BooksForKidsBlog

Friday, September 30, 2016

Whose Boo Is Whose? Hooray for Halloween Curious George

ONE DAY CURIOUS GEORGE AND HIS FRIEND THE MAN WITH THE YELLOW HAT WERE ON THEIR WAY TO A PARTY AT MRS. GRAY'S HOUSE.

The house is a bit spooky--tall and dark, with pointy gables. And the door is opened by... a witch! And inside George catches a glimpse of a mysterious mummy!

But behind her witchy mask, Mrs. Gray is quite jolly.

DON'T BE AFRAID, GEORGE.

DID I FORGET TO TELL YOU THIS IS A COSTUME PARTY?

Kind Mrs. Gray sends George upstairs, where she says he can pick something to wear from a trunk full old costumes. George is excited. He finds cowboy duds, complete with lasso and cowboy hat, and tries to see what he looks like in the Mrs. Gray's bureau mirror, but he's too short to see himself.

Wait! He climbs up on her bed and starts to jump up and down until he bounces high enough to see his reflection. But, oh, no! He bounces too high and lands on the bedside table--CRASH! and slides off, tangling himself in the little white tablecloth.

"WAS THAT A GHOST?" SOMEONE DOWNSTAIRS SHOUTS.

A ghost? George is scared. He takes the fast way down the stairs--WHOOSH! sliding down the banister rail, tablecloth and all. One of the guests sees him, wrapped in white, and screams. YIKES!

"IT IS A GHOST!"

No. It's just a naughty little monkey! The party goers soon see it's only George under there, dressed as a Wild West buckaroo, and the party is saved, in Margaret Weston's Hooray for Halloween, Curious George (Houghton Mifflin Clarion), with bobbing for apples and jack-o' lanterns, and a contest to choose the best costume. George wins two prizes, one for each of his costumes, and a good time is had by all.

This light-hearted look at scary get-ups is best for reading to the youngest would-be Halloween celebrants who often find the concept of people costumed as scary vampires and ghosts a little off-putting when it comes time to venture out on Halloween. As usual, Curious George again shows them the way in this easy-going story which even doubles as an easy reader for primary graders.

And . . . there's a treat for all inside--Halloween stickers, lots of them, to decorate handmade crafts and cards!

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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Creature Snitcher! Hey, That's My Monster by Amanda Noll

TONIGHT, WHEN I LOOKED UNDER MY BED FOR MY MONSTER, I FOUND THIS NOTE INSTEAD:

So long, Kid. Gotta go.

Someone needs me more than you do.
                                          --Gabe

Hey! Wait! Ethan needs his monster Gabe on the job under his bed, threatening to grab his ankles and nibble his toes if he tries to sneak up at night. A growing boy needs his sleep, right? How's he going to get his quota of shut-eye without Gabe on duty?

But, then, when Ethan thinks about it, there is one someone who needs Gabe even worse than he does--his night-roaming little sister Emma, the original Creature of the Night. And Ethan's worse fears are confirmed--Gabe has indeed staked himself out under Emma's under-utilized big girl bed, giving off a ember-like red glow beneath the mattress. What's a kid to do?

GABE IS HIS MONSTER!

Ethan tries to make a deal with Gabe. He promises Gabe that He, Ethan, will get Emma to stay in her bed if Gabe will only move back under his bed.

"YOU? HA! THAT'S A GOOD ONE, KID!" GABE SNORTED.

But Gabe says he likes Ethan's gumption and gives him three shots at sending Emma to dreamland before he permanently decamps to her bedroom.

Ethan challenges Emma to knock on the floor. And sure enough, some monster-type pink goo oozes out from under the bed, and then most of the mucus monster emerges with a sinister sniff.

"BY DABE IS AGAFA!" THE MONSTER SAID. "TIBE FOR BED, EBBA!"

Emma giggles, wipes up the pink goo and keeps right on playing.

"I THINK WE NEED A MONSTER WITH CLAWS," ETHAN MUSES.

A well-clawed monster name Cynthia appears, with a long prehensile tail waving frightully in Emma's direction. But Emma just pulls out some pink plastic dress-up bracelets and decorates Cynthia's tail, pleased with her new accessories model.

