Goodnight, Critters! Bedtime for Sweet Creatures by Nikki Grimes

NO!

It's almost bedtime and things are about to get beastly!

The lively toddler is in his pajamas, but he is NOT ready for bed.

Mama takes Bear to bed.

"He's going to be awfully lonely without you," says Mommy.

Growls come from his bed. Snaky sounds hiss from under the sheet. The not-sleepy toddler roars and shakes his mane, until a bedtime book appears. The not-sleepy sounds turn into a yawn as the pages are turned, and the recalcitrant kid curls up with a hug like a koala.

Is he finally down for the count? Nope. He soon shows up in the kitchen looking for an oasis of water and bounds away for the bathroom with the speed of a wildebeest. Finally, he's bedded down once again.

Suddenly, Mommy is tired, too. She's almost down for the count when she hears a whisper:

"CAN I SLEEP WITH YOU?"

The bed is going to be crowded with the toddler and his imaginary menagerie, in the award-winning Nikki Grimes latest story of the all-too-common bedtime resistance routine. But sleep will come for a tired toddler and his creatures at last in Grimes' Bedtime for Sweet Creatures (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2020). And with the humorously colorful critters conjured up by artist Elizabeth Zunon, a good night will be had by all. "A fabulous interpretation of an everyday battle." says School Library Journal.

Current Event! Examining Pandemics (Examining Disasters) by Nina Rolfes

Shelter-in-place orders, On-line School, Social Distancing--terms that are new to student these days--are the order of the day in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, but pandemics are not unfamiliar to adults and certainly not new to the the human race, as young middle readers learn in Nina Rolfes' Examining Pandemics (Examining Disasters) (Clara House).

Rolfes begins by defining the term, explaining that an epidemic is a disease which spreads over a distinct area within a country and that a pandemic is a disease which is widespread over two countries or more.

She describes how a pandemic is spread from close contact with an animal or from a person who has the bacteria or virus causing the disease, or from contact with a surface touched by an infected animal or person, usually within 48 hours. Terms such as vectors, zoonotic diseases and transmission, hosts, and contagion are defined and described. Rolfes points out that humans are often a disease's best vectors because they are numerous, live in close social groups from a single family to a mega-city, and travel freely and often between widely different habitats, making spread by humans hard to control and requiring quarantines with strict rules, protective face masks and clothing, and rules for distancing from others.

Author Rolfes brings young readers up to speed on pandemics in human history, from the Black, or Bubonic, Plague, the "Black Death" which raged through Eurasia from 1330 on, killing up to half the population in a given area. She also recounts pandemics of smallpox that spread rapidly through Europe and then the Americas until an Englishman, Edward Jenner, discovered that he could prevent smallpox by "vaccinating" people with material from the lesions caused by cowpox, a harmless but common disease, and smallpox was at last declared officially worldwide extinct in the last century.

Rolfes also describes more recent pandemics from the 1918 influenza which killed 50 million people worldwide to measles and other widespread twentieth century diseases such as polio and AIDS, all of which sickened and killed millions, and those of the twenty-first century--SARS, H1N1 influenza, and Ebola, and how they were controlled.

With striking graphics, black-and-white photos of the 1918 flu scenes and polio wards and color photos of more recent events provide a backward look into past pandemics, Examining Pandemics (Examining Disasters) gives middle graders a wider understanding of pandemics and of the current COVID-19 now being experienced through almost the entire world. A pandemic on this global scale is an epic event, one perhaps familiar to those who know history but unfamiliar to children who are living through such a disaster in their own time, and in her straightforward, just-the-facts text, she describes methods to constrain disease while helping to put this current pandemic in its place in history. Rolfes also appends a glossary, a bibliograpy of books and web sites, and a useful index to help with science reports and projects.

Shove Off! Yellow Kayak by Nina Laden

Fish jump.

Loons float.

Seals watch.

Little boat.

Two adventurers go down to the sea in... well, not ships, but a little yellow kayak, waving goodbye to the watcher on the hill. Seagulls squawk as they soar across a cloudy gray sky, as the breezes become winds.

Maybe the two boatmen should have checked the weather forecast!

A sudden squall blows up, with howling winds, blowing rain, and roaring thunder!

But the little kayak rides out the storm as the sun begins to set in a pink sky.

Bail boat.

Good save!

And what's this? The denizens of the deep appear around them--seals rise, an octopus floats by, and hulking whales circle around to give them a gentle nudge toward their shore.

