The team who gave us "Armadilly Chilly" (2004)., a Texas version of the " Little Red Hen," is back with this retelling of "The Three Little Pigs."
Big Bottomed Boar threatens the little gators who have built homes of sand and sticks with "Wiggle my rump with a Bump, Bump, Bump and smash your house." When the Boar comes to the gator who has built his house of rocks they build a fire so that Boar gets grill marks on his rump and is never seen again. Illustrated with big-eyed, colorful characters this will be a great read aloud especially when paired with The Three Little Pigs and/or Ken Geist's "Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark,"
Recommended

H.S. Told in first person, each chapter is narrated by one of three girls who live at the Ospedale della Pieta, an orphanage and music school during 18th century Venice, Italy. The story takes place during a six year period of Antonio Vivaldi’s life, where he worked as a violin teacher for the girls who lived at the orphanage. The three girls, Anetta, Rosalba, who are 15 years old, and Luisa who is almost 14, are all searching for love while contemplating their futures. Nurturing Anetta is a doting friend to Luisa where at times it is overbearing for her. Rosalba is a high-spirited girl, always looking for ways to escape from her lessons to see the “wild” side of life, but when she is raped, she grows up quickly since she is forbidden to return to the Ospedale. Luisa is the illegitimate daughter of a duke who had an affair with her mother. At a very young age, Luisa was sent to the Ospedale to live and develop her voice. When she comes down with a near-fatal illness, she is sent to the country to heal. There she meets a boy who she has a brief affair with before sent back to the Ospedale. Each girl develops in her own way throughout the novel. The author paints a beautiful picture of life in the orphanage/music school during in the early 1700s in Venice. The novel brings in musical themes and Italian phrases in this historical novel, which adds much color to the story. Readers of historical fiction will enjoy the unique setting of Venice, the spirited Vivaldi, and the friendship of these three girls as they come of age.

What does a hungry baby do when his tummy won’t stop rumbling? After devouring every snack his mom and the refrigerator have to offer, the ravenous baby moves outside and begins to eat everything in sight. Harry’s monstrous appetite isn’t satisfied until he tries to take a bite of the moon and finally surrenders to an equally powerful need for sleep. Retro style illustrations show Harry as a rapidly expanding, diaper clad baby with an oversized head. Some might find this amusing, while others will find the pictures odd. The tall tale of the havoc wrought by a hungry baby will likely have the same effect - some will be entertained and some will be left cold. If library budgets are stretched thin, this limited appeal book is not a necessary purchase.
 

When he reads the message, “Have a wild Father’s Day” on his card, one fun-loving dad decides to follow that advice. He and his two children spend an action packed day mimicking wild animals. After hopping like kangaroos, racing like cheetahs, and swimming like dolphins, this physically fit family finally snuggles up like tired puppies at the end of the day. Brightly colored illustrations depict the action, showcasing both the frolicking humans and their animal counterparts. This simple story aptly captures the physical nature of a loving father child relationship and is a sweet addition to a holiday book collection.

The team who created Armadilly Chilly (2004) (a Texas version of The Little Red Hen) is back with this
east Texas swamp setting for The Three Little Pigs. Big Bottomed Boar threatens the little gators who have built their houses of sand and sticks with, "Wiggle my Rump with a Bump Bump Bump and smash your house." When the Boar gets to the gator who build his home of rocks of course, they build a fire and the Boar gets grill streaks on his big bottom. Illlustrated with big eyed colorful characters this will be a great read aloud and might be paired with a traditional "Three Little Pigs," and/or Ken Geist's "Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark."

E.S.
The class is going on a field trip to the apple farm. They start with 20 in this counting book and count backwards to 1. Along the way the students encounter all kinds of math opportunities. There are addition problems that can be solved, time to tell, and even a little multiplication. The end papers are full of apple facts and there is some foreshadowing about the thing that will be number one, Lee has a loose tooth. This is more than a simple counting book and readers encounter more math on a page than just the backwards count down. The illustrations are colorful and the text tells a nice story about a class trip.

