Category: Picture Book Reviews

REVIEW: Is This a Tiger? by Elina Ellis

REVIEW: Is This a Tiger? by Elina Ellis

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Kids Can Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

Alex (from Have You Seen an Elephant?) and Atticus set out to find a real tiger, while Alex uses her field guide to help.

This was such an informative book! I learned several things about tigers I didn’t know before – like their stripes are on their SKIN, they are nocturnal, and there are three species that have gone extinct.

This would be an excellent addition to classroom, public, and home library nonfiction collections. Fans of Alex’s first book should definitely pick up this great sequel. I could see a classroom project of making a field guide for an animal studies unit with these books as mentor texts. Brilliant! I can’t wait to see what Alex explores next.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great! Might re-read.

REVIEW: Life in the Wild by Nicholas Oldland

REVIEW: Life in the Wild by Nicholas Oldland

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Kids Can Press in exchange for an honest review. (I also read 5 of the stories in single-story form from the library.) All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

Six stories from the Life in the Wild series are collected here in one volume. You can read my reviews of two of them at the links provided.

Big Bear Hug (♥♥♥♥)

Make the Moose Out of Life – A reserved moose learns to embrace adventure and try new things when he gets shipwrecked. This was cute. I liked that Moose was driven by his own desires to change rather than being cajoled or shamed into being someone he is not. He recognizes his nervousness but also tries things until he finds activities he likes. (♥♥♥♥)

The Busy Beaver (♥♥♥♥½)

Up the Creek  – Three best friends who disagree a lot try to go on a canoe trip together. This is another fun and funny tale of these three friends. This includes some great examples of ways to learn to get along for the good of the outing. (♥♥♥♥)

Walk on the Wild Side – Three friends climbing a mountain discover it can be more fun to enjoy the journey rather than race to be the first one done. This is another cute story with a nice lesson. I love that none of these stories include shaming. There are just experiences and learning from them along with friends who decide to work at being better friends. (♥♥♥♥)

Hockey in the Wild – This is the one story I only read because I received the ARC of the collection. And for me, this was the weakest story in the set. It just didn’t click for me.

REVIEW: The Busy Beaver by Nicholas Oldland

REVIEW: The Busy Beaver by Nicholas Oldland

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary and Review

A careless beaver finally sees the path of destruction he’s left in his wake and decides to make things right.

As I mentioned last week, I picked several of the Life is Wild books up at the library, including this one, before discovering they were going to be released in a single volume. My review for that will post next week, but for now I wanted to post about this story on its own because it is my favorite in the collection. The message here is fantastic! The illustrations are excellent and really help tell the story so there’s minimal text for young readers. This was delightful!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read

REVIEW: Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland

REVIEW: Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary and Review

A hug-giving bear who especially loves hugging trees encounters a man who plans to cut down one of the oldest trees in the forest.

This was a lovely story! I adored the illustrations of all of the critters and all the things Bear hugs. It’s a super sweet story – until Bear meets the man with the ax. I love how Bear acknowledges his anger but makes a different choice about his behavior than the reader might expect. This was lovely!

I picked this book up from the library based solely on the cover art. I love it. Turns out this one story is going to be part of a multi-book release later this fall – I’ll be reviewing the whole collection soon.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great! Might re-read.

REVIEW: We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang

REVIEW: We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Tundra Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

When three aliens crash land on Earth, they find a kind and helpful community of humans.

This was cute! And not quite what I was expecting. The aliens have answers for all of the questions, insisting they are humans and from Europe. And the community where they crash doesn’t seem to care too much. They kindly chip in to help, even when the folks they help are different and unusual.

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ – Good+

REVIEW: Mothman Learns the ABCs by Michael Schang

REVIEW: Mothman Learns the ABCs by Michael Schang

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary and Review

My husband is friends with the illustrator for this book, Danner Seyffer-Sprague of ConjureDustDesigns, and I found this at his booth at a cryptid convention this summer. As we already love – and own – a good bit of his art, I had to pick up this darling picture book.

There are 26 layouts of Mothman doing activities like flying on an AIRPLANE, meeting a BEE, and looking at COMICS in the book – and they are darling.  The backmatter includes brief descriptions of Mothman and his cryptid friends featured in the book.

This would be a fun gift for your cryptid-loving – and art-loving – friends and family.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great! Might re-read

 

 

REVIEW: Stan Lee by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

REVIEW: Stan Lee by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

This is a kid-friendly biography of comics-creator Stan Lee. I adored the colorful artwork in this book! The story is kid-friendly with a focus on reading and storytelling, perseverance, and familiar characters from comics, television, and movies.

While Marvel and the MCU isn’t quite at the height it was several years ago, the staying power of the characters Stan Lee created make his story one that endures whether Marvel is churning out blockbusters multiple times a year or fans are returning to “old” favorites.

This would be great for collections of the Little People Big Dreams series as well as other picture book biography collections – and of course for all Marvel/Stan Lee fans.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great!

REVIEW: Quiet Violet Finds Her Voice by Gabrielle Nidus

REVIEW: Quiet Violet Finds Her Voice by Gabrielle Nidus

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Free Spirit Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

While Violet is quiet in general, the one place she’s not is in the kitchen. In the kitchen she’s skilled, competent, and confident.

When her class at school tries some cooking, Violet struggles to be heard. Her classmates forget she’s there, and her small voice gets lost in the chaos. But when her chance to make an impression on the star of her favorite cooking show is in jeopardy because of her peers’ mistakes, Violet finds her voice.

Review

This is a cute story about quiet voices – and quiet kids – being seen and valued. The story includes some backmatter to help readers learn to value quiet voices. I really liked that the approach is less about “fixing” or “changing,” and instead about accepting. This includes questions for kids as well as suggestions for adults.

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ = Good+

REVIEW: Have You Seen an Elephant? by Elina Ellis

REVIEW: Have You Seen an Elephant? by Elina Ellis

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Kids Can Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

A young explorer who loves elephants heads out on an expedition to find one. But while she finds all sorts of other animals, she keeps missing the elephants. Along the way, she shares the elephant facts from her journal with the other animals (and the reader).

Review

Great elephant facts delivered in a fun way in this clever story! This was terrific, and I hope it’s only the beginning of Alex’s adventures. The artwork is fantastic, and I think kids will love it. This might work best as a lap book as kids are going to want to track all of the elephant sightings that Alex is missing.

The book includes instructions for young readers to make their own animal journals as well as information on the endangered species status of both the African and Asian elephants. I think this would work well for a classroom or library program where kids could also make an animal journal like Alex’s.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read.

REVIEW: The Pumpernickel-Daffodil by Galia Bernstein

REVIEW: The Pumpernickel-Daffodil by Galia Bernstein

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

A dog with an impressive pedigree gets a human with whom to do dog shows. The human has a pretty impressive pedigree, too. But together they may make a path all their own.

Review

This was exactly as cute as I expected it to be. The illustrations are darling from start to finish.

I expected the main story – the puppy and the girl do their own thing which flies in the face of tradition. But I expected it to cause trouble in both families. Instead, this is a story of full acceptance. It’s very sweet!

Dog lovers should be sure to check this out. This would make a sweet read aloud, too.

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ = Good +