Itch! Explains the mystery of what causes a person to experience the sensation of the itch and to follow up that sensation with a scratch. Sanchez starts off with a chapter explaining skin – its parts, its purpose, and its reaction to irritants. The bulk of the remaining chapters focus on specific irritants: Lice, fleas, plants, mosquitoes, tarantulas, fungi, bed bugs. The final chapter examines the positive side of itching.

Illustrations are fun to look at and complement the text. Page format is interesting, with traditional text block, chapter heading, subheadings and balanced with a creative multimedia approach mimicking a bulletin board and scrapbook. Chapters start with a scenario that introduces the irritant, provides history and then jumps into the itch explanation and human reaction to scratch. It also has great tips for dealing with irritants that are environmentally friendly.

Itch! Is a fun and informative addition that sheds light on the physiological reaction to things that make us itch. Highly recommended.

Angela Cervantes creates a story of friendship and mystery set in Mexico City. Paloma Marquez joins her mother for a summer of adventure and art appreciation in her father’s homeland. Paloma quickly makes new friends and finds herself embroiled in the intrigue behind artist Frida Kahlo’s missing peacock ring. Paloma and her friends vow to uncover the truth and return the precious ring to its rightful home, La Casa Azul, where Frida’s personal items are showcased for all to see and celebrate. This story will touch the heart and soul as it celebrates loyalty, embraces forgiveness, and promotes valor. This sweet, honest and art filled book is a strong addition.

The novel “Tru & Nelle A Christmas Tale” is the second series book written by G. Neri. This interesting historical fiction book includes the facts and stories from the lives of best friends, Truman Capote and Nellie Harper Lee and their Christmas adventure.

Everything starts when “little” Nelle’s friend , Tru , goes back to town Monroeville . He came with his mom Little Mae and his stepdad Cuban Joe. They were in a custody battle with Tru’s biological dad , Arch Peterson.  Afterwards Truman left the courthouse with his mom Nina and Joe , and went back to New York.
Two years pass and Tru was feeling sorry about his decision to stay with his mom and move back to New York. After the some time it became apparent, that Nina didn’t care about her son at all, instead she only cared about herself and her wealthy lifestyle.
“Truman felt that everything had gone wrong since he’d left Monroeville.” His mom “ was constantly bemoaning all his quirks : his funny high voice, the way he sasheyed when he walked and eccentric clothing he wore, and the artsy boys he befriended.” Finally his mother decided to ship him to St. John’s Military Academy for Boys where they had very strict rules, which was too much for the delicate little Truman. Even then his mom refused to visit him and didn’t listen his complains about this school , such as bullying and overly strict rules. At that time Tru could only think about one place, Monroeville. He missed all of his relatives and friends, especially his best ones Nelle and Big Boy. That’s why the 13 years’ old boy Tru escapes from the military boys’ school, and try to make it to Monroeville for Christmas.

At the end of the book also includes some other story, interesting informations, facts, and photos

In my opinion the main thing that happens at the end of this story is that Truman decided to try to change his attitude, and make smart decisions in service of other. Also through this story the young readers can discover the real spirit of Christmas. It also shows how important it is to remember  mercy, charity and kindness, and to surrounding us with people. We should never forget to help and believe in each other, even if we are different.

I recommend this book for young readers. It’s a great novel for elementary and middle school students, who like to read about childhood’ friendship and adventures.

Reviewed by Marianna

Ever the Brave is the second installment in the Class of Kingdoms fantasy series.  Summerill constructs a world of adventure, political struggle and mysticism. Britta is back and is learning to live with her newly discovered gifts; however, she must keep her gifts a secret as witchcraft is outlawed in Malam kingdom. Keeping her powers secret proves a challenging task when she is bound to King Aodren.  This connection, unwanted and dangerous, risks her relationship with the King’s Hunter, Cohen. Amidst the tangle of feelings and interactions with King Aodren, Britta also learns that she is connected to the treacherous villain Cohen is hunting. When he returns from the hunt in the neighboring kingdom empty handed, he must fight for his King, his country and his true love.  A page turner, fantasy lovers will not want to put this book down.

