Raccoon Picker! Dewey Bob by Judy Schachner

DEWEY BOB CROCKETT WAS BORN IN THE POCKET OF AN OLD PAIR OF PANTS.

AND WHEN HE GOT TOO BIG FOR HIS BRITCHES, DEWEY KNEW WHAT HE HAD TO DO.

"TIME TO FIND YOUR OWN PANTS, SON," SAID MRS. CROCKETT.

Dewey Bob's not too bummed about leaving the nest. He knows all the raccoon rules, and like all his kin, famous for collecting tchotchkes, he's ready to branch out from button-hoarding and needs more room.

Picking out a commodious hollow tree, he sets out to fill it up with more collectibles. So it's off to the local dump to see what's new.

"SOME FOLK'S TRASH IS A RACCOON'S TREASURE.

AND DEWEY BOB CROCKETT WILL PICK IT ALL FOR PLEASURE."

Dewey piles his derelict shopping cart with cast-offs and heads home with his finds, some useful and some suitable for a towering example of found art.

But he is missing one thing--he needs a friend to share his home, so Dewey collects his thoughts and sets out to collect friends. He picks a bunch of cute critters--a turtle, goose, pig, and cat--and trundles them back home.

BUT DEWEY FOUND OUT THAT FINDIN' FRIENDS WAS MUCH EASIER THAN KEEPIN' FRIENDS.

His prospective friends flee the premises posthaste, all but one...

"'CEPTIN' FOR ONE BARELY-BREATHIN' HALF-STARVED MUD BALL."

But Dewey is a self-described "lean, mean, washing machine," and a bedraggled kitten with injured back legs emerges from the muddy mess. Dewey assesses the situation, and rummaging through his junk collection, he finds just what he needs, a doll-sized cart which gives the kitty back wheels and a reason to purr and Dewey Bob his new collectin' companion.

"ROLL ON, MUD BALL!"

Judy Schachner, author of the best-selling SkippyJon Jones series, has another cute critter character, in her latest, Dewey Bob (Dial Press, 2015). Schachner's artwork is as capricious, capacious, and eclectic as her new character, done in a style similar to her best-selling picture books about SkippyJon Jones, a Siamese kitten who fancies himself a Chihuahua, with hand-lettered text, varied fonts in varied colors swirling and curling about the pages, and assorted stuff with everything but the kitchen sink (and maybe that's there if we look long enough) and even a vertical gatefold page to show off Dewey Bob's soaring junk sculpture. Schachner's narration, studded with corn-fed rube-isms tossed into the mix, meanders like a country crick in the rainy season, but her sly internal rhymes and homespun similes and metaphors ("as clean as a green bean") will give kids some giggles along the way.

Room for One More? What This Book needs Is A Pig in a Wig by Emma J. Virjan

WHAT THIS STORY NEEDS IS A PIG.

And a drama queen pig needs a gig. Lacking a venue, this protagonist decides to create her own.

Costuming? Put on a big red wig.

Setting? A moat with a boat.

Supporting Cast? They're everywhere! A frog, dog, and goat wash up on their log. All aboard!

Then a rat in a hat, a skunk (on and elephant's) trunk, and...

A MOUSE AND A PANDA IN A BLOUSE!

Theme? There's always room for one more? But... in reality, THERE'S NOT!

At least not for this pig in a wig.

Climax? The little craft is close to swamping as a considerable number of rhyming critters come on board, sinking the boat to its gunwales and raising too big a ruckus for this pig.

WHAT THIS STORY NEEDS IS A PIG IN A WIG

ON HER OWN...ALL ALONE!

But the pig in the wig learns that one is no fun either, in Emma J. Virjan's I-Can-Read book, What This Story Needs Is a Pig in a Wig (A Pig in a Wig Book) (Harper, 2015). Borrowing the line from a famous shark movie that shall remain nameless, author Virjan scripts an ending with a familiar line,

Conclusion? "We need a bigger boat!"

Virjan masterfully manages her sizable cast of characters with some jolly humor, and her simple, understated drawings. And watch for the sequel, Pig In A Wig II, What This Story Needs Is a Hush and a Shush (A Pig in a Wig Book). Add this one to the beginning reading shelf, right along with Mo Willems' notable Elephant and Piggie series to add to the audience for this important genre.

Go With The Floe! Penguin's Big Adventure by Salina Yoon

ONE DAY PENGUIN HAD A BIG IDEA.

HE WANTED TO DO SOMETHING NO PENGUIN HAD EVER DONE BEFORE.

Penguin has never been one to shrink from new experiences. He's floated to a vacation on a tropical isle. He's followed his heart to find a friend. He's even ventured to a distant land to find signs of fall for his curious little brother.

But this penguin still has a yen to boldly go where no penguin has gone before.

HE WANTED TO BE THE FIRST PENGUIN EVER TO SET FOOT ON THE NORTH POLE.

Penguin is a veteran of life at the South Pole, so the North Pole should be a piece of cake, right?

But first, he's got to get there. Just leaving home takes some planning, and some goodbyes. Emily seems strangely absorbed in sewing a bright quilt she is making, and little Pumpkin is so busy weaving a big basket that he hardly has more than a wave for him. Bootsy also seems all tied up with the long, long coil of rope she is braiding. There seems to be no farewell parade, no Bon Voyage Party in the offing for Penguin.

