Alphabet Woof! by Sherrie A. Madia

by Carol1 Comment
Alphabet Woof! by Sherrie A. Madia, illustrated by Patrick Carlson (Suggested age range: pre-school - grade 2. It's a nice one to read aloud.) I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the PBS cartoon Martha Speaks, but when I read the summary of this picture that's exactly what I though of. I mean really, how often do dogs gain the ability to speak by drinking soup. That's were the similarity ends though. Moxie, the dog in Alphabet Woof! talks a lot, about everything and anything. "You know BONES," he began, "may not be ideal. I mean, sure, they're delicious, but are they a meal?..." This started another long session of noise. Of collars, the mailman, and his most-loved chew toys. ( pg.15) Eventually, Moxy gets his fifteen minutes of fame,but in the end Moxy and the reader remembers that those you love and who love you are the ones who really matter. It's a cute, rhyming story, with bright illustrations.  I read it with...
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The Bremen Town Musicians by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

by Carol6 Comments
"The Bremen Town Musicians" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Today's story features four old animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a crow. All are going to be killed by their respective masters because they are too old or tired to do their jobs in the household. The donkey is the first animal. He decides that he will run away and be a town musician in Bremen. Along the way, he meets the other critters and they each join him. The friends stop for the night and find a little house, who's light gives them the hope of a warm place to sleep and a bite to eat. Looking in the window, though, the donkey sees that, while the table is covered with good things to eat, the house is filled with robbers. The animals come up with a plan and stand at the window, each on top of the other as in the statue above. When this was done, at a given...
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Nobody Has Time for Me by Vladimr Skutina

by Carol2 Comments
Nobody Has Time for Me by Vladimír Škutina, illustrated by Marie-José Sacré, translated by Dagmar Herrmann (Suggested reading level: Kindergarten- Grade 2) Skutina called his story a modern fairy tale, a comment on our hurried lives. Karin is a sad little girl. No one in her family has time to play with her or talk to her. So she heads out into the snowy late afternoon to find Time on her own, sure he must live in the clock tower. She bravely enters the tower through the heavy wooden doors and climbs the old winding stairway. At the top she meets Father Time, actually the clockmaker, who explains that while time never stops, people can make time. When she hurries home right at curfew, her parents ask where she's been and she responds, "In a fairy tale." When Karin was almost ready for bed, her parents asked to hear the fairy tale. "It's about Time," Karin said, "and I'll tell you ... if you...
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Where the Steps Were by Andrea Cheng

by Carol2 Comments
Where the Steps Were by Andrea Cheng (The suggested age range this is marketed to is grades 2-4, but I'm not sure if they would really get it or connect with the format. I read it by myself, so this review is from my point of view as an adult with a child in elementary school.) I found this book of free verse poems through the eyes of five third-graders touching, revealing, beautiful. Cheng truly captures the thoughts, dreams, fears and worries of a group of third graders spending their last year at Pleasant Hill Elementary. The five students, Dawn, Kayla, Jonathan, Anthony, and Carmen, are all in Miss D.'s class and they adore here. She teaches lessons about the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Harriet Tubman, and the kids relate, witnessing racism and oppression in their own lives. Each of the children are individuals dealing with issues common to all third graders, like friendships, family relationships and the...
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Alice in Wonderland

by Carol7 Comments
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland retold by Jane Carruth I've come to a conclusion. I don't like Alice in Wonderland. I enjoy it in theory. The curious young girl follows a rabbit down a hole, landing in a magical land full of strange, wonderful creatures and people. But then I sit down and actually read it. Last time I read it in Spring of '08, I read Carroll's version aloud with Amber and I remember expecting to enjoy it more than I did. This time I read the book I have had since I was about 7, thinking that maybe a retold version, complete with beautiful full color illustrations would bring back the childhood wonderment. It didn't. I don't even think I can summarize the story. Alice falls down the rabbit, there's a hall full of doors, she gets smaller and bigger and smaller, there's a flood and Alice insults some of the other animals that become stranded on the shore. They...
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A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

by Carol11 Comments
Amber (10) and I have been listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket in the car this summer. So far, we've heard #1 through #6 and we've just started the 7th. I have to say I've been enjoying them and of course she has or we wouldn't keep borrowing new ones from the library. I'm not going to go into the plot for each one. Suffice it to say that three young orphans go from guardian to guardian, always pursued by the evil Count Olaf in various disguises. He is after their fortune, of course, and though the kids tell person after person, the adults never believe the children and they never see through Olaf's assumed identities until the last chapter when it becomes obvious and Olaf gets away anyway. I can certainly see the appeal for kids. What kid hasn't felt like they are surrounded by adults who often don't see or don't understand the most obvious things?...
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