it caused in Ironton.

Review by Janelle

Recommendation submitted by Library Secretary, Mikel DeBuse-Losh

This book parallels the current socio-political situation int he United States. It also includes an online contest using Virtual Reality constructs, which may have great appeal to some readers. In this society the online world is much more invasive than in today’s, but seems like one day we may get to this level.

The character development was a bit shallow. The story did not pull me in, thus not one that I can highly recommend. Students with an interest in virtual reality, gaming and other online social media platforms may have more interest in this title.

Recommendation submitted by OHS Student, Rowan P.

Adam and Zayneb meet in the London Airport going to Doha. Adam realizes they have the same journal and wants to know her. Then they meet again at a party and “the rest is history.”

This book is an easy read that is really sweet and also talks about real stuff. If you like Romance this is for you!