I love Olivia, but this one is just not as solid as the original. Olivia's mother is taking them to the fireworks and Olivia wants to know if there will be a band, because there has to be a fireworks band. When her mother assumes not, Olivia decides that she'll be the band. While cute, the plot sort of meanders then when Olivia finishes being a band and focuses on other things like her make-up. The images, however, are always worth the price of admission and the crash-bang-twink-ploink noises of Olivia's band make for a fun read-aloud.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/storytime-22211.html

Beautifully drawn Ivy loves to give presents to the people (and animals) in her life, but she doesn't always get it right (glasses for the dog, tea for the chicken). Cute and silly at times, Ivy's story is very sweet when she does give the right gifts and her sister gives her a gift in return. A nice story in the vein of "it's better to give than receive" and about sharing. A nice short read-aloud with lovely illustrations and fun for the kids to point out Ivy's mistakes.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/storytime-22211.html

The simplest Willems for the youngest use, but really perhaps too simple. I agree with a reviewer who stated this might be better suited as a board book than in picture book form. It's saved by the alien/monster at the end ("Blarggie Blarggie!") and a sweet message, though.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/storytime-22211.html

I read this for storytime yesterday, and while it's cute, it's only just an okay read. Far and away the best part of the whole book is Dandelion the stuffed ostrich, who helps Tony Baloney with his problems by sitting and taking notes like a psychiatrist, and is clearly the source of any trouble going on. The dynamics between Tony Baloney and his siblings (one older and bossy and twin babies) doesn't ring quite as true. Also, I had to stop and explain the word "exasperated" to the kids, and while new vocabulary is always good, they wouldn't have figured it out on their own from the context. There's a cute gimmick in the writing, where Tony says things like, "for twenty years, or maybe just an hour", but it doesn't flow in the narrative very well, although that could've just been from reading it for the first time.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/storytime-22211.html

Originally I gave this book four stars because it's super adorable and I anticipated some awesomeness with storytime. I still think it's really cute, but it doesn't translate to storytime quite like I hoped. The interactive bits are great, my kids were fabulous meowers, but there's a LOT of pages where the cats are just staring at you listening. Almost like the pauses in Dora the Explorer, only you don't actually need that in the a storybook. Still, very cute and interactive.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/storytime-22211.html

This is, straight up, a SUPER cute book. Four diverse little girls, Emily, Ashley, Kaitlyn and Claire, go shoe shopping. Yeah, it's a pretty simple plot. But it has a lovely rhyming structure of all the different and wacky shoes they try on. And it's full of gorgeous drawings by LeUyen Pham, who also illustrated Julianne Moore's Freckleface Strawberry.

There's really not too much else to say. This one I wouldn't say even just relegates to girly girls, since they aren't just looking at fancy shoes, but all sorts of fun and wild shoes. A great read aloud with gorgeous pictures and four fabulous little girls.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/pink-stories-for-girls-that-youll-want.html

I'll admit it, at first I was a little put off by David Shannon's illustrations, both in this and his No, David! series. They're kind of creepy, with lopsided arms and big spaces between the teeth and other adults I've spoken to have said the same. However, I've never heard a kid say anything of the sort, they just love his books. So I gave Shannon a chance.

Alice's story is telling you all about how she's a Temporary Fairy and all the things that means she can do (and some things that only Permanent Fairies can do). Alice is more precocious than bratty, even when she's trouble, there's some sense of remorse, or at least that she knows she's done something wrong, instead of Penelope's indignance. Plus frankly it's just cute (using her fairy magic, she turns her dad's cookies into hers). Alice is a little girl with flaws and humor and she's even a little self-effacing which really works for the story. Really cute and wonderful.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/pink-stories-for-girls-that-youll-want.html

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/yeah-people-really-like-this-book-but-i.html

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/yeah-people-really-like-this-book-but-i.html

I absolutely adored the American Girl books growing up, so with some time to kill in Barnes & Noble yesterday, I decided to pick up one of the ones that had come out in the time since I was the target audience.

Rebecca Rubin is a Russian-Jewish girl in New York City in 1914. And while I'm pleased they've tackled this era of immigrant families in turn of the century New York and also Jewish families, there was just too much exposition on the culture and traditions. I felt like instead of telling the story, everything needed to stop and be explained. Furthermore, there isn't a whole lot of story besides. Rebecca wants to be an actor like her cousin, but mostly she just wants people to stop thinking of her as little. Most of the book was focused on Rebecca's whining about one thing or another. Even when she sold her linens to pay for her (starving) cousin's way to America, she whinged about how angry her family would be with her. She's just not as likable a character as I come to expect from these books, and the storytelling lagged.

I did want to check to make sure this wasn't just my adult self rejecting something I would have enjoyed when I was nine. So I picked up [b:Meet Kirsten: An American Girl|508211|Meet Kirsten An American Girl (American Girls Collection)|Janet Beeler Shaw|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175361755s/508211.jpg|829132], which was my favorite growing up for lots of reasons, least of all the fact that she had my last name and so that was the doll I ended up with. But Meet Kirsten held up to my standards. Without being explicit or as dark as things probably really were, it still gave a solid feeling of immigrating to the United States, with both real tragedy and joy. It's a story, and teaches you about another culture without being a Social Studies lesson.

For the Jewish aspect, some books I would recommend instead would include [b:All-of-a-Kind Family|7926|All-of-a-Kind Family|Sydney Taylor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165651782s/7926.jpg|361114], about a large Jewish family in turn-of-the-century New York City, that includes a lot about Jewish culture and holidays without beating you over the head with it. Or a great book about Russian-Jewish immigrants at the time would be [b:Letters from Rifka|842130|Letters from Rifka|Karen Hesse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178826482s/842130.jpg|1336752], although it would be for a slightly older child.

Read my full review and comparisons to other books at my blog: http://shorteasywordsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/meet-rebecca-american-girl.html