Alistair Underwater

Alistair Underwater                                                              
written by Marilyn Sadler
illustrated by Roger Bollen




And the streak continues, I absolutely LOVED this book!!!  Alistair is an "ordinary school boy" but a rather prim and proper, teacher's pet type.  He reminds the teacher to collect homework and experiments at home with his chemistry set.  On weekends he enjoys exploring the pond in his back yard.  He collects bugs, fish, and other creatures from the pond and studies them.  Alistair even builds a submarine to explore the bottom of his pond where he finds a vast system of tunnels.  While exploring these tunnels he happens upon a cavern inhabited by Frog People, they invite him to lunch and tell him of the monster that torments them, the Gooze.  Alistair tricks the Gooze and leads him away from the Frog People and loses him in the tunnels.  Confident that the Gooze would never again bother anyone Alistair returns home to his pond, only to realize the Gooze is there too.  Super cute book and apparently one of many Alistair adventures.  I for one will be looking for his other stories:  Alistair's Time Machine, Alistair in Outer Space, and Alistair's Elephant.

Alistair's room and pond

the Gooze

Star of the Week

Star of the Week                                                                                
written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg


We are on a winning streak people!  Another good one here, especially for children in elementary school.  Star of week follows a young boy, Stanley, who has been chosen as Star of the Week in his classroom.  He must bring things from home to share including his favorite snack and favorite toy and then must share something he likes to do with the class.  Well his favorite snack is met with disgust by the other students, they ridicule his toy and make fun of his drawing.  He saves the day by turning a squiggle into a cute worm and soon the whole class is doing what they call Squiggle Drawings!  A cute story about how not everyone likes the same things and finishing what you start (Stanley tries to quit as Star of the Week but his teacher thinks he needs to finish what he started).

cover

sharing his robot

The Stray Dog

The Stray Dog                                                                              
retold and illustrated by Marc Simont
from a true story by Reiko Sassa
A CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK

This is one of the cutest books I've seen lately, a super cute story and cute illustrations to match.  A family visits the park for a picnic and are visited by an adorable dog.  The children play with the dog all day and name him Willy.  At the end of the day the children want to take him home but the parents explain that he must belong to someone.  All week long at home the entire family thinks of Willy and the return to the park the next weekend awaiting Willy's visit.  Willy does appear but is chased by the dog catcher.  The children follow after and claim Willy as their dog.  They take him home and they live happily ever after.  Great book, great story that just about anyone can relate to.

cover

play day at the park

Millie waits for the Mail

Millie waits for the Mail                                                            
written and illustrated by Alexander Steffensmeier




Another winner!!!!  Cute story of a cow who enjoys scaring the mail man every morning.  She finds new hiding places each day and lays in wait, eventually jumping out and MOOOOOIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG at the mail carrier who jumps out of his skin every time.  She also chases him off the farm, the farmer of course isn't too pleases as all her packages arrive broken.  The mail man even has cow themed nightmares every night.  The mail carrier decides to make a package for Millie the cow to make her like him,  of course chaos in sues and the package is destroyed.  Milliie is upset and sits down hard......on top of the mail mans bicycle.  He can no longer deliver with his bike, now Millie is the mail carrier.  She carries all the mail for the mail man and he runs along to deliver it!!!  A cute story and even cuter illustrations!

cover

the chase

Omar's Halloween

Omar's Halloween                                                             
written and illustrated by Maryann Kovalski



A completely adorable Halloween themed book.  The story covers every child's most challenging decision of Fall...what to be for Halloween.  Omar wants to be something scary but is told by friends that a spider isn't scary, neither is a bat.  Halloween afternoon arrives and still Omar has no costume, his mother hands him the last minute ghost costume.  While trick or treating everyone says what a cute ghost he is, Omar is disappointed as he wanted to be scary not cute.  It begins to rain and Omar trips and gets separated form the pack heading for his house for the Halloween party.  He is wondering through the woods and gets muddy and covered in sticks and leaves.  Finally arriving home for the party he is suddenly the most terrifying creature they have seen, scaring everyone.  Making it "Omar's happiest Halloween."  This was a very cute story and has some of the most adorable illustrations I've ever seen.  A+ for Omar!!!!

front cover

inside trying costumes

scary Omar entering the party

Big Plans

Big Plans                                                                                      
written by Bob Shea
illustrated by Lane Smith (of The Stinky Cheese Man)        


I have given this book an F for one very simple reason...it sucks!!!  Okay that was harsh, obviously someone thought it was good because it got published.  Where to begin with this one?  Hmmm....okay it basically has no story line.  Look at the photos of the front and back covers of the book, that pretty much sums up the ENTIRE book.  You got a kid saying he has big plans, followed by some disjointed thoughts about what he will do with those plans.  He climbs a mountain and shouts " I got big plans, big plans I say."  He finds a bird and shouts it again thus gaining the bird as a supporter.  He goes to an office building and shouts it again at the workers there, he randomly wins a football game and shouts it again, gets declared mayor and shouts it some more, he becomes president and shouts it again...and well you get the idea.  I kept checking the back of the final page wondering when the story would start.  The illustrations are okay not my favorite I've ever seen but okay.  Bottom line, don't waste your time or your kids time by reading them this one.

the front

the back

Red Is a Dragon - A book of Colors

Red Is a Dragon - A Book of Colors          

written by Roseanne Thong

illustrated by Grace Lin

Overall I've given this title a grade of B, its good but its not spectacular.  While I do enjoy the rhyming text of the book I have some issues with the illustrations.  Its a color book people, if you're talking about orange crabs then you'd better make the crabs orange for pete's sake.  I'm sorry but those "orange crabs" on the 5th and 6th page sure look RED to me.  Don't give my kids a "color" book thats only going to confuse them.  My four year old even looks at it and says "those crab not orange."  For that matter the "orange" seashell doesn't look orange either.  But again the story itself is nice, I am a huge fine of rhyming, a Dr. Seuss fan through and through.  I also rather enjoy the glossary in the back of the book, this being a color book based on Chinese culture (hints the dragon) it was nice to find the answer to my question of "what on earth is a lychee?"

check out the "orange" crab