“Sink or Swim” is a historical fiction novel written by Steve Watkins (author of the I Survive series). Inspired by the true story of the brave young boy, Calvin Graham, who, at age 13, enlisted in the US Navy and served on the battleship USS South Dakota in the South Pacific in intense fighting with the Japanese.

The story starts with an incident that happens with Colton’s older brother during their fishing trip. His seventeen-year-old brother, Danny, was injured, so Colton decided to assume his brother’s identity, and enlisted into the US Navy. After that Colton’s journey begins.

As for me, the most intense and tragic part of this book is when, after the battle, a U-boat explodes beneath Colton’s patrol craft, killing his closest shipmate and wounding Colton’s leg. The survivors are set adrift in an overloaded lifeboat with few rations and connection with anyone. The author excellently describes their attempts to survive in the ocean for a couple of weeks during mid October without food, water, under the sun in the daytime and sometimes surrounded by sharks. But at that time Colton’s thoughts were about his family: “I prayed we would be rescued, and I prayed that if we weren’t, that Mama and Danny would somehow find out what happened to me, and would know that I loved them all the way to the end.”

I would recommend this book for young readers ( ages 8-12 ), who likes stories about World War II and who also enjoys books about U boats or Navy. I liked this novel.

Review by Marianna

Review submitted by OHS Library Secretary, Mikel Debuse-Losh

Narrated by Clare, this tale takes the reader on a dramatic journey through the occult, which is growing like a black mold just underneath the surface of her sleepy southern town. The writing style is florid and graphic and will appeal to some readers who enjoy stories of demonology, possession, and exorcism. It’s not for the squeamish. The author is adept at crafting vivid, multi-sensory scenes that morph in completely unpredictable ways, but the writing is almost cartoonish in its exaggerated style. You can’t help but root for Clare, regardless. She is portrayed as gritty,  insightful and a real trooper given the ordeals she has to go through. It’s a nail-biter to the end.

15-year-old Clare has had a miserable life replete with an alcoholic mom, a dad that died when when she was young, and a scoundrel of a stepdad. Her lifeline has been her good demon, who soothes and settles her – and now her only source of  comfort has been ripped from her in an exorcism.

Review submitted by OHS student, Helen J.

Six students survive a school shooting. One student starts a rumor about one of the students that died, and the others want to get the story straight. But their community isn’t that welcoming to this “true” story.

You should read this book because it is a story of discovery and trust. This story is about acceptance of hard trials that people go through.

How do you deal with death, especially the death of someone you look up to and admire? For Charlie, the death of his father will spin him into a world he never imagined for himself. Sent to his grandparents for the summer in 1988, Charlie learns he has friends, family, comic book heroes, basketball and jazz to help him get back to feeling normal. While Grandaddy impresses upon Charlie the job of being on a team and playing a full game, it’s his cousin Roxie who teaches him the game and moves to be great in the game. Grandmother’s cooking makes all things bearable as she listens and shares in his new adventure. A quick trip to jail might also be life-changing, and friend Skinny goes with him because that’s what friends do. Readers watch a 12 year old Charlie become something special, being the path of maturing into Chuck, father of Jordan and Josh Bell from Alexander’s earlier Newbury Award Winning The Crossover. A prequel to that novel in verse, Rebound will give depth to the story of the Bell family but can be read as a stand alone as well.

This new series- The Questioneers- follow the picture book characters: Rosie Revere, Iggy Peck, and Ada Twist into the chapter book realm.