 

E.S.
A girl in math class has gotten stuck on her multiplication facts. This leads to an explosion of numbers from her head. The numbers fly all over the room and the teacher sends her to the nurse. Each time she asked to answer 7 X 10 this explosion is the result. The police are called as well as the National Guard to rectify the problem. The numbers also cause a problem with the phones, at the grocery store and with the town clock. Finally the little girl’s brain begins to compute and the answer, 70 pops out. All is well until the next day when the teacher asks her what is 9 X 11. The text is a clever rhyme and the illustrations are exaggerated collage. The story will entertain and make the audience laugh.
 

E.S.
Bert’s sister recalls the beginning of her brother’s pet collecting hobby. It started out small but has grown to include a gorilla, a lion, and some ostriches. She is telling all of this to the reader from the living room. There is a sign on his door that of course says “No Girls Allowed”. In her imagination she sees a great ruckus going on with all the animals in there. She doesn’t go in the bedroom but she does let the animals out into the rest of the house until she notices her brother coming home and pushes them all back in. Bert of course has come home with an elephant and she worries about what the neighbors will think. It is an entertaining read aloud with a nice rhyming text. The animals that live in Bert’s room are recognizable as well as new to the reader, which could lead to further reading about the new animals.
 

H.S. : Sitomer returns with a new book featuring a minor character, Sonia Rodriguez, from his book, Hip-Hop High School. Sonia is the oldest daughter of seven children, born in the United States to her illegal immigrant Mexican parents. Her biggest dream is to be the first person in her family to graduate from high school. She doesn’t want to end up a statistic, another Hispanic girl getting pregnant and dropping out of high school. But Sonia has many obstacles in her way. Sonia’s story is part modern day Cinderella fairy tale, as she must forgo her studies until late at night, so she can take care of her bed-ridden pregnant mother (who refuses to learn English after being here for 16 years), her useless brothers, her drunken and abusive uncle who tries to rape her, and keep house. Sonia’s first person narrative brings light to the issue of the Latino community, the stereotypes, her innermost feelings of being treated like a servan t and her love for her first boyfriend who is from El Salvador. But when Sonia is sent away to Mexico (her domineering aunt felt she was possessed by the devil) she returns with a new respect of her roots. With the help of her guidance counselor and the strong love of her father, Sonia begins to regain her life. Teenagers will laugh and cry as they listen to Sonia’s strong voice express her anger, sorrow, and humor about her life and dreams. Sitomer captures the essence of high school culture and teen issues. Recommended by School Library Journal, Booklist, Horn Book, and Kirkus Reviews.

HS: This unique story by Whitcomb is a fascinating journey of the Christian-based vision of the afterlife. Calder, a 19 year-old boy who died 350 years ago, is a Fetch, a person who has died and now escorts souls of the dead to heaven. When Calder was summoned to the Death Scene of a young boy, he prevents the death because he falls in love with a mortal girl, a girl he assumes is the boy’s nanny. Years later, he is summoned to the Death Scene of Grigori Rasputin. He convinces Rasputin to allow him to take over his body for three days with a promise to take Rasputin to heaven. But strange things occur. Calder has violated his vows as a Fetch, and in doing so, causes a major rupture among the Lost Souls. Calder discovers that the “nanny” he fell in love with years ago is actually the Tsarina Alexandra, wife to Nicholas II. Calder gifts two of the Romanov children immortality after the brutal execution of the Romanov family and th e Russian Revolution. To try and heal the mayhem among the Lost Souls, Calder, along with Anastasia (Ana) and Alexei (Alexis in the story) travel around the world in search of his lost key to the Death Door that allows the souls to enter heaven. Up until this point the story moves quickly but begins to drag and is a bit confusing as Calder and the Romanov children travel the world. Whitcomb’s rich descriptions of the imagined afterlife are remarkable. This book is challenging and will lead readers to interesting discussions on the Romanovs and the afterlife. Starred in Bookist. Recommended in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.

Pre-school – Elementary
Eileen Spinelli has written a lovely little tale about keeping the peace. Miss Fox’s is sick of the bickering in her class and comes up with the concept of Peace Week, no quarreling, be nice to each other and help others. Her class is surprised how easy it turns out to be and how great the returns are as all the children make an effort to get along. Even though the final line is, “Let’s make every week Peace Week!”, Spinelli gets her message across without being too preachy. Children will enjoy reading about the common things that cause arguments and ways of settling them. The book can be used as a jumping off point for discussions on peaceful living. The illustrations are bright, cheerful with wonderfully expressive faces on the animal characters.
 

