Age: K-2nd grade

True text about this in-between age and trying to fit into the family dynamic. The illustrations are great and the storyline is compelling but it could have gone without the rhyming text, which lowers age appeal.

Describes the mood, sound, and style that each instrument brings to each member of a girl's family and vice versa.

Age: 6th-8th grade
First person narrative

Plot: The death of a son and a brother is a hard toll to take. The unexpected death of a son and a brother for no reason pushes a family into fear, despair, confusion, and isolation. Two years after his brother is killed, Mann still cannot step onto his house's porch where Jason was shot by some kid the same age as Mann. His mother still bakes cakes for Mann on his birthday and his father becomes abusive and overprotective. While the father wants to protect Mann, his means of protection result in a far disturbing ending.

In a last attempt to teach Mann how to survive, his father abandons Mann and his best friend, Kee-Lee, on a camping trip where they must travel several weeks through the unforgiving wilderness and experience belittling racism on their journey home. Finally home, Mann's father throws Mann onto the streets in order for him to "figure out the man you wanna be" (187). Mann and Kee-Lee go to Kee-Lee's money-scrounging Aunt to live in a house filled with misery and gambling. Once she finds out that both boys like to paint, she exploits their talents. After Kee-Lee threatens and abuses one customer for not paying, the man shoots and kills Kee-Lee. With no one left, Mann lives on the streets stealing purses, begging for money, and drinking. He finally finds refuge in the run-down stable he used to frequent as a child. He attempts to nurse two dying horses back to life where his father soon finds him.

The majority of this book is tragic and very real. While the issues described are somewhat manipulated to keep the reader interested, the characters have excellent depth and provide various perspectives of an area ravaged by shootings and death. Also, the tragedies aren't sugar-coated but provide real reactions and coping mechanisms like family and art.

Quotes: "'So I figure,' Kee-Lee says, 'If I'm gonna die, why I gotta waste the time I do got sitting in school learning stuff I won't use'" (14).

Father: "'Grace, don't you know that black boys is for hunting and killing and burying?" (100).

Age: Toddler-Preschool
Food: Picky eater

Cat is bored of his yucky cat food and asks several of his animal friends what they eat. Turtle eats worms, Fox eats rabbits, Monkey eats ants, Lion eats zebras, Elephant eats grass, and Whale eats bioluminescent phytoplankton. But not all of these are eaten without complications. Some are wiggly, some are bouncy, and some are just too hard to say. In the end, a little mouse stumbles upon Cat in all his hangriness and Cat finally finds out her perfect food. Listeners can interpret the ending for poor mouse without seeing it happen.

Cat's face doesn't hold much variety in her reactions but the illustrations are large and perfect for reading aloud. This would make a great introduction to animal food chains.

Age: Preschool-2nd grade

Words have power. They can build someone up or tear them down. Neal provides a very straightforward lesson about how words can transform a person for better or worse through two delightful line drawings of a girl and a cat. Simple illustrations full of emotion and feeling are juxtaposed against a stark white background that makes the images pop in a read-aloud setting.

The line repeated 5 times throughout the book is about your heart--"The little bit inside of you that makes you, you!"The repetition is perfect for a younger audience to make the idea stick and to use it throughout a classroom's curriculum.

Truly a sweet addition to any unit on bullying as young children begin to be more expressive through their words.

Age: Preschool-Kindergarten
Concept Skill: Color-Blue
STEM: Aspiring Astronaut

"On the night of the blue moon, anything can happen." Awash in shades of blue, a boy and his cat take a familiar nighttime stroll through a forest that appears to be subtly changing before their eyes. Rowing out onto a lake that had never been there before, the boy and his cat are transported to the moon where they delight in the adventure. It soon becomes lonely and the boy and cat return home--but not without the inspiration to return as we see the boy in his room surrounded with space travel posters, shuttles, and a telescope tipped towards the sky.

Age: Toddler-Preschool
Family: Grandma and grandchild
Animals: Bears

Continuing her easy read-aloud family series, Ritchie presents the joys of being with grandma as the little cub and her explore the great outdoors. Grandma is quite nimble in this book, cartwheeling and diving in the water, which is a refreshing look at what Grandma's can do. Nothing spectacularly new but will be appreciated by reader and listener alike.

Age: Preschool-Kindergarten
Math: Opposites

Cats come in all shapes and sizes and this brown-skinned, purple haired girl can't get enough of them. Bouncing text make this a delightful read-aloud but is best read in the lap where kids can fully see each cat on each page.

Age: Preschool-1st grade
Emotions: Being Scared

Everything scared Sam. He was the ultimate, the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world. And then he met the second-most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world: Kerry. A decent amount of this book is spent on Sam and Kerry yelling and pointing at each other, which is a great story, in-and-of itself. As they discover that they have many things in common, and many different interests, Sam and Kerry develop a solid friendship.

This would make an excellent going-back-to school book or starting a new experience book where making friends is challenge, especially for all the scaredy-cats in the world.

Age: Preschool
Family: Father and child

Delightfully repulsive words and laugh-inducing monsters will make this a cherished love story between dad and child.