Lighthouse beams.

Welcome paddlers.

Sweet dreams.

It's certainly no jolly journey with the Beatles on their Yellow Submarine, but author Nina Laden and
artist Melissa Castrillon nevertheless create a magical mystery tour of the wonders of the ocean, in their Yellow Kayak (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon and Schuster, 2018, in the best nautical bedtime poem since Wynken, Blynken, and Nod sailed off in their wooden shoe! Castrillon's swirling colors and flowing line add a hypnotic aura of gorgeous fantasy to this imaginative sea story, told in soft, sybillant verse. Says Kirkus Reviews,"A gentle story of calm courage and of quiet, trusting perseverance that will comfort readers in their anxious times."

Dad In the Ring! KID COACH by Rob Justus

KID COACH know what to do with couch potatoes.

He trains 'em, drains 'em. He flips and shreds 'em. He mashes and whips 'em, till they're hot tots, in perfect shape.

But this time the coach potato is Kid Coach's dad.

The path from potato to champion is not easy!

It's a crash course to whip the former couch potato into shape. But KID COACH has the right recipe to shape his dad into a wrestler who will wrangle with...

... BIG guys, BAD guys, BALD guys...

(... and a scary guy with tattoos of
BIG, BAD, BALD guys.)

And Dad, previously known as Couch Potato Man, shapes up and come through to take the top place in the tournament!

But although his win is big, his ATTITUDE is way too RUDE! Sadly, it seems Dad's ego has gotten too BIG for his TIGHTS.

But KID COACH also knows how to trim ego inflation down to size, too, in Rob Justus's just-stepped-into-the-ring Kid Coach (Page Street Kids, 2020). Justus' big and bold comic-style illustrations and wrap-around, "full nelson" text fill the pages with spot art, panels, full-bleed, and two-page action-filled spreads. And Coach and combatants and all are slammin' and jammin" with glee. "The father-son role reversal, along with a healthy plate of potato puns, provides plenty of laughs," says Booklist.

#Everyone Counts! Count Me In by Varsha Bajaj

Chris Daniels and I are like separate planets orbiting in the same galaxy. Like Venus and Earth, we are next door neighbors.

We've been in the same school since I moved to the neighborhood in third grade.Then, of all the crappy karma, there he is, in seventh grade, in five out of seven of my classes. And Chris was a witness to one of the worst moments in my middle-school life.

In sixth grade Karina and her friend Ashley call the boys "hyenas" because they single out the people they picked out to embarrass on the bus ride home, which seemed to bring out that notorious middle-school meanness.

Quinn, or Hyena 1, said, "Let's make a list of the girls with the hairiest arms."

Together the hyenas said, "K Chops."

I, Karina Chopra, was the only one on the list.

But when Karina's grandfather comes to live with them, he volunteers to tutor seventh graders in math after school, and Karina finds herself getting to know Chris Daniels as the two become friends. But walking home from school, sharing a bag of berries and laughs with her grandfather and Chris, the three are suddenly approached by a man with a knife. He goes up to Chris.

When this guy first approaches he touches my hair in a strange way. He asks me if I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?

Alarm bells ring. My heart pounds when he calls Mr. Chopra nasty names. Then he turns on me, pushes me down. When the monster pushes Mr. C. down, I wince as I hear his body smack the ground.

"Terrorists don't belong here," the man says, and gives Mr. C. a kick.

Karina's grandfather has a fractured leg and is in intensive care at the hospital, and as they pray for his recovery, Karina decides to fight back against racism. She returns with her camera to the place where the attack occurred:

Mr. K's Ghandi-style glasses are shattered on the street. One of his sandals lies there, too. The berries we were eating are strewn all over. The burst strawberries look like splattered blood.

With a green chalk Karina draws a heart around that spot and makes a photograph that she posts on social media with the hashtags #HateHasNoHomeHere and #CountMeIn.

There are some hate mails, but Karina's messages go viral, and the community rallies to support her family, in Varsha Bajaj moving account, Count Me In (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2019). Writing without sensationalism, author Varsha Bajaj, tells the story of a hate crime in straight-forward prose, allowing her characters Karina and Chris to tell the story in alternating chapters that reinforce the hopeful message that discrimination and hate based on national origin has no place among American citizens. At a time when immigration is a point of contention, this novel tells the story from the point of view of both narrators and the courage of others who unite behind them.

