This is meant as a simple board book. It will be shaped as a fan that forms half-moons when open. The character and their pooch explore each different planet with the minimum of information. Being older, I miss Pluto being a planet, so this book feels off to me. Overall, it’s not bad but I’m not impressed enough to buy it from my library. 

 

May Jemison was the first black female astronaut for the US. When she was younger, she was told her dreams were too hard to attain, and she decided to prove everyone wrong. She was a star student, a medical doctor, and eventually an astronaut. She continues to help others achieve their dreams now that she saw some of hers. I love that this book shows how important education is, and that you can do and be anything no matter who you start out as in life. 

 

This is the soccer player I had never heard of until this book. He is relatively new having been born when I graduated high school. I loved that this book pointed out that not only was he a great soccer player, but an all-around great guy. During Covid lockdown, he helped ensure that children got fed and that on school holidays from now forward in England, children were fed. He used his celebrity, and his power to help others in need. I’m very excited to read this book and share it with others and show kids that they too at a young age can create great things. 

 

 

 

Book two is just as much fun as book one.  This time the team must travel to the center of the earth to save their cat.  They must save the cat from the volcanos, the heat, a crying goddess, and a Mexican wrestler. It is all tied up with the day of the dead.  This was such a fun book.  I am glad they exist and that there are at least 2 more. 

 

It is so hard to wrap my heard around this being a banned book.  The authors collected children’s sing songs and rhymes, and their variations across the US, put them in a book.  They talk about how and why these songs vary the meaning behind some of them.  It is full American childhood folklore.  I grew up with my dad singing these songs.  They always made me smile but I never knew how much of a cultural phenomenon they were.  They are largely gone today.  Most children do not know these, and they are not passed down like they were.  I love that not only do I have the memory of these rhymes and singsongs, but that someone took the time to collect them and write about them before they are gone forever.  So, pull up a bucket of mutilated monkey meat, and enjoy this history of gross songs from childhood. 

 

Overall I like this book. It’s about a dog Benny who goes with his owner Sam to school but can’t come in and proceeds to play in the playground until everybody else comes out and joins. This is a standard story and take the illustrations are wonderful. Maybe it’s the news about students getting attacked in bathrooms or the dogs loose in school that ends up harming people but there’s just something that well makes one feel a little off. I think it’s adorable. it just sits a funny way with me and I can’t exactly say why. I like this book but… 

 

Emma is a little worried that her first day of school and asked if she can wear her flamingo costume, so she has good strong wings. She gets to school and is feeling a little uneasy, until she meets the other kids who love her costume, and all students want to join in and play. This is typical for the topic. The illustrations are lovely and match the book quite well. This will be read quite heavily while it’s around but it’s not becoming a classic. 

 

This is a sing song, rhyming book about a kid and the monsters that they drew. The book rhymes decently well but it trips over its cadence repeatedly and ends abruptly at least in the form of cadence. The other problem I have is that sometimes the way the words are written hides in amongst the illustration and it’s hard to read. Overall, this book was lovely for any time of the year. However, once again, I don’t see it becoming a classic. 

 

The author does a great job of delving into multiple things about what lies underneath our surface. Between caves and rocks and dinosaurs, and everything else in between. They also cover how certain animals live in the rock. Techtronic plates and how they create earthquakes, etc. This book was quite comprehensive, and I really enjoyed the mix of real photographs with illustrations. All together it comes out to a fantastic nonfiction book for kids.