It’s a fairly silly story in the spirit of Hop on Pop or Green Eggs and Ham, where it’s playing with words that rhyme: it’s got oodles of noodle dooles, doodled by a poodle, and it’s got two cartoony dudes negotiating for those doodles before saying, “tootle-Lou.” It works pretty well for what it is, though there are some uses of some words/word structures that may need to be explained to some small readers.

It’s meant to be read aloud at bedtime. The narrator is trying to wax poetic about all the animals who are also going to sleep, but keeps getting interrupted by various nocturnal animals getting up to antics spoiling the go-to-sleep message. By the end of the book all the night-time animals are having a party. It ends with a question, asking how the listener can know it’s not all true, since they’re asleep? The illustrations give a lot of personality to the animals, and invited kids to open their imaginations to what goes on when they’re asleep. Who’s to know?

It’s cute enough. It’s not a bad book. I’m just afraid it’s got a really limited audience. As far as I can see, the only readers who are really going to appreciate this book are cat lovers who are really into ballet. The narrator shares all the things his friends’ cats can do, and then goes on to explain how his cat does ballet, using French ballet term to describe his cat’s activities. When he invites his friends to bring all their cats over one day for ballet lessons, they all start spinning and twirling and leaping right away, while his cat takes a nap on the couch. If you have ballet enthusiasts with cats among your patrons, they’d probably enjoy this one.

Some won’t like it, but I do, though I’m having trouble articulating why. It’s a poetical/philosophical sort of book, using both color and words in an unusual way. The skin may be blue and the leaves pink, yet the flowy, swirly illustrations somehow draw you in and pair nicely with the way the poem discusses big, intangible words in unusual ways: peace is my favorite song, and happiness is my favorite flavor??? Yet I think it invites students into poetry by opening them up to using words in new ways, giving them permission to play with words and still find meaning.

I love Boynton’s artwork, with it’s clean lines and bright colors and familiar characters, and I know small children are drawn to them also. The rhyming text is in large print, with only a sentence or two per page, but I think this book really needs to be paired with Hippos Go Berserk, it’s obvious companion, in order for the story to make much of an impact. So if you have that one, and your readers are familiar with it, then this one would make a nice contrasting story. As a stand alone, it’s a bit flat, just describing two hippos having a rather calm day, and then inviting a couple friends over in the evening, and when more friends show up, the calm disappears as a party ensues. It’s fine, but is better when paired with the other to provide context.

It’s cute, and it’s got some good points to make as two kids very politely “argue” over the same book at the library, which each claims as their own best friend, and try to convince the other that they are really the one who needs it most. I liked that they had different reasons for liking it, and they had different reasons for needing it, and that each did their best to try to find alternative options for the other. I liked that the illustrations add to the text, expanding on the unstated details of the story. I also like that they seem to have made friends in the end, just as their respective favorite characters do in the book. I didn’t like that it was sometimes difficult to tell which character was saying what, and in the end, though it showed both leaving the library together, with books in hand, they never actually explained how they resolved the issue of who was going to get to take home that favorite book.

For fans of the other Angelina Ballerina books, this will be a hit, with the same cute, sweet, tutu-wearing mouse, and lots of floweriness. The story is straight-forward enough, and relatable to kids, who may not have ever been on a river voyage with their grandparents to a mouse jamboree, but can probably connect with the idea of being asked by grown-ups to do things they’d rather not, and perhaps causing problems because they’re too distracted by their own interests to pay proper attention to tasks at hand. Reading as a grown-up, I have to confess to being irritated by Angelina’s repeatedly causing problems for others without ever being concerned by the problems she caused, and only being moved to tears when her antics created problems for herself. I found her rather selfish. In the end, grandma is understanding, and helps Angelina work around the problem she landed herself in, and everything is hunky dory at the triumphant finale.

Carina makes empanadas with her Tia Mimi every Saturday, but this Saturday, Tia Mimi is volunteering at the food center. She asks Carina to gather the ingredients for the empanadas. Carina is worried that she can’t do it alone. As she travels through the neighborhood gathering the ingredients, she notices how samosas and dumplings she sees in the neighborhood are similar to empanadas but different. Carina and the neighborhood come together to help those volunteering at the food center.

There seemed to be several storylines and it was hard to pick out which direction the story was going. Is the book about finding community, finding self-confidence in trying something on your own, maybe a bit of both? The different cultures represented and how we are the same, but different appeared to be one theme in the story.

The illustrations represent Tia Mimi’s diverse community and match Carina’s adventures through the neighborhood.

There is an author note at the end and a recipe for beef or chicken Puerto Rican empanadas.