“Compassionate, relatable characters. The story celebrates resilience, the power of community, and even the benefits of social media during a time when hate crimes against the Indian Diaspora are on the rise. Karina's message, that we are stronger together, will easily resonate with readers,” says Booklist's reviewer.

Guess Who? The Many Faces of Ernie by Judy Freudberg

HA HA HA! MY NEW DISGUISE KIT SAYS "FOOL YOUR FRIENDS!"

SO THAT'S WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!"

Ernie can't wait to try out his disguises. He starts with Bert, knocking on his door.

"OH, WOW! WHO COULD THAT BE?" BERT SAYS.

Flushed with success, Ernie tries another disguise.

YO-HO-HO!

Bert shuts the door on Ernie and his YARRR and scimitar and all.

Ernie tries out his Little Red Riding Hood outfit, his clown suit, and his fake bald wig.

Bert is not amused. He only wants to read.

Ernie ups the ante. Will his Red Devil or a Monster disguise fool Bert? Will Bert ever get to finish his book? It's a knock-knock joke for real in Judsy Freudberg's Sesame Street Workshop book, The Many Faces of Ernie (Random House, 2019), deftly illustrated by Norman Chartier, a fun dress-up book for toddlers and preschoolers who like to try fooling their folks.

Express Delivery! Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor

Why does the snail cross the road?

...a field of plump, crisp cabbage just across the road.

"You won't stop me!" said Snail to the road.

But determination is one thing. Nature is another. Snails are slow. And the truth is that although a field of cabbages represents a lifetime supply of delicious dining, a snail looks much the same way to a flock of hungry crows who know that snails are an irresistible tidbit that can't bite or fight back!

Still, snail has a roomy shell in which he can hunker down to discourage crows, but his crooked trail is slow, and there's traffic traveling that road, too. Luckily. the trucks straddle his trail and while he survives squashing, the crows take it on the lam!

But then a bossy trail of ants try to pass rudely.

"Hey! You! You're standing in our way!

We got a road to cross here!" yelled a troop of rowdy ants.

But before the right-of-way conflict comes down to even more unpleasantness, a sudden rainstorm pours down on them all. Generous snail offers shelter to all beneath his shell. And when the storm abates, the ants are grateful and invite Snail into their underground nest for tea and sympathy.

"Sorry... about earlier. Sometimes we get a bit antsy," said the ants.

And then Snail told them about his destination in the fertile field of cabbages. He can't wait for a juicy bite of cabbage leaf. He hits the road and hustles across the asphalt, only to discover that he's hustled diligently right back to the side of the road where he started.

But what was that on the horizon?

The Cabbage was coming to Snail!

Who is that rushing to his relief, bearing a large cruciferous vegetable?

It's United Ant Express to the rescue, in Corey R. Tabor's just-published Snail Crossing (Balzer and Bray, 2020), in which snail and ants end up with all the cabbage they can eat and in good company besides.

Tabor's new story of one good deed leading to another is just right for the preschool-primary set, one that echoes Aesop's fable's message, done with jolly pencil and wash illustrations filled with activity and expression, charm and humor. Great fun for read-alouds, with a chance to observe who first points out the page where Snail takes his wrong turn! Publishers Weekly adds that Tabor's snail tale ... "presents a pink protagonist who’s an endearing mix of stubborn and openhearted, with eye stalks that are by turns steely and befuddled."

Together in Time: On the Horizon by Lois Lowry

Back in 1980, author Lois Lowry's father showed her some family silent movies of her at age two playing on the beach in Hawaii with her grandmother. Intrigued, Lowry had the film transferred to a video tape, and one day she and some friends watched them together.

I played once more on the beach at Waikiki.

"Wait," my friend John said suddenly. "Pause it and go back to the beach scene! We watched the beach scene again.

"Look on the horizon." John said. "That's the Arizona!"

We were no longer watching a little girl playing with a sand shovel in 1940. The battleship Arizona carried 1200 men. Almost all of them would soon be dead.

Stunned with that moment frozen in time, when she was connected with the sinking of that ship and the day that began World War II, author Lowry started to research the people who survived and those whose lives were lost on December 7, when "Remember the Arizona," had become the watchword of the nation.

Lowry learned that many of the sailors were young, seventeen and eighteen years old, on their first cruise. Thirty-seven sets of brothers were shipmates. Some brothers survived, and some pairs died together. One brother managed to save his brother, and one tried and failed and had his ashes buried on the ship, still visible underwater in Pearl Harbor, where his brother lay.