"PRETTY!" EMMA LISPS.

Ethan goes for his last try with an oozy vampirish Vladimir with long snaky tentacles who makes straight for Emma with a scary Yessssssssss!

Emma grabs one tentacle and turns it into a jump rope and sings as she jumps....

"BLABIMIR, CYMFIA, AGAFA! YA YA FA FA !!!"

"THAT'S IT, KID!: GABE GROWLED. "NOW IT'S MY TURN!"

Will poor Ethan, like MacBeth, sleep no more? Will Gabe abandon him for permanent duty under Emma's bed? Or is there yet another monster waiting in the wings who can scare even Gabe back under Ethan's bed? In her sequel to her earlier hit, I Need My Monster (see review here) author Amanda Noll's brand-new Hey, That's MY Monster!,  (Flashlight Books, 2016) conjures up the ultimate take-charge monster that will have all brothers among the readers chuckling in recogition as Gabe's big sister Stella is summoned to scare them all straight.

It's all in good, sorta-scary fun well-stirred into a bedtime story just right for a pre-Halloween bedtime or story circle story. Artist Howard McWilliam has a blast with his luminously glowing main characters and his uber-creative, sometimes sarcastic, monster characters, done up in a palette that is perfect for the night-time setting, a sleepytime story that is never a snooze, but appropriately ends with not one, but two sleeping kids.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Spelling Bee! Bella Donna--Too Many Spells by Ruth Symes

Miss Rowan gave me an even bigger smile.

"Is something wrong, Bella Donna?" Miss Rowan asked.

"I don't really understand algebra," I said in a very small voice.

"Lots of people don't," Miss Rowan smiled, "but it's easy once you get the hang of it. Here--I'll show you." And she did! She talked me through an equation, and all of a sudden it made sense!

"I can see you're a very talented clever girl and I'd like to help you as much as I can, Miss Rowan said."

All the students in Bella Donna's class, including her best girlfriend Angela, love their pretty new substitute teacher--everyone except Bella's friend Sam, who seems to see her in a different light.

"There's something weird about her," Sam said. "She looks really mean."

But Bella Donna shrugs off Sam's strange take on sweet Miss Rowan. Although she's only been a witchling since she left the orphanage and moved in with her adopted witch mom Lilith, she has a real talent for casting spells, and when she passes the entrance exam for the Best Witchling Spell-Caster contest, Bella knows she has a lot to learn to make up for her late start. Her cousin Verity, who is grounded from spell-casting herself, offers to help, and Bella is a very busy witchling for the month before the big contest.

The time passes fast, with a class field trip to Sam's parents' Woodland Wildlife Center and Bella's first sleepover with Angela at her house. Since Angela is not a witch, Bella has to get permission from head witch Zorelda, who casts a special visitation spell over the witch houses on Coven Road, making them look like regular suburban cul de sac homes for the occasion.

But when the day of the Best Witchling contest, rolls around, Bella's spell works perfectly--her hair grows very long and flashes with every color in the rainbow. But even that spell can't compete with Morgana's flying dragon. Bella Dona is crushed when she finishes in third place.

Then the sting of not winning is instantly forgotten when, on the walk home from school the next day, Miss Rowan's car pulls up beside her, and she offers Bella a ride home. Bella knows that non-witches can't see Coven Road without one of Zorelda's temporary spells. What should she do?

"No, it's okay. I don't have far to go," I said.

Miss Rowan suddenly didn't seem like the sweet teacher I'd gotten used to. She got out of her car. Her face started to look different. He nose grew and her teeth became pointed, and she looked like an evil witch.

"Take me to Coven Road right now!" she demanded.

Bella Dona knows that now her witchling spell casting has met its biggest test yet, in Ruth Symes' second book in Coven Road series, Bella Donna: Too Many Spells (Sky Pony Press, 2016 (American ed.) In brand-new paperback editions, illustrated by Marion Lindsay's witchly winning black-and-white drawings throughout, this lighthearted new series, focused on doing good magic and written for beginning chapter readers, fits well into a niche once crowded by witching stories for readers between second and fifth grade.

