Age: Preschool-2nd grade
Travel: Europe

I'm torn about this book. I really liked the different places and the artwork. There's also a neat inside cover to mark the travels of City Cat and end papers on each landmark that City Cat visits. Kids will also enjoy finding City Cat in each picture. Unfortunately, there is no plot, no written identification of each location (except in the end papers) with a slightly jarring rhyme scheme so it gets boring really fast. I think children will start to zone it out and just get excited with the search-and-find of the cat.

Age: Preschool-1st grade
Clothing: Scarves

Mo is quite the trendsetter, but he doesn't realize it until everyone begins copying him. He just wants to enjoy his mustache but everyone else with mustaches kinda takes the magic away. But his friends convince him that he's a fashion guru and he seems to be pretty happy with that.

Age: Preschool-3rd grade
Things that go: Historical train ride
Nonfiction: History
Award: Caldecott 2014

Fact-hungry kids will be climbing aboard this detail-driven book about the iron horses of the past (1869, to be exact). Floca provides an amazing presentation of historical facts paired with sound effects, cool font (to break up the text), and fantastic pictures full of cool angles and movement. This is definitely a book for younger kids that want to learn as much about trains as they can.

Age: Kindergarten-2nd grade
Local: Chicago
Siblings: 2 brothers

The idea of this story was an imaginative use of storytelling from the "wise" older brother, but the story becomes too aloof at times. Chicago attracts all lost balloons due to "science, migration patterns, and wind tunnels created by invisible jets," says older brother Zeke. Zeke goes on to describe the life of Frank, balloon wrangler. But Frank is not happy, and this is where the story becomes a little odd. Frank is tired of the irregular hours of his job so he imagines building a robot to take over. Little brother, Theo, and Zeke decide to send Frank words of encouragement via balloon--which convince Frank to start building. Yup.

Age: Preschool-Kindergarten
Food: Gluten allergy

A very simple story for young children with gluten allergies. This story avoids the didactic by focusing on a birthday party that happens to include a birthday girl that is allergic to gluten. Lots of fun is had and finally the birthday cake comes out, but one boy is sitting alone outside. We find out that the boy also has a gluten allergy and the unnamed narrator invites him in, explaining that the cake is safe to eat for him and her.

Rhyming and simple (which will not provide all the answers for kids), the book concludes with recipe end papers and tips for friends and family with gluten allergies.

Age: Kindergarten-2nd grade

This is one of my favorite tech vs. real life books out there. It doesn't belittle the use of technology but it shows that, maybe, tablets aren't the only thing to have fun with.

Dot is tech-savvy and she knows all the lingo. She knows how to tap, to touch, to tweet, and to tag. When Dot feels a bit overloaded, mom tells her to go outside and "reboot, recharge, restart!" Zuckerberg then craftily uses the same tech words to interact with the real world.

Age: 3rd-6th
Fantasy: Superheroes
First sentence: "The safest town on Earth?" thought Daniel. "Couldn't sound lamer."

A fun delve into superpowers that isn't awash with silliness. We start out with a really intriguing prologue of Michael's 13th birthday. His friends are distant and his room is covered in pictures of a flying boy that say "You can fly." His mind is foggy until finally the confusion blows away and a little voice in his head tells him that it is time to put away childish things. And he never flew again.

From here we follow the story of Daniel, an ordinary boy that moves into Noble's Green. The first friends he meets turn out to be kids with superpowers. But when they turn 13, their superpowers vanish and so do their memories. His new friends ask Daniel, an aficionado of Sherlock Holmes, to solve the mystery of the disappearing powers.

The writing was a breeze but it didn't seem to belittle the audience. The mystery was held strong throughout the book. Cody also presents some very interesting philosophical questions about greed and power and feeling powerless. Although I kind of wanted Daniel to discover a superpower at the end, I appreciated that Cody kept him "powerless," giving a unique angle to superhero stories.

Spoiler

The book ends with an invitation to read more: Who is Johnny Noble? Is he really still alive? When will the meteor hit? Will the children's passion for justice be overshadowed by human faults such as jealousy and greed?

Age: Middle School-High School

As a nice, quick summer read, this does its duty but there were some obnoxious parts that I couldn't get around. The protagonist has a unique, yet slightly annoying, perfectionist personality. She's top of her class and can't wait to enter college as a second-year student (due to all her AP credits and college courses). I've never came across this scenario in YA lit so it was refreshing.

One thing that bothered me was that Mara's veganism becomes an obstacle that she must overcome to prove her growth as a character. This sucks because I was excited to read a book about a vegan character. There are also a few slight homophobic statements that were slid into the story for no real reason.

Age-research: 4th-middle school
Age-interest level: middle school-high school

What a fantastic, yet unfortunately overlooked, nonfiction collection of 20 great and influential musical artists. The layout is fantastic and very eye-cacthing with pulled out quick facts, a playlist of top songs, and quotes of artists inspired by these game-changers. The bios are two pages but full of great facts, dates, names, and info. And the illustrations of each artists reflect their style and are just gorgeous! Each artist receives 4 pages, so no one receives special treatment. And the authors themselves were influential in music.

Overall, a phenomenally well put-together collection of legends, icons, and rebels. Thank you!