At eighty-six, he returned to his ship.
Divers took his ashes down,
and placed them in the fourth gun turret,
where he would rest with his shipmates.

Author Lowry and her family returned to Japan for a few years when she was older, where she heard the stories of people on the day the first atomic bomb fell on Japan. One little boy was buried with his beloved little red trike, which Lowry later saw when she visited the museum in Hiroshima. In Japan she had a much-loved green bicycle, and she once stopped to watch a playground full of Japanese children where one boy came to the fence and stared long at her pale hair and eyes.

His name then was Koichi Seii, and many years later, as the American Caldecott Award-winning author-illustrator, Alan Say, he met Lois at a conference, and chatting about her days in Tokyo, the two discovered that they were those two children who stared at each other through that fence.

So many years went by
that he was gray-haired; so was I.

I'd lived in his country, then.
And now he'd moved to mine, so when
we met (his name was Allen now)
we mused and pondered how
from our horizons we had viewed
a war begin, a war conclude.

We were young. We were alike.
A boy in a schoolyard. A girl on a bike.

Newbery Award-winning author Lois Lowry's memoir, On the Horizon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), comes at a good time in our history for children forced to live through another historic time. Quarantined with family, they have seen their worlds shrink even as they yet live through another momentous world event which they unknowingly share with children far away.

Lowry, whose notable Newbery Award books are Number the Stars and The Giver (1) (Giver Quartet), uses varied poetic forms, from quatrains to haiku, to tell a personal story that is entwined with a time that challenged individuals and nations, a time remembered that yet has many lessons for young readers today. We are in time as a fish is in water, all threatened, all hopeful, often all as unaware of what is on the horizon as little Lois on that long-ago beach, as history rolls on all around us, and Lowry's thoughtful words help convey that truth to those who are children now. Says School Library Journal,"This series of beautiful, moving, and sometimes horrifying poems gives a voice to the young men on the USS Arizona and offers an equally moving tribute to the survivors of Hiroshima. The author shares her hope for the future and stresses the interconnectedness of humanity."

Anger Management: Ravi's Roar by Tom Percival

Ravi was the smallest in his family...

... even Biscuits the dog seemed bigger.

When the family sets off on a picnic, Ravi finishes last in the run to the train. And that means he has to share a seat with Dad and Biscuits. When his brothers and sister play hide-and-seek, he's too short to spot anyone.

He can't reach the climbing bars and he's too small for the Big slide. Ravi is getting angry!

Dad tries to cool his ire by suggesting ice cream cones for all. His big brothers and sisters run to the ice cream vendor. So when Ravi and Dad got there...

... there was NONE left!

Ravi had HAD it!

Ravi was FURIOUS!

He sprouted sharp pointy teeth,and stripy orange fur!

Ravi ...

ROARED!

His big brother gingerly handed over his ice cream cone. Everyone else got out of his way!

Ravi liked having the power of a tiger. He did anything he wanted. He slid down the BIG slide and nobody said anything. He liked being a scary tiger! But then Ravi noticed no one would come near him.

There wasn't anyone who dared to play with him! Now what?

This might be a good time to say SORRY, in Tom Percival's Ravi's Roar (Big Bright Feelings) (Bloomsbury Books, 2019), in which Ravi is frightened by his own temper and takes charge of his own inner tiger when it comes to taming tantrums. Author-illustrator Tom Percival skillfully portrays the power of Ravi's understandable anger, while showing the potential harm of a tantrum, along with the loving support of his family, while reserving a small growl for the occasional bully.

Share this one with Percival's other funny but sensitive books in this series, Ruby Finds a Worry (Big Bright Feelings) and Perfectly Norman. (Big Bright Feelings)

The Blowout! Bruce's Big Storm by Ryan T. Higgins

Bruce was not a bear who liked neighbors.

Actually, Bruce doesn't like anybody. In fact, Bruce is a curmudgeonly, self-centered, introverted bear who only likes one thing--hibernating solo.

He once liked eggs, but when he swiped Mrs. Goose's eggs from her nest and put them in a pan of water to boil, he hatched goslings, goslings who imprinted on him and, like it or not, he became... MOTHER GOOSE BRUCE.

Bruce may be anti-social, but he is dutiful. Now living in the North Woods with his brood and their mice pets, Bruce finds that even there he still has neighbors

But none of them stayed very long... until the day of the big storm.