Bella is a special character, one who knows she is different from her classmates and is working hard at her transition from orphanage life to a loving parent's home, not to mention managing to live in two different worlds, the magic of Coven Road and her life in the everyday world. A lot of children today are faced with bridging the gap between their family's life and the rest of the world, and Bella's dilemma will resonate with these readers. Symes' first book in this series is Bella Donna: Coven Road, and readers who work their way through this proposed series will likely enjoy the equally engaging Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road).

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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Monster Mansion: This Is The House That Monsters Built by Steve Metzger and Jared Lee

THIS IS THE SPOOKY HOUSE THAT MONSTERS BUILT.

THIS IS THE MUMMY THAT RAISED THE WALL.
THIS IS THE SPIDER THAT STARTED TO CRAWL,
THAT SHOCKED THE MUMMY WHO RAISED THE WALL,
INSIDE THE HOUSE THAT MONSTERS BUILT.

Haunted Halloween houses don't just happen, you know!

When it is time for that moldy old mansion to have a remodeling, the creepy crew takes on the task. But, being a rather gruesome group, they can't help spooking each other.

Werewolf is unsettled by the skeleton crew installing the flooring, and when a ghost lets out a big BOO, the black cat's yowl frightens the bats decorating the trendy exposed beams, spooks the zombie re-vamping the stairs, and gives the old witch a start as she's cooking up some brew for the crew.

As with most renovations, things don't go smoothly, but the monster makeover is finally done just in time for trick or treaters to enjoy the monster mash, in Steve Metzger's This Is the House That Monsters Built (Scholastic Books, 2016).

THESE ARE THE KIDS WHO YELLED, "TRICK OR TREAT!"

THAT WOKE UP THE VAMPIRE WHO TRIPPED OFF HIS FEET.

Author Metzger re-visits the old folk song "The House That Jack Built" with some revamped verses, in a cumulative tale filled with jolly rhyming triplets that manage to include most of the usual suspects you'd expect to show up for any festive All Hallow's Eve do.

Artist Jared Lee, who honed his creepy craft on the illustrations for Lucille Colandro's popular There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! and the many There Was An Old Lady seasonal tales and Mike Thaler's The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and ubiquitous sequels, adds his scratchy, quirky pen and ink drawings, a just-right accompaniment for Metzger's rollicking rhymes. A sure-fire read-aloud for the spooky season.

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Monday, September 26, 2016

Eye Witnesses! They All Saw A CAT by Brendan Wenzel

A CAT WALKED THROUGH THE WORLD

WITH ITS WHISKERS, EARS, AND PAWS.

A cat is a cat is a cat, and no more than that?

To a child the cat is a soft, purring pet.

But to the dog the cat is perhaps something fun to chase, perhaps a foe with sharp claws to fear.

To the fish the cat is a blurry and worrisome dark shape that appears above the water. To the mouse the cat is a sharp-toothed monster whose little bell warns "Run and hide." But to the flea on the cat's back, he is a prairieland of fur to be probed. And to the honeybee, the cat is a collection of pixilated dots; to the earthworm underground he is only vibrations above--something not to be considered deeply.

AND THE SNAKE SAW THE CAT... AND THE SKUNK SAW THE CAT...

And what does the cat see when he regards his own reflection in the pond?

Brendan Wenzel's top-selling new book, They All Saw a Cat (Chronicle Books, 2016), probes the difference between looking and seeing, exploring the different ways the common cat is seen by different viewers. In lovely flowing illustrations set against a white field, reminiscent of Eric Carle's classic work, Wenzel's multi-media paintings hint at a deeper premise--that we all see what we see in varied ways. A work that can itself be seen in different ways, Wenzel's first picture book can be appreciated on several levels, a kaleidoscope of sensory experience that points up the power of point of view. Says Publishers Weekly, "A powerful, rhythmic juxtaposition between word and image... it's marvelous," and Kirkus Reviews adds "A solo debut for Wenzel, showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent."

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Sunday, September 25, 2016

A Rose by Any Other Name...: Quit Calling Me A MONSTER! by Jory John

JUST... STOP IT!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

He's over it! Scraggly arms akimbo and beady little eyes glowing, snaggly fangs in full view, this guy has had it up to here.