Oh, well. Penguin embarks. He floats northward, stopping along the way to visit with some old friends from his earlier adventures--Crab, Whale, and even Pinecone. But his stops are short and he continues his voyage, until at last, he's there.

Penguin celebrates, but he does so alone. The North Pole--well, there's a lot of there there, and his shouts of success just echo off the frozen landscape with no welcoming answers back.

Until at last, he spots a bit of movement in the expanse of white. It's Polar Bear, who seems amazed to finally meet that icon of the Other Pole--a penguin at his pole. Polar Bear's worlds are colliding!

TOGETHER THEY WENT ON A NORTH POLE ADVENTURE.

As they sail forth to explore the Arctic Ocean on a handy floe, Penguin spots something strange in the sky, floating closer and closer. It seems to be an aircraft of some sort--one with a patchwork hot air balloon and a really big basket suspended by braided ropes. Could it be who Penguin thinks it is?

It seems true friendship goes to the ends of the earth, in Salina Yoon's latest, Penguin's Big Adventure (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), her fourth book in her Penguin Adventures series. Yoon's now familiar artistic style--thick black lines delineating figures done in deep opaque colors--is there, as School Library Journal suggests, saying, "Yoon manages to create visual dynamism despite the illustrations' static simplicity by changing the page layouts to include spreads with horizon lines, framed tableaux, sequenced action, and thought bubbles." Also there is Yoon's steady premise, the emphasis on the value of friendship among her polar personalities, even new friends to be found in exotic new places. Will Polar Bear soon hop a floe or a freighter for a visit to the South Pole? Fans of Yoon's adventurer Penguin can only hope.

See reviews of Yoon's earlier Penguin adventures here.

Going Back: I'll Always Be With You by Violetta Armour

"Mom, you can't be serious. Indiana? What are you thinking? Not about me, obviously."

"Teddy, you've hardly left the house all summer.-A fresh start might be good for us--with not so many memories."

"How can moving to Dad's old house, probably sleeping in his old room, be fresh? Oh, sure, no reminders of him there."

"But those are positive things. It's hard to avoid the negatives here. Like that intersection."

Our dog, Winnie, starts whimpering. "Are you going to get rid of him, too?" I blurt, and then I wish I could take it back.

Then it's like she never heard me and she goes into Mom mode. The cost of living. It's cheaper in Indiana. Need to save the insurance money for college. Like a degree from that Podunk school would get me into a decent college. I walk away.

I killed my dad and now my mom is killing me.

But everything in Phoenix reminds Mary Kostoff of her husband Stan and his death, at an intersection by a drunk driver, in a car driven by her teenaged son Teddy out for a lesson. It seems to make sense to move in with Stan's widowed mother, Buba, lonely alone in her big house in a peaceful small town. The two little girls adapt right away to having their affectionate and lively grandmother around, but Teddy is still angry, taken away from his high school where he has just made the varsity basketball team and has many friends.

Now Teddy starts his much-anticipated junior year at Middleburg High School, sharing a locker with Mindy, a quirky, talkative girl with bright orange hair and aquamarine braces on her teeth, and having to be the new kid in a high school where everyone has known each other since toddler days. To make things worse, the varsity coach has plenty of skilled seniors and Teddy has to go back to playing junior varsity basketball. But Mindy's constant fountain of little-known facts keeps him laughing, and his junior varsity coach, Luther Stone, an energetic young black man, sees Teddy's skills and makes him team captain.

Mary, too, misses her old friends, and on a whim applies for a book store job and finds it very satisfying. She offers to start an evening book club, and at her first session meets Rosetta, a striking and stylish African American woman, and the two find themselves drawn to each other. Rosetta is empathetic, telling how her family moved with other black people from Chicago to live in a brand-new subdivision for employees of a new plant in Middleburg. She tells Mary how she made new friends and even became a cheerleader, thanks to her gymnastics classes in Chicago. As they meet for coffee often, Mary discovers that Rosetta was a senior the same year as her husband and is eager to hear what she remembers of Stan in high school. Rosetta brings along her 1968 annual, with pictures of her and Stan and their classmates, and mentions that her grown son Luther is the assistant basketball coach at the high school

With Teddy seeming happier, with a new friend and a job she loves, Mary begins to feel that she is fitting into life in the small Midwestern town--until she goes to Teddy's first basketball game. Looking at Teddy talking with Coach Luther Stone, she sees something she never expected.

She has to talk to Rosetta.

Mary takes a deep breath. "Okay. It's Luther. He reminds me so much of Stan. And when I went to thank him for being so nice to Teddy...up close.... His hazel eyes. The cleft in his chin. It's Stan all over again. And even his mannerisms. That half smile. I know, my counselor said I would keep seeing Stan in so many people....

Rosetta closes her eyes and when she opens them there are tears.

"You're not imagining things, Mary. Luther is Stan's son."

"The past is never dead. In fact, it isn't even past," goes William Faulkner's famous saying, and although at first Mary is angry that Rosetta was drawn to her to learn how Stan's later life went, she realizes that she was doing the same thing with Rosetta, mining her memories for bits and pieces of the young Stan. The two women understand that they were never rivals in their love for the same man at different times in his life and that through him they have the promise of a family connection that offers much more.