While the winds roar and the tempest rages, all of Bruce's neighbors decide to take shelter in his house. It's a bit crowded. But then Nibbs the mouse spies a little rabbit outside in the storm and he and the duteous Bruce dash out with their umbrella to save the little fellow. But the wind catches the umbrella and the three are all airborne. Are Bruce, Nibbs, and the bunny on a one-way flight to Fairbanks?

It's the neighbors to the rescue, even when Bruce's cabin is blown away, in Ryan T. Higgins' latest installment in the saga of Mother Bruce, Bruce's Big Storm (Mother Bruce Series) (Hyperion, 2019). Ryan T. Higgins' illustrations of the perpetually grumpy but dogged Bruce never fail to get laughs from the picture book set. The New York Times best-selling author's wickedly funny cartooning scores again, just as it did in his super Kindergartner hit, We Don't Eat Our Classmates and the whole Mother Goose Bruce series. (Read reviews here.)

Been There, Done That! Old Rock (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti

Geologically speaking, Old Rock is not the new kid on the block. To tell the truth, he's kind of a fixture at the foot of the mountains.

To the relative newcomers, Tall Pine, Spotted Beetle, and Hummingbird, he's a boring old codger, er, boulder.

"Being a rock seems awfully boring"... said Tall Pine.

.."in the same spot, day after day," adds Spotted Beetle.

Old Rock demurs, saying his is a great spot to be.

Don't you want to go anywhere?" asked Hummingbird

Ahhh. Old Rock settles back and begins to tell the young ones the tale of the old days, when like a rocket he flew up and away from an exploding volcano. And, oh! all the sights he has seen--dinosaurs hunting and fiery asteroids falling and snowfalls that turned into an ice age of glaciers. He tells them how he was buried in freezing snow and traveled inside the resulting glacier and left as a balancing rock on a mountain as the ice age receded and left him high and dry on a peak--until one day the mountain shook and he tipped and did somersaults all the way down the mountain...

down, down, down,

into a valley...

where he landed just in time for a mammoth to use him for a seat.

And he tells them how he watched a seed grow into Tall Pine where a spotted beetle and a beautiful hummingbird sometimes stop to tell him the tales of all they've seen. And they all agree...

It's a very nice spot.

Deb Pilutti's just published Old Rock (is not boring) (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2020) helps young readers learn to take the long view as they go forth to find their own sights and stories. Pilutti's storytelling gently spoofs the generation gap while she also lays out a little geology lesson for preschoolers and primary readers, set off by her soft abstract illustrations that move through time as the pages, turn, turn, turn. Those old rocks cannot speak, but if we look and listen and learn, they will tell us their timely story.

“A witty, engaging exploration of deep time . . . This picture book rocks!” says Kirkus, in a starred review.

Dorks on Tour! Dork Diaries Tales from a NOT-SO Best Friend Forever by Rachel Renee' Russell

I'm going to have the MOST. EXCITING. SUMMER. EVER!!

SQUEEEEEEE!!

Nikki's band, I'm Not Actually Certain Yet, has won the audition to open for the super-popular Bad Boyz for a month-long coast-to-coast tour. They'll fly with the band, rehearse with the band, and stay in posh hotels where the Bad Boyz will be! It's a double-SQUEEEEEE occasion.

What could possibly go wrong?

Enter Nikki's arch-frenemy MacKenzie Hollister, who declares that her "daddy" will buy out the building where Fuzzy Friends
Animal Rescue is located unless Nikki agrees to let her audition with them and the Bad Boyz at least once on the tour. Nikki reluctantly agrees for the sake of the animals, and soon finds that MacKenzie has finagled herself into an internship with the tour and--worst of all--she will be Nikki's roommate for the tour.

I handled this situation in a very MATURE and PRIVATE manner.

I very calmly walked to the nearest restroom. Then I stepped inside the nearest stall.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But the show must go on, in Rachel Renee' Russell's latest installment in her best-selling, Dork Diaries 14: Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend Forever (14) (Aladdin Books, 2019). In this entry in her mega-popular middle-reader series, Nikki deals with the warring boy band, who have their own ego clashes, her fatigue from late-night shows and even later flights, dodging flocks of screeching NickChicks, early morning publicity appearances, and the meanest, most slovenly roommate ever. Will Nikki keep her own band working together smoothly while soothing the crotchety boy band member and working out a way to save Fuzzy Friends from the wrecking ball?

Teenage Dream or NIGHTMARE?