Just because he's covered with shaggy, purplish hair, has horns, some sorta sinister long claws and a scary, smirky smile that glows in the dark... how dare they call him a Monster?

Call a guy a monster, and everybody sees a monster when they look at him. It's stereotyping, that's what it is.

Sure, he prefers to conceal himself in closets. Yeah, he does a bit of howling now and again. But that doesn't mean he doesn't get his feelings hurt when people call him names!

"MOMMY!" YOU HOLLER, "SAVE ME FROM THAT ...

MONSTER!"

Can't a guy get some groceries? Can't a guy just try to read the nutrition label on the back of the box without being profiled? And can't a guy get few winks of shuteye under your bed? Have you ever heard the icky noises YOU make when you sleep?

And then there's the matter of manners! Why can't everyone else be polite?


YOU COULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM ME. I'M A MONSTER WITH EXCELLENT MANNERS.

UM..I DON'T MEAN... MONSTER, ACTUALLY....

OKAY, I'M... UM... SIGH... TECHNICALLY A MONSTER....

MY NAME IS FLOYD PETERSON.

And after all, who could be seriously scared of a guy named Floyd Peterson? (Sorry, real Floyd Petersons, but your name isn't scary!) In Jory John's jolly monster story, Quit Calling Me a Monster! (Random House, 2016), the name of the game IS the name. After all, when you get to know a guy, you know, like, his name and where he's coming from, he doesn't seem so bad. Author Jory John lets his semi-scary, dill-pickle-shaped protagonist speak for himself in a comic monster story just in time for the scary season. Jory John draws on the dean of silly monsters, artist Bob Shea, for the perfect monster with an image problem in a not-so creepy-critter tale that will give young readers some second-thoughts about name-calling.

For a double monster romp, pair this one with Jory John's and Bob Shea's I Will Chomp You! (read my earlier review here).

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Saturday, September 24, 2016

A Timely Tooth Fairy Tale: Little Vampire's Big Smile



It's the BEST!

Little Vampire's wearing his biggest smile.

The pre-Halloween party is in full swing.  All the little monsters are there, singing, dancing, and making merry to celebrate the coming holiday.

But then--Bertie the Little Vampire bites down on a chewy morsel and leaves one of his little fangs behind in the treat.

Oh, blasted batwings! A set of matched fangs is the sine qua non of vampirehood. Bertie is despondent!

WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT MY TOOTH?

A fifty percent fang count does not make for a full-fledged vampire. Will Bertie flunk the fang test and have to sit this Halloween out?

Mom and Dad Vlad advise little Bertie to put his lost tooth under his pillow, make a wish on the full moon, and he may get a big surprise.

And little listeners will soon spy the Tooth Fairy Bat fluttering down to leave Little Vampire his heart's desire--a fine new fang just in time for the best Halloween yet, in Little Vampire's Big Smile: Board Book (Little Bird Stories) (Cottage Door Press, 2016). This extra petite board book is just the right size for the hands of tiny tots about to take their first bite of Halloween tricks and treats, with a lovable little vampire and the rest of the usual mini-monster suspects to tell the tale of the missing tooth.

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Friday, September 23, 2016

Cyborg Ballhog: Soccer Shocker! (Project Droid #2) by Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser

"I hate Fiber Flakes," I called down to Mom. "Isn't there anything sweet for breakfast?"

"Logan, I'm busy!" my mother called from her lab. "Just add some dates and nuts to your cereal."

"I can do it!" shouted Java. He grabbed the scissors and began cutting up the calendar on the wall.

"What are you doing!" I shouted

"Getting dates for your cereal," Java said. "Here's November 17." He dropped the calendar dates into my cereal bowl.