In her I'll Always Be with You (iUniverse, 2015), Violetta Armour tells her story through the multiple voices of Teddy, Mary, Rosetta, and with flashback narrations from the seventeen-year-old Stan and Rosetta, and although she populates the novel with other well-drawn characters, her best writing is of the two women who find their lives interwoven by events they could never have expected, of past love and loss, grief, and new life found. Kirkus Reviews sums it up: "The threads of a dead man's life and history converge in Armour's dramatic debut novel about heritage, family, and forgiveness."

Mirror Image! Ollie's Valentine by Olivier Dunrea

OLLIE WANTS A VALENTINE.

Gossie got her valentine from Gertie. But Gossie and Gertie don't have a valentine for Ollie.

Little Ollie's feathers are ruffled. Everyone he meets has a valentine, everyone but him. Gertie has one from BooBoo, BooBoo has one from Peedie, and Peedie has one from Gideon. Nobody has one for Ollie.

Ollie doesn't like the way this day is going.

"WHO WILL BE MY VALENTINE?" HE HONKS.

But in Olivier Dunrea's latest about his little flock of ducklings and goslings in his beloved Gossie and Friends series, Ollie's Valentine (Gossie & Friends) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) there is an, um, reflective surprise on the final page which will allow every little reader to be Ollie's Valentine. With its shiny, sparkly valentines and the wistful little gosling on the cover, this bright board book catches the pathos of Ollie's anxiety about being left out on Valentine's Day in Dunrea's signature illustrative style, spot art centered on bright white pages, sturdy and easily manipulated by small fingers and with skillfully designed drawings which almost tell the story on their own.

Cyber-Saucy! Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin

[WARNING! THIS BOOK TURNS INTO A ROBOT!]

Naw! That couldn't happen. But if a cool robot costume lets a kid get into the persona of a robot, well, go for it!

Grown-ups have no idea how much fun it can be to play like you are a robot! So how can they even imagine how much fun it would be to BE a robot!

ROBO-POKE! ROBO-GRAB! ROBO-STOMP!

EVERYONE WOULD WANT TO BE A ROBOT!

What if there was robot machine that processed kids into robots? Or even better--

ROBO-SAUCE?

It's no taste treat, but if you pour on just enough, well--ZAP! you will become a GIANT ROBOT!

Now it's time for Rampaging Robots! What if even your parents can become robots? Your dog? Everyone?

The robots take over the story, and then in a gatefold that just keeps on keeping on, the robots take over the book itself, in Adam Rubin's Robo-Sauce (Dial Books, 2015), in which a many-faceted gatefold opens up and can be refolded into a new cover for a book which even can be "read" backwards. And why not? Daniel Palmieri's illustrations are up to the challenge and his (and his readers') imaginations are extended in novel ways to there and back again. "Is there an award for best gatefold ever? Then tell Rubin and Salmieri to get out their tuxes, because this book has the one to beat," says Kirkus Review.

Wrong-Way Alex: Soccer Surprise by Emma Carlson Berne

Moving is hard.

Alex had lots of friends back in Florida, and she was the star forward for her soccer team. Now she's halfway across the country in Texas. She has one possible friend, Lin, but the other girls on the Strikers team have known each other forever, and her new coach puts her on defense where she has no chance to score. Still Alex tries hard. Then in her first game, something happens.

Without thinking, Alex fell back into the role of a forward. She intercepted the ball. In A quick, one-two dribble. Alex ran for the goal.

The net was wide open. Alex booted the ball into the goal.

SMACK! Nothing was as satisfying as that sound of her foot against the ball.

The ref's whistle blared. "Offsides, penalty! Goal for the Hornets!

"I guess you forgot which team you were playing for," Brooke said to Alex.

She had really screwed up. Alex had scored a goal--for the other team. It happens to everybody, she knows, but Alex is new in Jacksonville, Texas, new to playing defense, new to not being the star forward on her old team, and she is almost speechless. She stammers out a few words about being new to her position after the game, but her teammates stare out the ground and turn away silently.

The fact that her teammates, even Lin, won't even look at her, makes her feel even worse. And the cold-shoulder treatment continues at practice the next day, and at the next game no one passes the ball to her, not even her only new friend. Lin. On the bench, Alex almost loses it. Stifling her tears, she gets up and runs from the field and halfway across town before she stops.

Finally, her sobs slowed. In the reflection of a store window she sees Coach Mike approach. He sits down beside her.

"Alex, I bet it wasn't easy, moving here in the middle of the year and leaving your friends. It may be selfish of me, but I was glad you joined the Strikers. You're a great midfielder. Tall, strong, and quick. I need you at defense."

"But Coach, I don't know if I can play if everyone hates me! And isn't it too late to apologize to the team?" Alex confesses.

"It's never too late. Mistakes happen. But it would make everyone feel better if you just said those two magic words."

