This book is supposed to be about the cancer sign and being a crab in astrology. I really enjoyed the illustrations, but overall the story is too long, drawn out and extremely repetitive. This book was a DNF. As a reader, it was boring and not keeping the entrance interest of the audience. I wanted to like this book since I love the illustrations but unfortunately no, and it will keep me from trying any other book in the series. 

 

This board book coming from Happy Yak is all about who made it stink. Was it the gorillas’ teeth, the crocodile’s eggs, or the penguin’s fart? It’s up to the reader to solve the mystery. This board book is interactive with flaps and pull the tabs. The illustrations are fun and exciting, and this could be a habitual read from any child. 

 

This is a quick fun rhyming read that would be great for story time. Overall, there is nothing new or spectacular and while the illustrations are different, they were also very reminiscent of Tom Parr. All together works for a book that would be read over and over and over again. 

 

Walter is a snail who is tired of living amongst the leaves. He wants to move fast explore high, explore far, and explore different places. That is not what snails do, but with the right type of friends they can. We follow Walter on his adventure and realizing that there is a need for a home, and sometimes you need to go back. This story has been done many times before but what sets this one separate from others are the amazingly wonderful and fun illustrations. Happy Yak books has been able to take more mundane in stories and make them something that kids are going to want to read over and over and over again. 

 

David Hockney is not an artist this reader knows or had ever heard of before. And while this book isn’t anything different from the other little people, big dreams series it did create a want to find out more about this artist and see their actual works. That’s one of the things I often find missing in this series. They suggest with the story of the person, but in an artist case, the person goes with the work, and the style isn’t even represented anywhere in this artwork, which is a shame. Overall, this book led to want the reader wanting to know more information but for the book itself it’s bland and boring and there are better books in the series. 

 

There’s something about this book that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Charles has so much history that while this book is trying to cover parts it’s also purposely leaving out lots of things. I do applaud them for their mention of his first bride before his marrying of Camilla And I am happy that wasn’t left out. However, this book tries to make him out to be this well-intentioned, always happy, always loving individual. And for kids, I guess it works. But for this adult reader, it just seems too happy go lucky in a Holly Golightly way to make this a joy to read. I’m glad there’s something about King Charles, but it might be too soon for this book. 

 

This is a history lesson, most people in the North American continent need. This is based on the true story of the author’s grandmother, who unfortunately had to live through the residential schools in Canada. The story is told of her being cold and hungry and abused, and how these little girls were ingenious and sewed secret pockets and stole away in the middle of the night to the kitchen to steal food to feed themselves and their friends, because the priests and nuns were not sharing. This is a part of American and Canadian history that has not been taught and it has only been with the recent findings of mass graves that the schools have hit the news and people have started to learn what happened. It’s stories like this that tell why these events are important, not just now, but into our future as we watch our modern society once again, trying to “other” different groups of people into nothingness. 

 

This is one of multiple books in the Lucy series. Lucy joins a baseball team and learns that it’s OK to be a little afraid to get hit by the ball. The book has a nice rhyming pattern that keeps moving the story forward, the cadence works, and all-around. This is just a fun reading. I do like that it’s showing a girl playing baseball and not just the boys. 

 

The subtitle of a contraceptive journey made me think this would be a completely different book. I thought it be about women’s reproduction or things going wrong with trying to have babies. Nope not in this book. This is about the authors time, and use of male contraceptive, particularly the heat method. This was very informative and interesting, and the author is originally from France, so some of the history is new to an American reader. Apparently, this is a web comic or was available other places before it was in print, and in the book’s the author talks about the hetero normative experience, which is, interesting. The author approaches it’s not just in a straightforward, clinical way, but with a personality and in a reference fun that makes you want to know what is going to happen next. Male contraception is almost never heard of besides vasectomies in the US, this was a very intriguing and interesting read. And this reader learned many, many new things. 

 

Based on cover and description alone, this book was not what I was expecting. It’s a little girl and a dragon making scones together. At first the illustrations were a little off putting, but I grew to love them. However, the font with the illustrations doesn’t work. It seems self-published in the “not great” way. And the story is simple but works. I think with some other touches here and there (i.e. layout and coloring)  this could be a fabulous book that Libraries carry for years.