It's not easy having a robot around, especially when you have to keep your classmates believing that he's just an ordinary third grader. But Java (James Alexander Victor Applebaum) is an android, the subject of Logan's mom's Project Droid, and now she's testing her soccer programming by signing Java up for Logan's team, the Purple Wombats. After having to cover up for the mess Java made of the class science fair, Logan is tired of trying to keep the other kids from noticing that Java is NOT human. And besides, Logan is the top scorer on the team (he scored their one point against the Lemon Yellow Lemurs, current holders of he worst team in the league title). Still, Mom is set on testing her coding, and maybe Java can help them beat the class bullies, Sherry and Jerry Silverspoon, and their team the Red Polar Bears.

And does he ever! When Java comes in to sub for Stanley, he dazzles the Bears with his lightning moves.

What was he doing?

I heard the ball whack Java in the butt.

I watched the ball soar right over the heads of the Red Polar Bears! The ball slammed Jerry Silverspoon right in the stomach... and rolled right into the net.

The game is a blowout, with Java scoring 67 goals. Logan loves seeing the Silverspoon twins go down in defeat, but he's also miffed with Java for hogging the ball throughout the whole game. He begins to think of a way to get even.

But when the toilet floods the bathroom and Java's battery is waterlogged, Logan realizes that he's the one who must take over the scoring in the big game with the Orange Tree Frogs. Is there any way he can do what Java does?

In the second book in their Project Droid series, Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser give Logan his shot at showing how a real soccer star passes the ball, heroically giving his day-dreamy friend Stanley the chance to score the winning point, in Soccer Shocker!: Project Droid 2 (Sky Pony Press, 2016). In addition to a bit of gameplay fun, the authors put in a plug for fair play and telling the truth, except of course, when it comes to revealing the truth of Java's true identity.

Fans of Peggy and Herman Parish's Amelia Bedelia (I Can Read Book) series will find the similarly pun-puzzled and idiom-befuddled Java, who puts calendar dates and metal nuts in cereal and gives Logan the cold shoulder by dumping the team's ice water bucket over his head, a good source of giggles along the way. Illustrator Mike Moran's cartoons drive home the humor with his silly illustrations, such as Java's proffered, protein-packed peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches as halftime snacks for the hapless horrified and gagging Wombats.

"Funny enough to keep fledgling readers turning pages," says Kirkus Reviews.

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Thursday, September 22, 2016

Demolition Derby:Monster Trucks by Anika Dean

ON A SPOOKY SPEEDWAY MONSTER TRUCKS GROAN!

The assembled mummies, witches and assorted spirits assemble in the stands, ready for the race!

FRANKENTRUCK IS FIRST TO ARRIVE.

WITH A JUMP FROM HIS CABLE, HE'S ALIVE!

Soon the rest of the exotic entries appear at the starting line--Werewolf Truck growls up to the line; VampireTruck alights with a green glow; and then the shrouded GhostTruck floats down into his position with a rattle of his drive chain. Of course, VampireTruck has to siphon some fuel from his competitors' tanks before he's ready to roll. At last they're ready to rev, roarin' to race!

And they're off, each one cruisin' for a bruisin'. (They're monsters, after all!) It looks like the, er, spirited fans are in for a monster demolition crash-and-mashup derby, as the monster trucks clang and bang their way around the track. It's not a pretty sight, which is just what the spectators prefer. The crowd roars.

And then there's an unexpected late entry.

OUT OF THE PIT...
WITH A PUTT AND A TOOT,

COMES A LITTLE BLUE BUS
LOOKING PERKY AND CUTE.

Can a indisputably cutesy VW bus beat the big boys to the finish line? Does she have a few frightful tricks up her tailpipe to beat out the big, bad boys on the way to the checkered flag?

Anika Dean's newest, Monster Trucks (Harper, 2016), has just the right dynamic duo--motor racing and monsters--to please young gearheads and Halloween horror fans alike. Her rhyming couplets add plenty of horsepower to the narration, and artist Nate Wragg's surrealistic cartoon-infused illustrations add the spooky-styled atmosphere to please motorhead and monster fans alike during the scary season soon to come. “Nate Wragg creates some wicked vehicular hybrids...and eerie green skies and yellow moonlight set the stage for full-throttle Halloween fun.” says Publishers Weekly's starred review.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Fair Advantage? Science No Fair! by Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser

"Logan! I've got a surprise for you!"

My mom is an inventor. There's always some sort of surprise in her lab.