It's hard for Alex to face the hostility of her team, but Coach is right. Saying "I'm sorry," breaks the ice, in Emma Carlson Berne's Soccer Surprise (Jake Maddox Girl Sports Stories) (Capstone Press). The author takes one sports event, a common but serious mistake that affects the whole team, and skillfully explores the social situation and the feeling experienced by all involved. Everyone screws up sometime, and being a team member requires a particular set of skills outside playing ability itself--not hogging the ball, admitting failures, and forgiving mistakes by others. This book, part of the Jake Maddox Sports Stories series, ably explains the emotions experienced by a new player and by the rest of the team when a significant mistake is made. Kids who love soccer--or basketball or baseball or other such sports--will find this beginning chapter book easy reading and will probably find themselves sometime on both sides of that situation, making this book good vicarious experience for sports lovers.

Shaping Up! Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT FRIENDS?

WE'RE GLAD YOU ASKED.

When you first learn about shapes, you start seeing them everywhere. It seems that everything is made out of shapes! And, truth to tell, most everything is.

In their latest, Friendshape (Scholastic Press, 2015), ace creators Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld again combine their language and art skills to show youngsters what wonderful things four little shapes can be and do.

FRIENDS MAKE YOU FEEL WELCOME!

Triangle centers itself on top of square, and voila'! It's a house! and red Rectangle rolls out in front, a red carpet for Circle to use to roll up right to the door!

Friends can make for fun, too! Balance Rectangle at the apex of Triangle, and LOOK! Square and Circle have themselves a seesaw upon which to enjoy the ups and downs of geometry!

And this circle of friendship is not exclusive, as we see when Octagon happens comes into view.

GLAD YOU COULD STOP BY! (Get it? Stop Sign?)

Shapes can disagree, but if they look at the idea from another angle, one can see that the other has got a good point! Friendshapes stick together to make stacks, even though their constructions do have their ups and downs, but they usually get their ideas off the ground, as square on rectangle topped by triangle make a rocket flight to the moon, appropriately played by blue Circle. And with triangle around, they know they always have a friend to lean on. In fact, if they line up just right, the friends can even spell out l o v e! (sort of)!

When author Rosenthal and artist Lichtenheld come together, even their pages are models of collaborative excellence. Rosenthal's easy wordplay and Lichtenheld's witty sight gags make this lesson in primary shapes an adventure for the imagination and an easy lesson on cooperation that will have kids eager to try their hand to see what else they can make with their shape blocks. Perfect as a lap book for a toddler, a preschool class read for a shapes unit, or a funny easy read for emergent readers, this one is a first purchase for home, public, and school libraries.

Pair this one with Michael Hall's Perfect Square and his delightful My Heart Is Like a Zoo, (see my reviews here) and for a look at natural shapes, Judith Nouvion's Shapes (Picture This) (see review here) for a basic geometry lesson which will leave no one bent out of shape!

Once Upon A Forever....: The Visit: The Story of "The Night Before Christmas" by Mark Kimball Moulton

"'Tis rarer than rare
That one hears a story as I'd like to share.

"Come--let's pack our valises,"
Mother said to us all,
"for a visit to Granddad,"
she said, I recall.

It's the 1920s, and little Dinghy Sharp and her whole family bustle aboard a train pulled by a steam engine, sleep in a Pullman car, and finally chuff into the station that is their destination. As she tells it...
.

"I peered through the window and to my surprise,
There stood New York City before my eyes!"

A special motorcar called a taxi whisks them through the brightly decorated streets to a tall building with a doorman and an elevator, right to a door opened by their grandfather, who hugs them and says he has a special gift. The little girl sees no packages, no curly-haired dolls, no bicycles or balls. But the present is a story.

"Let me tell you a story," he said as he smiled,
"that my very own Granddad first told his own child."

"Dr. Clement Clarke Moore was my grandfather's name,
but to all he was 'Papa,' friends and family the same."

And the story this granddad told was of his own granddad's beloved poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," mostly known today by its first line, which begins, 'Twas the night before Christmas....," how in 1822 the renowned classics scholar and professor, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote a poem that has had millions of readings since, the story of a long-ago Christmas Eve in which a father wakes to watch St. Nicholas land his sleigh, slide down the chimney, and fill all the stockings for the children of the house.

This granddad described Papa's grand, gabled house in Chelsea, shuttered and surrounded by falling snow in winter. He explains "sugarplums," actual plums preserved by sugaring, and why Ma needed her kerchief and Pa his cap in the unheated bedrooms of the house, Granddad leans back, has a sip of tea, and begins to recall and recite the verses as his Papa wrote them so long ago. "'Twas the night before Christmas...."

It's the story of a story, just as it was related to young Dinghy Sharp by her grandfather, whose grandfather was indeed Clement Clarke Moore himself. It's a story within a story, as Granddad recalls what his Papa told him about how he wrote that famous poem, making his own home the setting, with even a pesky mouse, and using his friends and neighbors, right down to the kindly wood dealer Jan-Peter, whose sleigh-wagon brought firewood even to those who couldn't pay for it in midwinter, as models for the characters, as a special gift for his own daughter.

In The Visit: The Origin of "The Night Before Christmas" (Schiffer Publishing), Mark Kimball Moulton chooses to tell the story of this classic in the same familiar pentameter couplets as Moore's original in a colorful true story of how this story in rhyme came to be a staple at Christmastime. The lovely period illustrations by Susan Winget, done in muted reds, sepia browns, greens and reds, with horse-drawn sleighs and snow-capped evergreens, perfectly set the mood of the nineteenth-century sections of the story, as well as the twentieth century memories of Dinghy Sharp, who lived to tell us the true story of that "once in forever" tale.