This first book begins with the trio working on an invention to help Rosie’s uncle, Zookeeper Fred scare away snakes. Even after five models, Rosie is not giving up . Her talents get temporarily guided away from that project to help her Aunt Rose and her aunt’s friends. These ladies were, ” ‘the Blue River Riveters,’ she said. ‘We worked together at the B-29 factory during World War II. We built more airplanes that you could imagine. We made a difference back when it was needed the most. And we still do our part.!’ ” (30)

Young readers will follow Rosie’s efforts to help others in the now popular STEM movement. “Rosie loved engineering, It made her happier that just about anything.” (41) Readers will follow Rosie from the brainstorming beginnings through to her end project. Rosie loved brainstorming, design, research, making prototypes, and testing. (49)
Rosie is not successful on her first attempts, but she does not give up. When Rosie gets frustrated the motto “STOP AND THINK!” comes to her aid.

In this book, Rosie is asked to come up with an invention that will help Aunt Rose’s friend June paint in the Art-a-Go-Go competition in the park, when June has two broken wrists.

As each chapter begins, red quad graph paper gives light to Rosie’s thoughts through Rosie’s sketches and diagrams of the work in progress. June is set to paint at the competition, using Rosie’s Paintapalooza 9. Mid-way through the painting, June’s arms become too tired, then a brush breaks. Undaunted, Rosie makes adjustments.

In the end the Blue River Riveters make Rosie, Ada, and Iggy “HONORARY RIVETERS!”

After the story ends, keep reading or you will miss out on: ODE TO A VALVE, ABOUT VALVES, ABOUT THE RIVETERS, THINK ABOUT THIS, and ABOUT THE AUTHOR and ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR.

It’s cute. It begins the morning of a big auto race with Mama Lion and Tiger making final preparations before heading out to join the others at the starting line. Just before the race begins Mama Lion takes a look at the prizes on display and notices that second place wins a small cup, which is rather significant, since during their morning preparations she had just noticed that Tigey’s cup at home was leaking. Mama Lion and Tiger get off to a strong lead, so that they even have time to enjoy the ride through the countryside, but just as they notice the Pandinis hot on their tale. Braking in a hurry to avoid hitting a butterfly Mama Lion and Tiger lose a wheel, giving the Pandinis a chance to take the lead, except the Pandini team stops to help. Just as they are ready to return to the race, the shady knitted monkey crew fly past, throwing banana peels into the road behind to slow down their competition. Just as it looks like it’s going to be close, Mama Lion makes the decision to slow her car, letting the helpful Pandini team take the grand prize. She is content with the useful second-place cup and the knowledge that she’s won some friends that day.

It tells the tale of a tiny boy. It never really specifies exactly how small he is, but the illustrations suggest his is maybe an inch or two tall, small enough to sleep in a matchbox, climb a mountain of legos, ride on the back of a grasshopper, and stretch out on a lily pad. It describes the struggles he faced when he started school: being too small for his desk, racing away from being squashed by a basketball, and avoiding being trampled by his classmates. It says he preferred to spend time alone and draw. It says he teacher worried about him, wondering what would become of him. But just as the reader is starting to wonder how would this small one survive and manage in our big world, the story tells us he did grow up “(But not much bigger.)”. We see the house he built himself, under the shade of a tomato plant that stretches over the roof like a tree, and a stool made of a matchstick and bottle cap. And it reveals what job he finds that just suits his size: he draws stamps. The final page declares, “One can never be too small to be a GREAT artist!” It’s fanciful and fun.

It’s a silly, rhyming story about a monster who is picky about his underwear, and doesn’t really want any new underwear, but finally admits, when his trusty old ones completely fall apart, that a shopping trip may just be unavoidable. His mother manages to find a whole, giant emporium dedicated entirely to underwear, but he finds something objectionable about every variety with which he is presented. Until at last he discovers the perfect pair, just like his old ones…he buys 18 pairs. It’s irreverent, full of words like tush and buns and rump that will leave kids giggling over feeling like they are skirting the line of polite society reading about underwear, yet it doesn’t cross the line into objectionable.