"Come on!" Mom said. "You've been asking for this since you were little!" Mom smiled really wide.

"A brother?" I shouted.

But there's no sign of a baby--no crib, no diapers--in Mom's lab. Logan looks under and behind all the science paraphernalia in the lab.

Then I saw the kid. He was staring at me.

"What's your name?" I asked. The kid didn't answer.

"Give him a few minutes," Mom said. "He's still charging."

Logan had wanted a little brother, not a cyborg. But a robot "cousin" could be pretty cool, too, he thinks--until he has to take his "cousin" Java to school and introduce him to his classmates. Right away, Java attracts the attention of the Silverstone twins, Logan's frienenemies. Java is really good at a lot of things, like math and tetherball, but ordinary idioms seem to short-circuit his brain.

"We have a extra desk in the front row," the teacher told Java. "Please take that seat."

Java walked over to the desk and picked it up . "Where would you like me to take it?" he asked.

And keeping his robot nature secret only gets harder when the teacher asks Java to work with Sherry and Jerry Silverstone on their science fair project. Logan is torn between trying to keep Java from doing something to give away his identity and working with his buddy Stanley on their own project, a potato battery.

Jerry manages to sabotage their first model, pretending to lose control of a water balloon and shorting out the potato, but that is nothing like the disaster at the actual fair when his friend Nadine is demonstrating her big electromagnet. Java gets too close and suddenly his circuits start fritzing out. At first he only spouts random, strange facts, to the amazement of the kids and their parents.

"Hairy spiders make milk. Cats cannot taste sweets. The longest toenail is...."

Suddenly smoke blasted out of Java's mouth. Steam blasted from his rear end!

"MOM!" I shouted. "HELP!"

Sometimes having a brilliant inventor for a mom is a mixed blessing, in Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser's Science No Fair!: Project Droid 1 (Sky Pony Press, 2016). Kids will love fantasizing about having a robot buddy, er, cousin, and despite his slight meltdown at the science fair, Java comes through to embarrass the evil twins and make this the most exciting third-grade science fair ever. His cyborg secret is safe for the moment, but the Silverstones vow revenge, and it looks like there are more science fiction-ish shenanigans ahead in the Project Droid series to keep beginning chapter readers coming back for more android adventures. Mike Moran provides black-and-white comic cartoons that add action and visual humor to most of the pages in these easy-reading stories with short chapters, large print, and fast-developing plots that will entice even reluctant readers.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Mind Your Ps & Qs! AlphaBlock by Christopher Francescelli

Let us look at LETTERS!

Christopher Francescelli's small board book, Alphablock (Abrams Appleseed Books) gives small children a chance to learn their letters--in several ways. Large, die-cut block letters, attached at the central scene are there to be looked at and touched from all angles as they overlay one word that demonstrates their sound.

A is, of course, for APPLE, and behind the full-page-sized letter itself, little readers can see a little wicker basket filled with apples.

B is for BALLOON, fat, round, and curvy. D is for DOG, a little DACHSHUND, an elongated wiener dog who practically wiggles off the page.

Each letter gets its own noun, even that one that activates the ticklebox of little kids, U is for UNDERWEAR! All except for that unruly Z, which ZOOMS right off the page.

Illustrator Peskimo offers the young reader thick cut-out block capital letters that can be experienced as the initial letter of words or as pure shape, with sharp points, squared-off bases, and triangles, circles, semi-circles, and angles to be explored tactilely with the fingertips, making use of two senses to help the learning process. Behind the letters themselves, artist Peskimo offers old-fashioned vignettes, temptingly partly revealed behind the letters--a hammer, a well-tended garden, even an octopus, some predictable, some unexpected. "A sharply designed package," says Publishers Weekly.

Companion early learning books include Countablock (Alphablock) Cityblock (Alphablock) and Dinoblock (Alphablock)

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Monday, September 19, 2016

Beware! Jack O' Jerks! Mitchell on the Moon by R. W. Alley

One windy fall evening, Mitchell was leading the way. Until... Gretchen said "STOP!"

"The moon is disappearing."

"Uh-oh," said Mitchell.

