Age: Toddler-Preschool

Perfect for grabbing the attention of very young storytime crowds with a ton of onomatopoeias, little text, and big illustrations.

Age: Preschool-1st grade
Family: Siblings, new siblings

A fresh take on the new sibling story. Petey the sheep is loving his life. He loves to sing, he loves to knit, he can even shear himself! But, things change and Petey finds himself with 12 new brothers. Now, everything he does, his brothers do, too. How annoying! How can Petey escape all those copy cats?

Age: Kindergarten-3rd grade

The King lion invites ant to his annual start of the spring dinner where ant meets several other rather rude animals. After dinner, the lion brings a large cake to be shared amongst the guests. Elephant has first dibs and thinks to himself, "I could eat this in one bite but that might seem greedy." So he cuts the cake in half and passes the rest to the next guest. On and on the cake goes, getting cut in half again and again until the tiny morsel reaches the ant. Unable to cut it in half any more, the other animals scoff at her for her greediness. In reparations, she plans to bake a cake for the lion tomorrow. Well, that's not fair to the other animals! Each one wanting to out-do the next multiples the previous animal's offering by two, with elephant declaring to bring 256 peanut-butter pound cakes. Only one animal's promise pans out in the end.

I love the inside cover showing a very clear picture of the cake divided in half each time, accompanied with fractions.

Age: Toddler-Preschool
Family: Older brother with baby brother

Age: 5th-8th grade
Family: Parents

"In the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, a young girl named Minli spends her days working hard in the fields and her nights listening to her father spin fantastic tales about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon. Minli’s mother, tired of their poor life, chides him for filling her head with nonsense. But Minli believes these enchanting stories and embarks on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man of the Moon and ask him how her family can change their fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest" (Goodreads feature review).

I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of folktales coming to life. Reminiscent of historical fiction due to the simple, rural life and no technology but it is not set during a specific time. Beautiful (but few) pictures accompany some parts of the text. A lovely message to prize the relationships in your life above all else.

Age: Preschool+

Kel Gilligan takes on such astounding stunts as going on the potty, getting dressed, and waiting for mom to get off the phone. Big, bold graphics accompany these childhood feats. An action-packed celebration of first experiences.

Family: Girl cousins
Familiar experience: Getting glasses

A well-written niche-filler for kids that need glasses--glamorous glasses.

Age: 1st-4th grade
Travel: America

Better suited for older ages because there's no real demanding plot, other than traveling across the country. In regards to that, this would be an excellent classroom addition for units on travel and geography in the USA. Fun, bopping rhymes but the plot starts to get a little monotonous.

When you're reading this book, one bit of advice: suspend ALL disbelief. The concept for this book was fabulously original. The author wanted his climax to exist in a well-loved piece of literature, which was finely executed. Thursday was very James Bond driven to action by instinct and not emotion. She was complex, intriguing, and bad ass. Other than the originality and Thursday's character, everything else turned into white noise. There was an insane amount of sci fi elements accompanied with too many different side stories for my comfort. Too bad as I LOVED the concept.

"Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide" (Back cover synopsis).

What in the world...

This about sums up my reaction

I can see children not caring about all the plot holes, but they were very distracting. Also, talk about cultural insensitivity.