The whole book is a poem celebrating that time after the sun sets before dark fully settles in. The illustrations are full of the colors of sunset and twilight. Each two-page spread includes two stanzas describing how different animals behave in the twilight. Repeating lines that come back on each page is one way it ties together in continuity; also the last line of each page gives a foreshadowing of the page to come. Sometimes the illustrations do likewise. An author’s note in the back offers further scientific information about what defines twilight and the animals who are active at that time of day. It really is a beautiful book.

This book is well-designed as a bedtime story. The illustrations are soft and full of dark, soothing colors. The text is poetical, full of rhyme and repetition. Each two-page spread describes what a different animal dreams of, always in sets of three, and always ending with a dream that includes the listener. In the end the reader encourages the listener to dream of what animals do and when they awake to remember those sweet animals are dreaming of him/her too.

It’s a collection of poems, each written by a different author. In the past I have sometimes found such collections inconsistent in quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of these. Each poem honors a different role within a school, from bus driver to crossing guard to principal to lunch lady, etc… And it begins and ends with a poem dedicated to the school itself. A wonderful tool to celebrate the start of a new school year as well as all those who make it what it is.

The illustrations are full of bright, vivid colors and friendly personified tools. The text is full of rhythm and rhyme and more than one good message. The tools each start with a verse to introduce themselves, then they sing together about their excitement and joy over starting school. They’re all excited to get started at building time, but find that working on their own they’re not getting very far; when they cooperate, with each contributing his/her own specialty they have a lot more fun and success. Mistakes are still made, and they have to try, try again, but they discover that though sometimes it’s fun to work alone, some jobs take teamwork.

I really like the cover, and many of the illustrations. They evoke a sentimental mood celebrating the grand landscapes of our world and the grand gesture of a small mouse traversing the globe to bring a single crumb to his love. But the text just doesn’t quite hit the mark. It alludes to the sentiment it’s trying to convey, without really managing to make clear what it’s actually trying to say. It’s fuzzy and garbled and falls flat.

Admittedly, I am prejudiced, because I am a fan o David Wiesner’s work. In this nearly wordless picture book, he uses his art to tell the story. It opens with an illustration of a boy standing outside a fence at a baseball field, watching the kids within getting a game going. Then he’s on the edge of the crowd, then approaching the boy who seems to be the leader, who sends the new boy off to the field. After the batter swings, we see our protagonist racing out with his glove outstretched, and with a joyful look on his face the only words in the book repeat the title, right before the boy trips on a root, falling flat, missing the ball while everyone looks on in dismay. Then in the true “Do over” spirit of playground sports, we see a series of fanciful repeats in which the sequence returns to the point where he’s about to catch the ball, with other(s) coming up behind, also with glove(s) outstretched: in one version the root that tripped him is now a full tree; in another the ball grows to the size of an incoming jetliner; in another the whole team goes after the incoming ball while our hero shrinks to the size of one of the others’ shoe, yet still manages to overtake the crowd and actually catch the ball. In the end, he has become part of the crowd of which he was once an outsider.

I’m not sure it lives up to the hype printed on the gold sticker on the cover which proclaims it, “A natural successor to Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” but it does share a similar philosophical bent on the nature of growing up. The text is fairly repetitive: a series of rhyming “before the X…” statements. The point is made via the illustrations, which use a page-turning format to show the struggles that come before each accomplishment/joy/milestone in life. They follow a sequence from the messy kitchen preceding the first birthday cake, to practicing as a student driver before becoming an independent driver, to the studying that leads to graduation. It does point out in the end that for every try you may fail, or you may fly, but what is important is what you learn in the trying.

