The Jewel Box Ballerinas

By Monique De Varennes and Ana Juan

This book was different but I enjoyed it. I of course wanted to read it because I knew it would have wonderful illustrations. Bibi Branchflower reminded me of a lonely "crazy cat lady" or a middle-aged woman who had all the money in the world but was not happy. I loved the dogs on each page jumping around and I'm sure children would love finding them on the pages. I felt like the moral of the story was that money does not buy you happiness and that friendship and love are two of the most important things to have in life.

The Chicken of the Family

By Mary Amato

I think I was drawn to this book because I always felt like the chicken or the baby of the family. I love how the title is a play on words; when I read the title I thought it would be about the person who is always scared or shy in the family. The main character is the more shy one and is constantly being bullied by her older sisters, but she is also told that she is literally a chicken. Henrietta is scared but decides that she can't do anything about being a chicken, so she goes to the farm closest to her house and introduces herself to the chickens. She wondered if any of the chickens were her brothers or sisters. She decides that they are MUCH nicer to her than her other sisters were and actually loves the life of a chicken. Her sisters show up and tell her the truth; that she isn't a chicken, and get upset when they realize that Henrietta is actually having fun. The joke ended up turning on them. I could definitely relate to Henrietta because my older brother would always tease me about crazy stuff like that and I would most likely always believe him. I really enjoyed the illustrations, they were cutesy kind of drawings with vivid pinks and greens which were my favorite colors as a little girl.

Slow Loris

By Alexis Beacon

I chose this book because it was by the author of Jitterbug Jam. It was not at all what I expected from the same author but was pleasantly surprised. Slow Loris is about a meerkat (I think!) who is, you guessed it...very slow. The people who go to the zoo watch him and are bored. However, no one knows that at night he is up doing anything and everything super fast. That is why during the day he is so slow, because he is exhausted. I loved how the author used two full pages for a picture of Loris that made him look super fast. The book has a page that folds out and a flap that folds over on a different page. I think kids would love this book because it has the element of surprise when you see Loris fast and it also has the pop-up illustration book feel.

What do you do with a kangaroo?

By Mercer Mayer

I can vaguely remember reading this book in elementary school. Mercer Mayer and especially the little critters were always my favorite. I think this would be a great read aloud book because it has a predictable pattern. I think students would enjoy how particular each animal is. It is ironic how the animals demand very elaborate things when we know that animals live very minimalistic lives. I like how Mayer illustrated the little girl trying to move the animals out on three different pages to show how difficult of a task it was without saying anything. It was a great precursor to the surprise ending when she gives up and lets the animals stay and they all seem happy. Very cute!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

By Judi Barrett

I was excited to read this book because I had seen the trailer for the movie. I was first surprised by how dull the first couple of pages were in black and white. I thought it was interesting how the book illuminated with color only when the grandfather was telling the story, because at the end of the story and the end of the book, it returns to black and white. It made me very curious as to what the movie would be like because it's such a short book. I wondered how the author came up with the type of food that fell from the sky. The kinds of foods were very typical American staples-like hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, and spaghetti. I think it would be neat to see this book transposed to a different culture and what different foods would be falling from the sky. I loved how this book is very imaginative and keeps you interested. Good book!!

The Night Eater

By Ana Juan

I chose this book because I absolutely loved The Elephant Wish and figured that if Ana Juan was such a good illustrator that she probably does okay writing books too. I was right, and this book is currently being added to list I've made for books I want to have in my future classroom. I instantly fell in love with the cute, chubby night eater in pink pajamas wearing the mischievous smirk on his face. I enjoyed reading about how the night would taste, the clouds like cotton candy, the darkness like bitter chocolate, and the stars like bubbles of gas. I also thought the metaphor of the sun greeting the people was very clever. When the night eater decided to stop eating the night because he was embarrassed about being too fat, all the people realize how they need the sun to survive. I saw this as a great opener for a science lesson on the importance of the sun or even what happens when something in our ecosystem is altered. In my opinion, this book ended up being a great lesson on how we shouldn't take things for granted. LOVED it!

The Knight Who Took All Day

By James Mayhew

I chose this book from just browsing through the curriculum lab shelves. I thought the title was a clever play on words. After reading books with illustrations by Ana Juan it was hard to appreciate the illustrations in this book. They were very simple and looked like they were done with colored pencils. The story was funny and had a lot of old vocabulary like squire and plume. It was also very ironic because the knight was so caught up with his looks that he didn't notice the princess was dressed up in less armor and had already tamed the dragon. I liked how the princess, although she starts off as the typical helpless woman who needs to be saved, ended up being more brave than the knight! I think this would be a good book to read aloud to primary elementary grades.