"And as Papa sat there, so content in his sleigh,
on that hill, Christmas Eve on that long ago day--

he thought of his daughter and her simple request--
and he thought of his family and how they were blessed--

and 'twas then, in that instant, Papa knew he would write
a NEW CHRISTMAS STORY for his daughter that night."

A story and a history in rhyme, this one should be on all library shelves for curious readers and young historians.

You Can Call Me Sandy! Santa Claws, The Christmas Crab by Priscilla Cummings

NO, THIS CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

WAS NOT GOING TO PASS IN THE USUAL WAY.

Spud the insomniac crab finds it boring to sleep all winter in the mud at the bottom of the Bay. He rouses the snoozing crabs and eels for some midwinter fun.

Up on shore, the children are snug in their beds, trying to snooze so that they won't lose the chance for Santa's drop-in visit. The carols are sung, the stockings are hung, and now it's time for .... that visit from St. Nick.

But under the bay, there's a bit of a St. Nick imposter!

A CRAB DRESSED AS SANTA--A SANTA WITH CLAWS!
IT YOU MET THIS SANTA, WOULD YOU KNOW WHO IT WAS?

HE WINKED AND HE CHUCKLED. HIS PINCERS WENT CLICK!

WHY, NO ONE WOULD GUESS THIS CRAB WASN'T ST. NICK!

Spud improvises a Santa suit of a sort, a soggy red sock lost by some fisherman folds into a cap, some lost waterman's gloves bulk up his legs, along with waterlogged waders lost by some oystering watermen, and with a cherry for a nose (don't ask!), he rounds up the Bay Bottom Band and soon the denizens of the sea are decking the deep and following Santa Claws in merry measure for a cool Yule party.

But up on the shore the expected visit from Saint Nicholas is not going by the book!

REAL SANTA CALLED "HELP!" AS HIS SLEIGH CIRCLED TWICE.
BEFORE TRYING TO LAND ONCE AGAIN ON THE ICE.

Real Santa's GPS must be out of whack and he's grounded and off course. Oh, what to do?

Santa Claws rises to the occasion (and the surface of the Bay) with an offer Santa can't refuse!

"I CAN SHOW YOU THE WAY!
I KNOW EVERY INCH OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY."

REAL SANTA SAID, "FINE! MISTER CRAB, HAVE A SEAT!
PLEASE SHOW US THE WAY. I'VE A DEADLINE TO MEET!"

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer has nothing on this sandy Santa Claws, as the Christmas Crab directs the sleigh to its midnight destinations, and St. Nick arrives right on time to make the season merry and bright for the Chesapeakean children. It's a pun with a mission, in Priscilla Cummings' Santa Claws: The Christmas Crab (Schiffer Publishing). Cummings' clever couplets with rollicking rhymes dress up the familiar storyline of Santa's impromptu helper, and Marcy Dunn Ramsey's blackline drawings of her Santa Claws is pure punny fun.

'S No Go for Snow! No Snow for Christmas by Jill Kalz

FAWN BRAUN HAD NEVER BEEN SO WORRIED.

TOMORROW WAS CHRISTMAS EVE, AND ALL OF PFEFFERNUT COUNTY LAY BROWN, DULL, AND DUSTY.

Fawn is a fretter.

Apparently it's been a warm and dry fall in her little town on the prairie, and though the downtown diner and the dry goods store are decorated for the holiday, Fawn is in a funk because there's no snow in sight.

She's got a point. It's not your postcard-pretty scene.

DRY WEEDS POKED FROM THE DITCHES LIKE OLD BROOM BRISTLES...

Pfeffernut County is definitely lacking in winter wonderland awesomeness.

A STRAWMAN INSTEAD OF A SNOWMAN?

DIRT ANGELS INSTEAD OF SNOW ANGELS?

Fawn grumps to her mother about it. 'S no problem, Mom maintains.

"THE SNOW WILL COME WHEN IT'S READY."

The rest of the townspeople seem not too concerned, but Fawn is a proactivist.

She addresses the town meeting with her take on the big problem, pointing out that in her considered opinion, unless they act Christmas will skip right over the county and settle on their rival, Hoogledoo Falls.

Christmas will be a dust bust!

With intra-city status at stake, the mayor calls for a committee--a meeting at Fawn's family's farm to formulate action plans for snow-making.

The concerned citizens show up with their alternatives. Louie blows crushed chalk, flour, and powdered sugar on the ground, but Fawn finds it little better than the dust they already have to deal with. Farmer Cap and his bi-plane crop duster drop popcorn. Not soft and fluffy like snow, says Fawn. Other farmers roll out the combines and blow cotton balls and marshmallows all around. Fluffy, but not sparkly, Fawn scoffs. Little Lina blows bubbles. But not cold, Fawn complains.

But, as we know, in the way of stories, Christmas can come without a Santa Claus, without presents, and definitely without snow, and despite fussy Fawn, Christmas comes to Pfeffernut County right on time in Jill Kalz's No Snow for Christmas (Pfeffernut County) (Capstone, 2015) and it was. . .