In this recent sequel, there's plenty of giggling and niggling among the main characters, with fun quizzes for middle-reader participation and illustrations by Russell's daughter, Nikki Russell, who provides scads of black-line cartoons on most pages, as this newest top-seller continues to make the world safe for DORKS. Middle readers have no complaints about these books except that they read them so fast!

And to do due diligence to dorky guys, Rachel Renee Roberts has a series just for middle-school boys, The Misadventures of Max Crumbly Books 1-3: The Misadventures of Max Crumbly 1; The Misadventures of Max Crumbly 2; The Misadventures of Max Crumbly 3.

Rescue Dog! MVP--Most Valuable Puppy by Mike Greenberg and Stacy Greenberg

Hi! My name is Phoebe.

I like tummy scratches, cheese, tennis balls, and eating crumbs that fall from the table.

Obviously, Phoebe is a dog, a fluffy white doodle dog whose perky, woolly tale is a bright shade of pink to match her collar. She loves treat time and TV time, but...

"More than anything I love my family."

Phoebe loves to go to the park with her "sister," the girl in the family whose pink glasses match Phoebe's tail. And one day when all the kids invite the girl to join in a game of football, Phoebe decides to join the game, too, and the kids cheer. After all, she's watched enough gameplay on the tube to know how to move the ball down the field. And Phoebe is even better at soccer, where her speed and agility come in handy in guarding the ball downfield.

SCORE!

Phoebe wins the title of "Most Valuable Player" for the game, and when her "sister" takes a tumble, Phoebe is right there with sympathetic tail wags, in sportscaster Mike Greenberg's picture book illustrated by his wife, graphic artist Stacy Greenberg, MVP: Most Valuable Puppy (Aladdin Books, 2018), based on this own family's story and pets. Games, kids, and a fun-loving labradoodle! What's not to like in this sunny story of a day in the park. Kirkus Reviews says, "Phoebe and her best friend score a touchdown with this groundbreaking pairing of a sports-minded girl and her dog."

Dog, Gone: Where Lily Isn't by Julie Paschkis

Lily ran,

and wiggled,

and wagged,

but not now.

The loss of a beloved being is hard, whether a pet or a person.

Lily's not there on the little rug beside the girl's bed in the morning. She's not there begging at breakfast. She's not there to bark when someone comes to the door or to pull every which way but the right way on the leash, or to bark a happy welcome after school.

The house is full of all the places where Lily isn't.

Where is Lily?

The loss of a pet is usually the first loss children know, and it takes time to realize that they still live in memory and in the heart, in the Caldecott-winning author Julie Paschkis' new picture book, Where Lily Isn't (Henry Holt and Company, 2020).

Loss of something or someone loved is hard, but a part of life that comes sooner or later to everyone. Artist Paschkis has her little girl keep the memory of her pet close by drawing pictures that keep her beloved dog in her heart. Others may have different ways, and reading books like this one is a way children can learn to deal with personal loss. Margaret Chodos-Irvine adds comforting illustrations, both of Lily's presence in memory and of her loss. Says Kirkus in a starred review, "Understated but powerful . . . with a sweet, unforgettable ending."

Group Soup! Thukpa for All by Praba Ram & Sheela Preuitt

GONGGGGG!

Tseering perks up and heads for home. Tikk Tiukkk... Tseering treks with his stick, sweeping it left and right.

Abi's noodle soup beckons. Hearty, chunky thukpa. Yummy, spicy thukpa.

His friend Rigzin calls hello and asks what is his hurry, and Tseering tells him his grandmother is making her special soup, the best in the village.

Would you like to join us? Tseering asks.

Who could resist? Apparently no one, because as Tseering's feet follow the pebbled path, first his uncle Tashi, whose lost lamb Tseering has returned, then Aunty, and then old Norboo, feeling poorly, happily accept his offer to share Abi's soup.

But back home, Tseering's recital of unexpected guests throws Abi into a tizzy:

"All of them! My dear boy! We need more water... hmmm...vegetables and noodles, too. Let me see what I can do!" Abi says, bustling around.

Tseering hurries to the pea patch to find some pods with peas, shells them out, and returns to the house, just in time to greet Rigzin arriving with cheese and some water. Neema Aunty brings apricot jam and freshly kneaded dough for noodles, Uncle brings buttered tea, and old Norboo brings spinach for the soup. Abi busies herself chopping onions and tomatoes and browning them up in her big soup pot when...the power goes out!

How can Abi finish preparing the soup in the dark?

"Lights on or off don't matter to me!" says Tseering. "I'll help you."