Crunching through the autumn leaves and costumed as a sorcerer for Halloween, older brother Mitchell is leading his trio of siblings forth for some trick-or-treating, when younger sister Gretchen notices that part of the moon is ... GONE!

Sensible Clark points out that clouds are just drifting across the moon, and Annabelle insists that the moon is still safely up there in the sky. But big brother Mitchell accepts the challenge to save Halloween from the dark.

"Gretchen is right. The moon is in trouble. Only I, the Sorcerer of Space, can save the moon!"

Commandeering a ladder leaning against a tree, Mitchell waves his wand, declaring that only the Sorcerer of Space can fly the Moon Ladder of Magic Mystery.

But unnoticed behind him, little Gretchen, carrying her little wagon full of roly-polys (little white balls with smiley faces, capable of morphing to meet the need), climbs on the ladder behind him. With a Zappity Snap! Mitchell waves his wand and blasts into space, soaring into the stratosphere and beyond. With another bit of magic he captures the moon. Hooking his magic ladder on one end of the crescent moon, Mitchell races toward the other end where something sinister is indeed in progress!

"GADZOOKS! Jack O' Jerks are biting away at bits of the moon like candy!"

Suddenly Mitchell's stowaway little sister leads the way, hurling her multi-use roly-polys at the dastardly Jack O' Jerks.

"Let's get 'em!" Gretchen shouts.

But the ravenous Jack O' Jerks look at Gretchen as if she's the pick of Halloween treats, and Mitchell sees that his sister needs some saving!

"Yes, please," pleads Gretchen.

Will the space-traveling siblings prevail? Will the moon be saved? Will Halloween even happen this year for the fantastic foursome?

Well, what do you think? In this adventure, R. W. Alley continues his "quadrilogy" about the fantasy adventures of these four imaginative kids through the four seasons in Mitchell on the Moon (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016), a rousing autumnal tale that leaves the four brothers and sisters and their long-suffering pooch dazed and amazed, but still up for trick-or-treating expedition, now fully lit by the rescued moon.

R. W. Alley's illustrations are outstanding, filled with double-page spreads in which the land of imagination flows seamlessly from the charming New England coastal scene into deep space and back again. With a slight touch of spookiness just right for the scary season and plenty of action in each scene, young would-be holiday celebrants will find this third story in the series will inspire their own trick-or-treat adventures.

Other books in this series, each featuring a different sibling, are Annabelle at the South Pole, Clark in the Deep Sea, and Gretchen Over the Beach.

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Sunday, September 18, 2016

Things That Go Bump in the Night! Love Monster and the Scary Something by Rachel Bright

It's way past bedtime o'clock in Cutesville, and everyone was fast asleep.

Everyone, that is, except one particular monster.

Love Monster has had his nightly mug of hot cocoa, read himself a soothing bedtime story, several of them--fifteen and a half, to be exact.

But sleep won't come.

It's one of those nights. The more he tries to drift off to sleep, the wider awake he gets. Even the tick of the clock downstairs is too loud.

Then he hears another sound.

What was that?

At first it's just a slight rustling, maybe outside the house.

And then --

CReeeEEAAAaaacKKK!

Now it sounds like something downstairs!

BANG!

Then there's a new sound--something is coming up the stairs! Something with...

TWISTERLY TOENAILS!

YIKES! It's a a case of creeped out in Cutesville, in Rachel Bright's latest little monster story, Love Monster and the Scary Something (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), one that plays on all the night terrors that we all, from tots to seniors, share at one time or another, Bright makes good use of the coming-closer-and-closer trope, as her furry little Love Monster goes from hiding his head under his starry comforter to choosing to confront his scary something--a little bunny, a surprise partner in late-night insomnia.

It turns out that Love Monster wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep.


Rachel Bright's Love Monster is the cutest creaturely character since Mercer Mayer's shaggy Little Critter began his picture book career, and in this fourth book in her series, Bright's illustrations are just as monstrously adorable as ever in a story that makes the most of midnight suspense just right for the upcoming scary season, but a story which will also have kids cheering for her character's take-charge courage at the climax.