...THE MERRIEST EVER SEEN!

Kalz's tale is a pointed little parable about being a perfectionist about Christmas, and artist Sahin Erbocak uses a variety of perspectives and some vintage scenes of farmhouses and two-toned, tail-finned Buicks to set the quaint rural scene as Fawn learns that she can count on Christmas even if it's a no go for the snow.

Share this one with a couple of the classics of calamitous Christmases threatened with a closing, Phyllis McGinley's The Year without a Santa Claus and Dr. Seuss's evergreen How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Classic Seuss).

Rafe Scores! Middle School: Just My Rotten Luck by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts

Finding a dollar on the ground is special. But getting into a "special needs" program with "special" classes and no guarantee of getting through middle school anytime especially soon?

What did all of this mean, exactly? Was I just plain dumb? Could I have gotten out of it if I'd paid more attention in school? If I didn't have an imaginary friend who I used to talk to all the time?

If I wasn't so weird?

Rafe is back where he started, at Hill Valley Middle School, the scene of the crime, so to speak, where he succeeded in breaking all the official 100 School Rules and managed to get himself expelled and subsequently suspended at not one, but two, private art schools. Now, after a sentence from the Hills Valley School Board to a summer at a boot camp for troublesome kids which had him hanging from rocky crags and swimming icy rivers, Rafe is permitted to enroll again at Hill Valley Middle. And he soon discovers that his sixth-grade nemesis "Miller the Killer," who subjected him to daily "swirlie" shampoos in the boy's bathroom, is still there, two-times bigger and three times meaner, and promising to beat him up anytime he can catch him alone.

And it gets worse.

Rafe is now placed in a "special needs" class, held daily in the "fish bowl," a conference room with wide windows allowing anyone in the HVMS Library to observe the SPED kids in Mr. Fanucci's class. But Rafe makes his first real (i.e., visible) friend, Flip, an otherwise genial ADHD kid who is also a jock, quarterback of the HV flag football team. And when he leaves Miller the Killer in the dust in a chase through the middle schools' halls, the winded but impresssed Miller makes Rafe an offer he can't refuse--make the team as a fleet-footed wide receiver and Miller will refrain from takedowns for the year. Flip amiably agrees to get Rafe up to speed, so to speak, on football skills, and he discovers that if Miller the Killer and his fellow linemen can clear him a space through their opponents' defense, Rafe can SCORE!

With HVMS on a winning streak, Rafe suddenly finds that status as football hero not only earns him a place at the popular jocks' lunch table, but also gets him some surprising attention from cute girls--all but his crush, Jeanne Galleto, who seems always to be on concession bar duty when he speeds to one of his big touchdowns. Still, there's hope there, and Rafe seems to have broken his bad luck streak.

But for some reason his life seems to be missing something in the excitement department. He has a private talk with his imaginary muse, Leo the Silent.

"Don't do anything," Leo says.

In case you haven't noticed, you're not getting into trouble. You're not breaking any rules--or even trying.  You're just playing football, drawing your comics, hanging out, and going to school. That's called normal, dude. Relax."

But then Rafe comes up with a way to follow his mentor Mrs. Donatello's advice to use his art talents to "make a difference." He creates a secret identity, S.A.M. (Sam the Art Man) and starts early morning postings around the school of parodies of art classics which satirize the school bullies. Rafe's clever cartooning skills soon become a local media sensation. Rafe feels like he's doing clandestine community service, but when his cover is blown, he discovers he's been breaking an obscure privacy law, and, just his luck, he's in back in Principal Striker's office hot seat again, in James Patterson's and Chris Tebbetts' latest in their best-selling series, Middle School series, Middle School: Just My Rotten Luck(Little, Brown and Company, 2015). Patterson and Tebbetts' formula for drop-dead-funny middle school stories is still scoring with reviewers and readers, and with an older-and-wiser, semi-successful Rafe, this one is truly up to speed with their other best-selling titles in the laughs department.

Read reviews of the whole series here.

With a Little Help from My Friends: This Raging Light by Estelle Laure

Mom was supposed to come home yesterday after her two-week vacation. Fourteen days. Said she needed a break from everything (See also: Us) and that she would be back before the first day of school. I waited up all night, hoping, hoping I was just being paranoid, that my pretty-much-never-wrong gut had made some kind of horrible mistake, and I watched the sun rise against the wall, my all-the-way-insides knowing the truth: we are alone, Wrenny and me.

I will do whatever I have to. No one will ever pull us apart. This means keeping things as normal as possible. Faking it.

Normal got gone with Dad.

And Lucille is good at faking it. Her father was taken away in the middle of a mental breakdown after trying to choke her mother and is at a halfway house somewhere. And with her mother's disappearance, it all falls to seventeen-year-old Lucille, determined somehow to keep her little sister with her, to keep their secret from the neighbors and their teachers, to find a way to pay the rent and utilities, to feed themselves, and to hold out until her mom returns or she turns eighteen and can become Wren's legal guardian, whichever comes first.

The month's bills are already coming in, and Lucille lucks into a part-time waitressing job at a small Mexican-themed bar and grill. Fred the owner expects his "girls" to be flashily made up, in short shorts and high heels, but he is also protective of them, and with pay and tips, Lucille can just cover the most important bills. Her best friend Eden tries to help, staying with Wren at night and trying to keep her own mother from finding out that Lucille and Wren are alone. To do so, she has to have help covering her absences and driving Lucille home at night from her twin brother Digby.