Tseering sniffs out just the right spices to season the vegetables and rolls out Aunty's dough for the noodles for the soup, and soon....

Abi's noodle soup is served.

And in Praba Ram and Sheela Preuitt's hearty and warm story, Thukpa for All (Consortium Books, 2018), everyone shares in the making and the eating of Abi's hot, spicy soup. With the colorful local illustrations of Shilpa Ranade, this story of cooperation and generosity is as warm as a big bowl of hearty, chunky thukpa. Just as in the European folk tale, Stone Soup, in this Asian version from the high mountains of India, all the unexpected guests bring along a little something for the dinner pot, a celebration of community that results in a plenitude of a unique potluck dinner. "An appealing introduction to a part of the world that’s underrepresented in picture books," adds School Library Journal."

This Land Is Our Land: The Camping Trip that Changed America by Barb Rosenstock

"Any Fool can destroy trees.

God has cared for these trees, but he cannot save them from fools. Only Uncle Same can do that." -- John Muir

John Muir was on a mission.

President Theodore Roosevelt needed a break.

The lean, bearded activist saw development destroying the native beauty of California, and on that other coast the rotund president was weary of politics.

Teddy Roosevelt had read Muir's book on the natural wonders of Yosemite and the Sequoia groves of coastal California, so when the dour and zealous Muir almost dared the President to rough it with him in the wilderness, Teddy was on it with his usual fervor. It's not easy for a president to escape from his retinue of advisers and guards, but the two-man camping trip set out at last to brave the wilderness on their own.

Teddy Roosevelt, the advocate of the "rugged life," was in his glory. "Teedie" and "Johnnie" rode along cascading streams and through hushed mountain evergreen forests, camped out beside geysers, viewed valleys carved by glaciers, even waking up in the high mountains, half-buried in a sudden snowstorm and tossing snowballs at each other like two schoolboys on holiday.

"Bully! What a glorious day!" cried T. R.

But the ebullient president was in his element and the devoted naturalist took the opportunity to press his message that these vast areas of America's natural landscape were at risk of being forever destroyed by the press of the nation's advance west.

But it was when the two camped out beneath towering groves of giant sequoias that the deal became a mission for Roosevelt, too.

"These trees grew when the Egyptians were building the pyramids! They never stop growing unless they are cut down.

How can I help?" asked Teddy Roosevelt.

"Keep the wild and protect it forever," answered Muir.

And the rest is history.

That epic camping trip that led President Roosevelt to push the legislation which established the National Park system of the United States is the subject of Barb Rosenstock's The Camping Trip that Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks (Dial Books). Author Rosenstock captures the enchantment of the natural scene and the boyish joy of the two powerful men on a trip that was both a playful expedition and a pilgrimage that changed the face of America.


The emotional impact of this account is equally heightened by the humorous portrayals of the odd-couple adventurers and the beautiful paintings and detailed pen-and-ink sketches of the natural world (including a vertical two-page, vertical illustration of a soaring sequoia) created by artist Mordecai Gerstein. Gerstein is also the Caldecott Award-winning illustrator of another noted American event in his stunning The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.

Says Kirkus Reviews, "You can't ever quite take the boy out of the man, and Rosenstock's use of her subjects' childhood names evokes a sense of Neverland ebullience, even as the grownup men decided the fate of the wilderness. Wonderfully simple, sweet and engaging."

Extinction Encounter: Kat Wolfe Takes the Case by Lauren St. John

"Why is a BBC News helicopter trying to land in your garden?" Harper Lamb asked plaintively from the sofa bed, startling Kat, who'd forgotten that she'd slept over. Kat was discovering that the previous day had left her feeling as if she had been pummeled by grizzly bears. It all came rushing back then: the collapsing cliff, the fiery light she'd seen arc across the sea, the shadow of the enormous shark.

Harper's phone made music in her rucksack. "Look at this message from Dad!" said Harper, passing over her phone.

Hey, kid. Want to be part of something historic? Get yourself to the beach PRONTO. Tell the guards that you and Kat are my assistants.

Overnight the small beach town of Bluebell Bay becomes the center of a media frenzy. The collapse of the cliff face overlooking the tiny beach has revealed an intact skeleton of a 200 million year old dracoraptor, the sunlight catching the suddenly revealed bleached bones of the dragon dinosaur.