It’s a fun spin on the old saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which also exposes children to a variety of animals of which they may be unfamiliar.  The rhyming text and Scheffler’s familiar big-eyed illustrative style make the book fun and inviting.  An author’s note at the front gives readers a context, as the author explains her experience of being on Safari in Africa where others were focused on spotting The Big Five animals, while she found herself more intrigued by The Ugly Five.  In this story, the wildebeest, the hyena, the lappet-faced vulture, the warthog, and the marabou stork each sing about how ugly they are, banding together to form The Ugly Five.  But eventually they come to a gaggle of their own babies, who declare that to them, The Ugly Five are really the The Lovely Five.  A two-page spread in the back shares a variety of other animals that readers might want to investigate, grouped as to The Big Five, The Little Five, The Shy Five, and The Ugly Five.  Throughout the book, illustrations include a variety of other African animals.  One thing I would have liked to see would be another set of pages in the back that named the other animals included in the book, so that curious students would have a starting place for further exploration.

I love this book!  I have loved this book for over 20 years!  I look forward to reading it aloud every year, and I am using this opportunity with the 25^th Anniversary Edition available to spread the word to anyone who does not have this book or is unfamiliar with this book needs to get this book.  It makes a fabulous picture book read aloud for older students, with opportunities to discuss inference and prejudice.  Van Allsburg’s illustrative style does an amazing job of setting the mood and tone of the story.  It makes a great read aloud around Halloween, without being blatantly a Halloween story.  The twist at the end is implied without being explicitly spelled out, allowing readers to put the pieces together for themselves.  And it leaves you cheering for the main character.

The illustrations are rich in blues and purples and greens, a palate that seems appropriate for a bedtime story, and full of details that give the characters personality and give the reader something to study.  The rhyming text describes a variety of troubles the Goodnight Train encounters on its journey which threaten to wake the sleepers aboard, but each challenge is met by the crew, with the refrain of, “Chugga! Chugga! Shhhhhhh! Shhhhhhh!” signaling that calm has once again been restored, and the sleepers are once again slumbering peacefully.

The cotton-candy sweet illustrations are full of warm and fuzzy texture and pastel colors that will be a certain lure to some small children.  The message  is a positive one, if somewhat pedantically delivered.  When a young unicorn is feeling blue over not believing she has any special power, her birdie friend tells her to cheer up, believe in magic, and follow her heart.  Throughout the story this uncertain unicorn encounters several friends who are struggling with applying their special powers, and shares Birdie’s words of wisdom, encouraging each to success. In the end all those she encouraged come to thank her for her gift of friendship, and just as she laments again that she wished she knew what her power was, they reminder her about what she told them, and a rainbow sprouts from her horn as they all cheer that the very best magic of all was believing in themselves.

A fabulous companion book to O’Brien’s other book, I Am New Here.  We see the same characters in the same situations, facing the struggles of being new in school in a place where you don’t speak the language or know anyone, and things all seem different.  But this time the story is told from the perspectives of the children who have been at the school and have been asked to welcome the newcomers.  We see how they want to be welcoming but are unsure what to do, and how they overcome their uncertainties to make new friends.

I am a fan of wordless books, and this one offers many details for the children to hunt out and share what they notice.  The story begins in black and white and gray drawings of a young girl getting up to start her day when everything seems to be going wrong, from mom running late to brother throwing food to getting splashed by a puddle on the way to school in the rain.  And she’s not the only one having a rough day:  around the neighborhood we see someone falling off his bike, another facing a flat tire, a mom dealing with a crying baby, etc. After a thoroughly boring day at school, she notices a butterfly on the way home (the first spot of bright color in the book), and when she follows it, it leads her to a bright pink pair of glasses laying on the ground.  When she puts the glasses on, we turn the page to see them turning her world to one full of bright colors, where everything seems to be going great for everyone.  She wears the glasses for a day, seeing the world in a whole new way, but on the way home the next day she drops the glasses into a stream in the park.  At first she turns all gray again with a look of dismay upon her face, but then she looks around and notices that even without these glasses her world is still full of joy and good things and color (if perhaps not quite the same Technicolor intensity as with the glasses).  The final page turn shows another black and white a gray drawing of a boy looking glum as he comes across the magic pink glasses where they have drifted ashore.