Lucille has known Eden and Digby since they were nine years old, and Digby has a committed relationship with his girlfriend Elaine. But as they are brought together by her secret, Lucille begins to recognize that she has strong and undeniable feelings for Digby, and when he begins to show that he also has an attraction to her, Lucille doesn't know what to do.

His hand is still resting on my foot. I am a giant foot, his hand a magical giant hand, and it is all over me. Breath. Less.

"What are you doing?" Who is this boy I've known for most of always, and why is he everything?

Then Eden gets in trouble with her mom for skipping her evening ballet classes, and Digby takes over staying with Wren, and he and Lucille draw closer. Eden discovers the feelings between her brother and Lucille, and she and Lucille quarrel. Elaine discovers that Digby is spending too much time with Lucille, and their teachers are asking questions she cannot quite answer.

As we say, it's complicated, and the complications of her life threaten to swamp Lucille completely as she feels more and more alone, in Estelle Laure's This Raging Light (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015),  In an absorbing and lyrical narrative, Laure captures the picture of  a strong-minded but nearly overwhelmed girl on the cusp of maturity, trying to carry adult responsibilities on her own shoulders. The portrayal of Lucille, Eden, and Digby, three well-intentioned young people caught in the complexities of life, shows them struggling to do the right thing in a situation they cannot fully control. Young adult readers will find much they recognize and much to like in these well-drawn characters, and the author even fleshes out the peripheral adults honestly and with respect for their own moral conflicts within this situation. This is a well-written novel, marred a little by the rather rushed and melodramatic "happy ending," but all in all, well worth the time of thoughtful readers.

Personalized Presents! Make It, Gift It! by Mari Bolte

From homemade noodles to knitted mittens, from hand-cut marshmallows to fresh fridge pickles, even do-it-yourself wrapping paper, customized boxes, and ribbons good enough for royalty, Mari Bolte's Make It, Gift It: Handmade Gifts for Every Occasion (Craft It Yourself) (Capstone Young Readers, 2015) has plenty of ideas for year-round gifting.

Inside this book, find a recipe for two-color rolled cookie dough, all dressed up in clear wrap and ready to slice and bake. Noodle Nests are knots of hand-cut pasta, dried and ready to pop into the pot which can be made, with the addition of veggie juices (spinach, carrot, or tomato sauce), in lively colors, and there are savory, spicy toppings to turn plain-Jane oyster crackers into gourmet croutons.

There are woolly mittens, cut and stitched together from cast-off sweater parts, a personalized phone charger stand, and layered-in-color candles contrived from leftover wax from those almost-used up jars. There are also directions for hair ornaments, bright pillows made from bits and pieces of old garments, and clever braided scarves from old tee shirts with that boutique look.

And author Bolte doesn't leave the crafter hanging when the gift is complete. Directions for creative wrappings from all sorts of surprising sources dress up the finished products, with step-by-step instructions, materials, and how-to photos demonstrate how to make distinctive wrapping papers, gift tags and cards, and handmade bows from strips of tulle, newspaper funnies, or simple braided twine as well as the staple curling ribbon.

With over fifty things to make and give, there is something for everyone here.

A Very Groovy Christmas: The Elf Boogie by Christianne Jones

SING A JOYFUL SONG. BOOGIE ON DOWN.

CHEER REAL LOUD--SANTA'S COMING TO TOWN!

"Follow me in merry measure...." say the creators of this jolly board book for tots, who get tots moving and grooving in the spirit of the festive season.

The youngest wannabe elves among Santa's helpers need to giggle and wiggle to work off the excitement of the days just before Christmas, and these youngsters in their bright, peaked caps shake and shimmy, move and groove, tap and clap, and boogie their woogies in Christianne Jones' The Elf Boogie (Holiday Jingles)(Picture Window/Capstone Books, 2015).  Emma Randall's  fluid illustrations add to the fun in a board book that encourages kids (and parents) to get up and dance or sing and swing, so that everyone can get in the spirit of making the season merry and bright.

Other books in the series are The Reindeer Dance (Holiday Jingles), and The Santa Shimmy (Holiday Jingles) all great stocking stuffers for jiggly, jingly tots.

Merry Mayhem? Alternatives to Gory Gaming under the Christmas Tree from Common Sense Media

If you feel that blood and gore shooting games are just not in the Christmas spirit, you're not the only one.

Says Common Sense Media, "If your kid's a gamer, you've no doubt heard of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto -- two of the most popular console franchises out there. But how much do you know about the content? You might be surprised at just how gory some of these games get. Find out what your kids (or their friends) are playing on this list of the most violent games of the year, and arm yourself with a bunch of imaginative, engaging, and cool family-friendly alternatives."

For a list of the ten most violent video games and their less gory alternatives, see what Common Sense recommends here.

Peace On Earth? Green Lizards and Red Rectangles by Steve Anthony

THE GREEN LIZARDS AND THE RED RECTANGLES WERE AT WAR!

