5 Stars. What a lovely book! It’s a realistic story but the illustrator captured the girl’s excitement in touches of whimsy throughout. The soft focus of the artwork gives the book the feel of a dream, even while the girl/woman is working hard to do real things. One spread near the end gives me goosebumps. I especially love [...]
5 Stars. Oh my goodness! I loved this book! I love the way the illustrations subvert the text. If I were only reading the words, I would expect a stereotypical princess playing tea with her dolls (I love those little girls but that doesn't reflect every girl's interests). For example [...]
5 Stars. Fatima is totally relatable. She feels overshadowed by her smart older sister and she doesn't always feel like she fits in at school. She's a little nervous about sleeping in a tent, especially when she and her sister spy a "monster" outside the tent in the night. They laugh the next morning when they see what it was [....]
Little Betty and Billy choose Walter and bring him home from the animal shelter. Mom makes them give Walter a bath because he smells so bad. But they quickly realize that the problem is deeper than that: Walter is a farting dog. Billy and Betty don't mind but their parents can't take it. They try to fix the problem with visits [...]
The rhyming couplets and colorful pictures in this book are sure to please little readers (or listeners, as the case may be). The parade is full of colorful characters, some in fancy dress, others in outfits that can be found at a Village People concert, but all happy and excited to be a part of this celebration. The illustrator [...]
Marlon Bundo is the BOTUS, the Bunny of the United States. He lives a lonely life in a big, boring house until one day he meets Wesley, the most bunny-beautiful rabbit in the garden. It’s love at first sight. They decide they want to get married and hop together forever. But the Stink Bug tells them that boy bunnies can only marry girl bunnies. What can they do? [...]
Young Mickey hears a noise deep in the night and finds himself falling into the Night Kitchen, where he has to help the cooks get the milk into the batter. What a fun little book! I never read much Sendak when I was little for some reason, so this was completely new to me. The illustrations were tons of fun, of course. The kitchen is set against a "skyline" of boxes of cake mix, tall salt shakers, and an elevated bread train. They're perfectly whimsical for this book. I imagine children would love the story of little Mickey saving the day. I know I did! How much fun is it to imagine that only you can accomplish something important while the world, including your parents, is sleeping? It should also be a great book to read aloud. It's short and to the point and rhymes just enough to roll off the tongue. I highly recommend this one to parents with young children as a fun little bedtime story. Apparently some parents and even librarians are/were upset that a few pictures depict Mickey nude. I was a little taken aback myself when I saw it and knew that had to be the reason the book shows up on banned/challenged lists. After thinking about it, I decided that most kids are probably going to giggle, think the book is even more fun, and move on. It's perfectly innocent. Heck, if I want to get all analytical, we can talk about Mickey shedding his normal life of pj's and bedtime for the more illicit, and therefore more enjoyable, world of being up in the night and saving the day, all things kids probably aren't supposed to do. It represents freedom to them, even if they can't articulate that. View an excerpt. Buy In…
In this true story, Roy and Silo are two male chinstrap penguins in the Central Park Zoo who don't quite fit in. They don't take any notice of the female penguins and instead form their own little family. What an adorable little book! The illustrations by Henry Cole are charming. The story of Roy and Silo is sensitively written for the young ones. I was sad as they tried to nest and then uplifted when little Tango came along. All in the space of 30 or so pages. And I just love that the story is completely true. Much as I wish this world were more accepting, this book is not going to be for all families. If your family can handle it, I do recommend the book. It's a good introduction for children to the concept of families that are a little different but that are still built on love. Banned/Challenged: And Tango Makes Three was the number one most frequently banned/challenged book in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. It was number two in 2009. Holy cow. It's ruffled quite a few feathers, so to speak. We can all guess what the reasons are. "Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group," according to the American Library Association website . It is perfectly suited to the age group, being a picture book that is beautifully illustrated with a story that children can follow and ask questions about. It is becoming more common for children to have two mommies or two daddies. Children are going to have questions and this is a place for them to start to find answers. My takeaway message from this book is that what defines a family is love. Who can argue with that? Unfortunately, a lot of people. Read more reviews at Bonnie's Books…
Wayside school is just a little different. The builder built the school sideways, so it's 30 classrooms stacked on top of each other. Mrs. Jewls's class is on the 30th floor. That makes for a long hike for her students. The students at Wayside are a little different as well. One boy has a literal compulsion to pull a girl's braids. One student sleeps all the time. Everyone calls a new kid by the wrong name and he never corrects anyone. One new kid shows up wearing a raincoat and there's a huge surprise when he takes it off. The teachers at Wayside are a little different too. The first teacher is horrible and when she disappears, the students get a teacher who is just as wacky as they are. Yes, life's a little different at Wayside, but that's the way they like it. I can remember my 4th grade teacher reading the first book to my class. We thought this was the funniest thing ever! I had high expectations going into it, and I wasn't really let down. It wasn't as funny to me now as it was to my 9-year-old self, but I can definitely see why I loved it back then. Don't get me wrong--it was still hilarious, but I found myself giggling or smiling instead of laughing out loud. I wasn't too sure about Louis Sachar as the narrator at first. He's not terribly exciting but he grew on me. He has an earnest voice that perfectly set up the crazy things these kids did in all seriousness. I felt the first book was the best but the other two were worth checking out as well. The end of the second one got waaaay weird and ended in a not-very-happy place. I was surprised. But readers…
George Beard and Harold Hutchins are the 4th grade pranksters at their school. They change school signs around to say funny things, they fill cheerleader pom poms with black pepper, and they fill footballs with helium. Perhaps their favorite pastime, though, is writing comic books. They steal into the school office and make copies to sell when the secretary's back is turned, then sell their comics to the other kids at the school. Their best superhero is Captain Underpants, who fights with Wedgie Power. "Tra-la-laaa!" Their mean school principal, Mr. Krupp, really dislikes Harold and George for all the chaos they cause in his school. He blackmails them into behaving, but George and Harold find a way to fight back. Mr. Krupp never knows what hits him. Oh my goodness. What a fun book! I was giggling away reading this by myself at the age of 33. I would have laughed to the point of tears as a child. But then, I've always loved a good fart joke. Unsophisticated, I know, but farts happen. Might as well get a laugh out of them. George and Harold are a couple of comic geniuses. They have a talent for getting into trouble but their real talents lie in getting out of trouble. Their imagination and creativity seems to be limitless! And what they do to Mr. Krupp... I loved it! What kid, no matter how well-behaved, doesn't dream of rebelling against some authority figure? If we're honest, we never lose those dreams. It feels so good to see someone acting out like that, even if it is just in the pages of a book. There is one chapter that features flip-o-rama. I had such a good time with this! The book has reached a crashing climax and all of a sudden you…