Other stories in this series are Love Monster, Love Monster and the Perfect Present, and Love Monster and the Last Chocolate.

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Saturday, September 17, 2016

Loop the Loop! The Thrills and Chills of Amusement Parks by Jordan Brown and Mark Borgions


WHY DOESN'T THE ROLLER COASTER CAR COME OFF THE TRACK WHEN IT GOES UPSIDE DOWN?

What? You mean nothing is holding those pathetically little wheels on that track?

Yes, something is, and there is a very important scientific principle behind that convenient truth!

Amusement park rides don't need much hyped-up advertising, but sometimes scientific principles aren't quite so exciting as going loop-the-loop on a coaster. Still, Simon and Schuster's Spotlights of The Science of Fun Stuff series explains why all these exciting rides do what they do in their The Thrills and Chills of Amusement Parks (Science of Fun Stuff) (Simon Spotlight Books, 2016)

In the section "The Forces Behind the Fun," this inexpensive little early reader introduces the youngsters to the concepts of Newton's laws: "A moving object will keep moving at the same speed in the same direction unless something slows it down: the speed of an object changes when outside force acts on it," and "For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction." How centrifugal and centripetal forces act on those thrill-a-minute rides will give kids something different to think about while that roller coaster car makes that long climb to the first drop,
but knowledge that those fortuitous facts are on their side on the downhill drop is comforting.

Some of the other fun stuff explained are how those trick mirrors in the fun house make kids look goofy and even how that strange machine spins grains of sugar into long pink wisps wound around a paper handle--the science of cotton candy. Other theme park experiences explained are ice cream's "brain freeze" or how those magicians of the midway use their knowledge of physics to stack those bottles in a way to make it hard to win that neon green Teddy bear!

Other books in Simon's entertainingly educational series include The Innings and Outs of Baseball (Science of Fun Stuff), The Cool Story Behind Snow (Science of Fun Stuff), and The Explosive Story of Fireworks! (History of Fun Stuff).

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Friday, September 16, 2016

E Pluribus Unum! The Class by Boni Ashburn

The alarm clock sounds on that fateful morning!

SOME ARE EAGER, UP SINCE DAWN.
THREE JUST SIT AND YAWN AND YAWN.

It's the first day of Kindergarten, and all over the school district, twenty kids in nineteen different houses are getting up (or not!) to get ready for school.

FIVE BEGIN TO LOOK ALIVE.
ONE'S SURE HE WON'T SURVIVE!

Some breakfast heartily on pancakes, some with butterflies in their tummies can barely swallow a bite. Some have their first-day outfits at the ready. Some can't even find socks that match. Some have new shoes, shiny and stiff. Some have "the old shoe blues." Some have ribbons in their hair and others still have bed-head tangles.

FIVE PULL ON THEIR FAVORITE JEANS.
TWO ARE FASHIONISTA QUEENS.

And then by the big yellow bus, by family cars, and car pools in vans, and even trudging down the block, all the different kids converge on the school, where all ages crowd in through those open doors to begin again:

THROUGH THE DOORS THAT ALL MUST PASS....AND THEN..... WELCOME STUDENTS TO OUR CLASS!

Out of many... one!

Twenty different kids, all different in their different ways, meet their teacher, ready to start the job of making them into one class, in Boni Ashburn's back-to-school look at how one classroom worth of kids start to school, The Class (Beach Lane Books, 2016).

Author Ashburn has a wonderful way with rhyming couplets, portraying all the rituals, routines, and snafus of that first morning of school, as well as with honesty and humor the myriad of emotions that first-time Kindergartners must feel as they face that first day. The delightfully detailed artwork by Kimberly Gee gives each distinct child his or her own personality, style, and body language which together make clear the excitement, the anxieties, and the promise of starting school, and subtly reveals the task that that one teacher faces in bringing all that diversity together into a group that can support each other and learn through that all-important first year. It takes all kinds to make a world and a class, and each youngster who shares this book can see himself or herself in one or more of these rising Kindergartners.

As Publishers Weekly says, "the book’s biggest strength is its subtle recognition of difference: even though these kids are all headed to the same place, their individual family situations, moods, and interests all play roles in bringing them there."

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