On the surface it would seem that the Green Lizards and the Red Rectangles have nothing in common. Besides the fact that they sport colors that are opposites on the color wheel, lizards are flesh-and-blood animals and rectangles are, well, basically a concept created to designate a plane figure with four sides and four right angles.

So, in what universe are they mortal enemies?

Don't ask! (It's a story, remember!)

The first round looks like it's going to go the the Green Lizards. They speedily line up the Red Rectangles in a long row like dominos and give the first one a push.The upright Red Rectangles FALL to the Green Lizard hordes, right?

Well, they fall, all right, but having curled themselves around behind the Lizards, they fall and fall until they smite the Green Lizards from their rear.

Red Rectangles 1, Green Lizards 0

Now the Greens are really mad? Game on!

It's all-out war, with a cast of thousands! Might does make right. Right? They smite with all their might ...

UNTIL THEY COULD FIGHT NO MORE!

At last the smallest rectangle declares that enough is enough, and the two groups decide to make a truce! In fact, they find the perfect way to live together! The Red Rectangles form an apartment building with windows for each Green Lizard family. Game over!

But in Steve Anthony's brand-new Green Lizards vs. Red Rectangles (Scholastic Press, 2015), the two warring entities miss THE ONE BIG THING they have in common!

CHRISTMAS COLORS!

Yes, in this latest story by Britain's outstanding new picture book author, there's a subliminal seasonal message here of peace on earth and goodwill to men in this little picture book of war and peace, illustrated in Anthony's understated style with thin black pen-and-ink drawings in red and green in witty double-page spreads of silly martial maneuvers that will have small children giggling, there is perhaps a subliminal lesson that it's better to cooperate than to fight just for the heck of it! Deck the halls with green and red in this certainly different Christmas saga.

Steve Anthony's other notable books are Please, Mr. Panda and Betty Goes Bananas (see reviews here)

Tree Time! Dream Snow by Eric Carle

A rotund farmer does his evening chores, feeding his five farm animals--Horse, Cow, Sheep, Pig, and Rooster--and heading gratefully back to his cottage. There he spreads some honey on bread, and with a cup of peppermint tea, plops heavily into his favorite chair.

Soon he's resting in front of the fire!

"HEAVENS!" HE SAID. "IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS AND IT HASN'T SNOWED YET!"

Soon he's dozing and dreaming of snow.

In his dream he imagines his farm animals, called One, Two, Three, Four, and Five, sleeping in the snow-blanketed shed.

Suddenly, the farmer wakes and sees the snow outside.

"OH, ME! OH, MY! I ALMOST FORGOT!"

He suits up for an expedition outside--boots, fur lined cap, red coat and green gloves, and tossing a sack over his shoulders, he soldiers through the snow to the barn, where he unpacks his sack and assembles--a small Christmas tree with sparkling lights, colored balls and tinsel, under which he places gifts for One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In what may be his only Christmas story, Eric Carle's Dream Snow (Philomel Books, 2015) is out in a revised new edition as a board book. The acetate overlays of nightfall and falling snow in the original full-sized picture book are replaced here with sturdy flaps for younger fingers which open to reveal the animals sleeping in their stalls and what is hidden inside the farmer's pack. Although the white-whiskered farmer bears a striking resemblance to St. Nick, there's no hint of a sleigh trip ahead, just the simple gifts of the holiday. This one is perfect for preschoolers to share during Yuletide.

And to All a Good Ninja: Samurai Santa: A Very Ninja Christmas by Rubin Pingk

CHRISTMAS EVE WAS THE MOST PERFECT SNOW DAY OF THE YEAR.

YUKIO HAD NEVER SEEN SUCH BIG SNOWFLAKES. THEY SEEMED MAGIC.

Little Yukio has but one thought! Get the others outside and have an EPIC snowball fight! But the other little martial arts students are timid.

"NO! SANTA CLAUS WANTS US TO BE GOOD LITTLE NINJAS!

WE DON'T WANT TO BE ON SANTA'S NAUGHTY LIST!"

What a regrettable group of greasy grinds! Yukio thinks. His classmates keep right on practicing their skills, while the best snow of the year goes to waste!

But Yukio also blames Santa Claus. So, that night when Santa squeezes and slithers down the chimney, Yukio's on an all-nighter ninja Santa stakeout.

YUKIO CREPT TO THE LOUDEST GONG AROUND...

CRASH!

"INTRUDER!!!" YUKIO YELLED.

Dutifully, all the good little ninjas jump awake and throw themselves into the fray, using the first weapons available--snowballs!

"BANZAI!"

It's the most EPIC snowball fight ever, as Santa finds a stealthy way to train his troops and gives Yukio his best Christmas present ever, in Rubin Pingk's ninja night before Christmas story, Samurai Santa: A Very Ninja Christmas (Simon and Schuster, 2015). Author-illustrator Pingk's inventive digital illustrations provide the pages with plenty of movement and style and all the good little ninjas at his dojo get plenty of presents. Yokio gets a special letter from Santa:

Dear Yukio,
I hope you enjoyed the EPIC snowball fight. I made it just for you!
Sincerely,
Samurai Santa

Says Publishers Weekly in their starred review, "... a frenzied, fun, and nontraditional Christmas tale. It’s an impressively disciplined debut for Pingk and, just as important, a blast to read."