And almost instantly the scene of the find is overwhelmed with curiosity seekers, amateur paleontologists, and more nefarious characters planning to advance their fortunes by buying or stealing any of the ancient bones they can get. A celebrity couple, the Swans, blow into town and hire Kat Wolfe to pet-sit their goofy Pomeranian Xena, and Harper Lamb's father, the area paleontologist, soon discovers that part of the jawbone of the just excavated dracoraptor has been stolen from his lab. And Harper's grandfather, the Minister of Defense, pays a suspicious quick visit to the scene.

Something more than a theft of a rare paleontological find is afoot. A centuries-old secret society called the Order of the Dragon, whose followers believe medications made from fossil bones promise eternal life, has its murderous minions on the scene. It's spring holidays, and it's the moment for detectives Wolfe and Lamb to take the case.

In her second Wolfe and Lamb Mystery, Lauren St. John's Kat Wolfe Takes the Case: A Wolfe and Lamb Mystery (Wolfe and Lamb Mysteries) (Farrar, Strous and Giroux, 2019), author St. John again has her intrepid schoolgirl super sleuths who squeeze down trapdoors hidden in he woods, decipher coded messages, sneak through secret underground tunnels, dodge murderous operatives as, with their new associate Kai Wu, uncover the malefactors and return their scenic town to it role as quiet tourist destination, protecting their endangered pets along the way, and ending with a few days still left of their school holiday. Of this entertaining and breathless mystery, School Library Journal says “St. John’s prose is splendid, and her extensive knowledge of animals great and small is evident. . .A complex mystery with well-placed red herrings, important reminders about animal care and conservation, and appealing protagonists make this a recommended purchase.”

Notable author of many mystery adventures for middle readers, Lauren St. John's first book in this series is Kat Wolfe Takes the Case (Wolfe and Lamb).

It's Easy! All You Need Is Love by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Bears are known to be a bit grumpy when they emerge from hibernation, and this rumpled bear is no exception. Melting snow is making chilly puddles all around. Bah!

But what's that sound?

It's a happy bluebird whose song seems to call forth the spring itself. Trees begin budding and bright flowers push up out of the muddy fields.

The bluebird perches on Bear's head and offers him a freshly picked flower and then leads him through the landscape.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS LOVE!

And as Bear and Bird make their way down the road, spring unfolds before them and a joyful throng assembles as the parade progresses to a happy "happening" in the park.

NOWHERE YOU CAN BE

THAT ISN'T WHERE YOU'RE MEANT TO BE!

Altogether, now, everyone:

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED!

In a sweet tribute to fellow-feeling and spring joy, the lyrics to Lennon and McCartney's anthem to love, so familiar to Baby Boomers and Beatles fans, becomes the lively rhyming text to All You Need Is Love, illustrated with great charm and visual humor by noted picture book artist, Mark Rosenthall. Love may not be all we need in these times, but it is what we need for sure, love for life, love for our lovely world, and love for each other. School Library Journal sums it up: "The illustrations are as inspiring as the lyrics, with bright rainbow colors, and lighthearted, animated characters. The diversity of human characters is to be appreciated, and the change of setting as the parade marches on adds interest and intrigue. VERDICT A cultural must-have for all well-rounded library collections."

Could Be Verse!: Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again by Mem Fox

Bonnie and Ben were a boisterous pair

who loved yelling rhymes in the open air.

With hugs and goodbyes to Mom and Dad,, they set out for a outing with Skinny Doug. Doug reminds them of all the rhymes they know by heart, so when they come to a hill, the rhymsters start, with "Jack and Jill." When they spot some sheep, they recite "Little Bo Peep."

A plum tree recalls Jack Horner's pie, and when they spy a web, they recite a rhyme about "Little Miss Muffet"with a spider beside her.

On their stroll, they draw quite a crowd--all of them reciting the rhymes out loud.

And when they encounter a garden of posies, they form a circle and sing "Ring around the Rosie!"

But by then it's growing dark. Have they gone way too far? No, they walk back home, singing, "Twinkle, Little Star."

It's never too early or too late for a spate of verses, and in Mem Fox's salute to versification with Bonnie and Ben, it's once more rhyme time, in Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again (Beach Lane Books, 2020). For the very young, this book is a good introduction to the body of English nursery rhymes, and for slightly older children, this one gives them the chance to use the cues and chime in with each rhyme. Artist Judy Horacek provides jolly illustrations done in black line and bright watercolor fill which make this a fun book for a sing-along walk with Old Mother Goose!

The noted Mem Fox is also the author of the beloved classic picture book We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Classic Board Books).