Some kids and a dog play a game of “go and yet”. The narrator says go and get something with a letter. The kids bring back something obvious, and the dog always brings something back not as obvious. This book is repetitive but in a way that makes sense. It is cute and the illustrations are lovely. However, it’s not special. It feels like something you have seen and read before. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just a usual thing. This book will be one that is Loved but does not have lasting staying power. 

 

This wonderfully illustrated picture book is about a little girl waiting for EID, which is a celebration of the end of Ramadan. The story is nice but as someone who is not Islamic, I needed more information. That information is provided at the end of the book which makes the story more understandable. It’s well done. It’s entertaining and it’s interesting. It can be a little long, so this is not so much a bedtime story for a lot of people, but it still works and still valuable. 

 

This is a fun rhyming book. The best part of this book is probably the illustrations. There is so much to talk about. First off the dog is done in paint while the cat is done in colored pencil. And the two are separate, but together on the page. As the story progresses, or the animals find safety, their art forms merge creating a third form of art within these books. The way the author has welded the art in this book to tell a story of the feelings of the animals is masterful. This book is an only beautiful, but it hits on so many emotions besides just the happy-go-lucky rhyming pattern of the story. 

 

This book is full of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes children love and enjoy. What makes this book unique is the inclusion or the replacement of some words with their Hindi counterpart. This is a great way to learn new words in Hindi as well as a chance to enjoy some amazingly beautiful artwork. 

 

This is about an introverted little girl who doesn’t want to make friends or be around other people. She gets a new dog that must be taken outside and she slowly gets used to people and eventually makes her own friend. I understand this story and maybe because we’re going through this with my niece I don’t like this story. Mainly because we already have dogs and that doesn’t help. The story is fine. Illustrations are nice. It’s just not my thing. 

 

It took just the right book for a goat to start reading and stop eating books. The same goat became a book seller and found a love of picking the right book for the right person. Until the day another goat comes into the bookshop and starts eating every book they’re handed. But goat number one must figure out how to get goat number two to like books to read and not eat just as much as go one. This book was fun. There’s no other way to put it. As a librarian, I understand the sentiment of finding just the right book for the right person. I’m lucky that nobody’s eating my books (usually). But that excitement you get of not only reading the right book but finding the right book for somebody else. It’s a chef kiss feeling and this book of votes it perfectly. The illustrations that go with it are fantastic and the right tone for the story. 

 

Normally, when I I think about Doreen Cronin, I think about click clack moo cows that type. Most of her books are fun and campy. This book is more serious. A baby sloth falls out of a tree and must wait for Mom to come collect them. But sloths are very slow. mama has the baby noticed the world around them while they wait. This book is sweet, but I think what makes this book as good as it is is the illustrations. I didn’t realize that Brian Cronin was an illustrator, but their use of black and a few bright colors placed at the right time brings this book to life. 

 

This is Beth Rivas at her best. This is a fun space romp adventure that manages to pack a ton of action and intrigue into a very small space. The book is not a romance, but has romance in it that makes all readers want to continue flipping the pages. We start with a salvager who is in distress and puts out a help call to another ship. She’s picked up by the rescue ship and becomes a temporary member of their crew to help with the current mission. Who was really in charge and what was really going on. This book fires on all levels. 

 

This is James Bond meets a Christmas Story. We have a big tough spy who must get two microchips from two different locations put them together and get them delivered. We have a chemical scientist who is quite a bit of a ditz trying to get over the breakup with her boss. The two end up accidentally coming together and then the spy must follow our chemist around for a while. Turns out he slipped her the microchip to get the chip out of them mall but now we have to get the chip back. This is a love story and it does work. I was not the biggest fan of the readers as I listen to this on audiobook. They weren’t bad readers. They just felt young. Made the characters feel very high school and very ditzy for what is an adult romance novel. This book is steamy not spicy, but it was a fun romp for the holidays. 

 

This book packs quite a bit into a few pages. You have the only black boy and a white school. You have ghosts and frights and other things that go bump in the night. You have LGBTQ factors. As well as school shootings, death and everything else. Florida recently banned this book and it’s not hard to guess why. Do I think that book deserves to be banned… absolutely not. This book has a heaviness to it. The overarching idea is that Jake is trying to keep the ghost of a serial killer school shooter From killing anybody else. But he has to deal with his issues of being in the LGBTq community and how that affects his family. Parts of this book were completely stereotypical and other parts were unique. Overall, this is a very interesting read, but there is a lot there.