This is the type of biography for children that I wish "Little People Big World" would write. This book happens to be about Minda  Dentler. She was the first disabled woman to compete and win an Iron Man world championship. This story starts with how Minda lost the use of her legs, which was polio, and how she was adopted and came to the states, and how her parents always told her she could do anything as long as she could figure it out. It was that tenacity that helped Minda never shy away from doing something she loved. The readers see and feel that love in the pages of this book. Not only is the story interesting and joyous, the illustrations are just as fun and give a vibrancy that makes someone want to keep turning the pages and read this more than once.

This is exactly what you expect from the title. It takes place in Tokyo, and a man is pregnant. Not a trans man, a biological man. It starts by telling you that genetics has changed and for the past 10 years men have been able to get pregnant.  Our main character is single and has become pregnant and we as the readers see their pregnancy in context of society. This pregnant man is treated almost as if he was a pregnant teenager in the US. First off people are wondering if he’s gay or had sex with another man since they’re pregnant. Then people are debating if he should have the baby. There there were the arguments that a pregnant man is unnatural and what is he gonna do without a woman. The main character also debates with themselves frequently about should I keep it are should I abort.  However, there’s no simple abortion for men. It’s a full on weeklong recovery abdominal surgery because there’s no birth canal. This book isn’t crazy, it’s just boring. I wanted to like it. I thought it would be fun and I find that there’s so much commentary on how society feels about pregnant men that I have no interest in continuing.

This book is just sad. I cannot finish it. It’s a memoir of a woman who is constantly wanting to run away from home, but has return home when her mother with dementia falls ill. She has to do what she can to take care of her mom while laminating her brother‘s death and her sisters indifference. These two can’t get along. Most of this book at the halfway point has been how she feels about her mom and a little bit about her mom‘s history,  It's also about what she hates about living in the US. There are some interesting things, for example death as a character shows up on multiple pages and even talks with the protagonist.  Death is looming over the entire story. The reader knows where this book is headed but I have no desire to get there. It’s sad the protagonist is unlikable and I really have no desire to finish this book.

 

This is a fun rhyming book. The information is pretty usual. However, the illustrations are amazing and the author does their rhymes so well that this book is a joy to read. 

This book is a little odd to review, I feel two different ways about it. This book is about two brother slugs that head off on adventure, and one day get stopped by a crow asking "where is your home?". The younger brother feels bad and off because he doesn’t have a home while the other brother thinks the my world is my home. But the younger brother slips away  from older brother and creates his own home. The two brothers are cautious of each other because they are now different. This book reads like a Kipling Just So Story, except it’s much sadder and has a different connotation. When I read this, I see the plight of a homeless person the argument from some that the world is their home. Or how the homeless can  feel separate and different from their family. However the back of the book we learn that this is a story passed down from a Traveler. According to the book, Travelers are a nomadic tribe of Irish people. Being a story that is passed down, and the implications of the Traveler culture, that changes the story a bit. Knowing that bit at the end makes this story have two very different meanings. However, this book still feels sad. The illustrations are beautiful but this is not a story I would want to read over and over and over again. Just for the feeling left when you close the pages.

This was really cute. It’s about found family being the only family you need. It’s about being kind and gentle and learning who you are. The illustrations are really fun and while this book does look self published, It’s like the best side of self published. This is apparently a second book and I really would like to read the first one. This book was fun and gorgeous and full of heart.

This is a cute picture book about a penguin that loses their stuffy. They’re stuffy is their best friend and they take it everywhere until one day when they are so tired Mikki Olson gets lost. Then the penguin spins the day trying to find Mikki. This book was lovely. The illustrations match And lots of kids well understand and enjoy the sentiments of this book.

 

I’m assuming this is supposed to be a board book. As a board book it does work. It’s a mama panda, telling the baby panda all the ways that she loves them. And the author does a good job rhyming, and has a few different ideas on the ways to relate their love. I did enjoy this for the act of reading, but it’s one of those board books that will be here and gone within five years . 

 

DNF. The illustrations led me to think this was a picture book and it’s a chapter book and I have no interest in it. 

This book is typical of this series. There is only enough information to give the reader an idea of who Sally ride was. But nothing in depth. Unfortunately for this book, they don’t cover enough things that make one more interested in going and learning about Sally, the first US female astronaut in space. I do like this series but it always just seems to brush the surface and there was so much to Sally Ride that could have been included in this book.