Joan Holub

I love this series. Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams are amazing at fracturing myths and legends. This is no exception to that. The Goddess Girls series are lighthearted, quirky reads featuring Greek myths and legends. Using the framework of the myths we know and love, Holub and Williams, twist these into tween friendly novels emphasising friendship and family.

In this one, Athena finds out she is the daughter of Zeus and has been invited to attend Mount Olympus Academy - the school where her show more dad is a principal. Athena leaves behind her mortal foster family and ascends to Mount Olympus where she meets other Goddess girls and boys and learns about her heritage and finds where she belongs. I was amused by the creative elements the authors came up with like the new classes Athena takes (Beauty-ology, Beast-ology, Hero-ology, Spell-ology and Revenge-ology), the history of the mortal inventions (the rake, the ship and the olive) and the reason behind the Trojan Wars (it was a class assignment!). I liked Athena. She was thrown in the deep end of a new family, new friends and a new school but she works hard to keep on top of her schoolwork and to put herself out there and make the best of an unusual situation. It's definitely aimed at middle grade but there's enough there to amuse older readers if not taken too seriously.

My own personal rating would be 3 stars. But for the target audience 4.5 show less

A yellow no. 2 pencil instructs her students on how to write a story:

Story Path
1. Idea, characters, setting
2. Trouble
3. Even bigger trouble
4. Fix the trouble

Little Red sets off to write her story, asking herself, "What would a brave pencil do?" Her teacher gives her a basket of words to use on her journey, and she eventually faces the villain in principal's clothing - the Wolf 3000 pencil sharpener!

At once a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and a template for how to write a story, this show more gets an A+. show less

This hilarious children's book concerns the number zero and how he wants to be a hero but instead feels like nothing. When it comes to counting games, addition, division, etc., he is always left out and made to feel less important than the "real" numbers 1-9. After he takes off, his number pals start to realize how important he is and how much they miss him. When they are taken captive by roman numerals, it's Zero's chance to prove himself a hero.

This book is so very clever, with tons of show more humor in the main text as well as the quotes from the numbers and tiny sidebar notes. The arrival of the roman numerals floored me with laughter. Under all this humor is an important lesson about how everyone contributes to a community and can be a hero in the right circumstances. The cartoonish-style illustrations fit well with the superhero theme and the silly tone of the book. The only downside to this book is that I think it appeals to older kids who will get the math jokes but who might feel too big to still read picture books. show less

First sentence: Grrrreetings! My name is Brown Bear. I am the only bear in this book. [You are not].

This is a nonfiction picture book about BEARS (plural). It isn't your typical nonfiction picture book, however. It is written in a conversational--playful--narrative. The [many] bears of the book are having quite the dialogue--all in speech bubbles. All the information about each bear--what makes them similar or dissimilar to the others--is revealed through conversation. The conversation show more isn't dry and info-dumpy. Not really. There's plenty to keep it light and flowing--a bit silly.

I liked this one. It does have more text than you might expect based on the cover. I do think this one could easily be mistaken for just another picture book starring bears. It doesn't scream out "I'm nonfiction!" Because it is so text-heavy, I do think it would be a good fit for most elementary grades--especially second and third grade. show less