M.S. H.S.
Jesse is a teen without a nation. Found as a newborn on an abandoned ship at sea, he is raised by an assortment of foster families until he ends up in the sleepy college town of Longview, Iowa. His college-professor foster parents are good to him, and while he tries to lie-low (to stay off of Homeland Security’s radar...he’s a being watched as a possible terrorist), he begins to settle in to his new life. Honor Clarke, however, comes to town (from Indonesia) and literally all hell breaks loose. The two of them find themselves in the middle of a war between the forces of light and darkness of Balinese mythology, and Jesse learns what his true purpose is. He is forced to reexamine what he believes to be real, and make choices that put himself, his beliefs, and his new-found family, at peril.

In spite of the demonic antagonist(s), eastern mysticism, magic and mythological characters, the story gives a strong nod to Christianity, and people of faith are represented without being caricatures. The mix of “main-line” American-style protestant Christianity with the exotic elements from Bali make for an interesting and unexpected setting, giving the work a nice tension.

The book moves along well for the most part, but goes completely berserk at the end. Certainly, “all hell breaking loose” would be expected to take on that characteristic, but as a piece of writing, The Demon Queen’s ending seems both rushed and too implausible, given the overall pace and tone of the book. Too much remains unexplained for the reader to follow along with Jesse’s fulfillment of his destiny, and while some elements are nicely balanced and developed, those strengths make the more random-feeling events seem more, well, random. We were warned...we wouldn’t want to be around for the demon queen’s arrival on this world; but more distressing, the story was perhaps subjected to a bit too-severe editing for length in a final draft. km
 

M.S. H.S.
Yolanda is the young daughter of an Occitanian count during the turbulent days of the Thirteenth-century inquisition in a region being eyed by the king of France. While trying to decide where her heart truly lies, young Yolanda is forced to choose between her childhood friend Raimon, for whom feelings of love are emerging, and the dashing French Knight, Sir Hugh. Subject to the manipulations of an ambitious brother who is willing to sacrifice his neighbors who are of the incorrect religious sect, Yolanda tries to make the best of a bad situation. The sudden reappearance of the Blue Flame, a symbol of unity for the Occitanain people, stirs hope...and fear...among the stakeholders in this first of the Perfect Fire Trilogy.

There were several anachronisms (characters’ motivations, especially) that proved distracting, and the “magic” elements of the Blue Flame were hardly compelling. While some of the characters were interesting (Sir Hugh, for example), others seemed too cliché or one-dimensional (the White Wolf, for one). While this book received a starred review by another reviewer, I felt it was “so-so,” especially compared to K. M. Grant’s other trilogy (The Blood Red Horse).
km

M.S. H.S.
Caleb, the protagonist, is a high-school slacker and, worse than that, has been blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong at Screech Neck High School (including collapsing the school’s gym). Enticed by his girlfriend to join a school club focused on fulfilling your wishes, Caleb learns the hard way that wanting something does not make it so. But the most interesting and relevant lesson is about how following the crowd can lead you to destruction, while doing the right think may leave you standing alone. In the end, doing what you feel is right is the only course, however. The Rule of Won is an entertaining and thought-provoking exploration into the mentality of groups (cults, gangs and fads), as well as being a fun read. Recommended for high school, but appropriate for older middle-school readers as well (there’s no objectionable content).
km
 

P.S. E.S.
Henry is excited when he finds a red hat on a park bench. He asks his mother if he can keep it and imagines a host of things he could do with the hat. He imagines how it could keep the sun and rain off him, it could help him to catch mice, and could help save his life (he imagines a crocodile with the hat wedged between its teeth). His mother asks him if he thought someone else might need it and that causes Henry to reconsider his choice. The same scenarios are recounted with the hat missing from the action, and Henry decides to leave the hat on the bench.
Illustrations are done in pen and ink and successfully complement the story.