Linda Bailey

GHOST. PIRATES.

If that doesn’t catch yer interest, there may be no hope for ye. (I’d try to do the whole review in Pirate-speak, but I’d fail miserably. More’s the shame.) Anyhoo, this book is delightful. It’s a bout a boy named Lewis whose family inherits an old mansion that’s haunted by pirates who expect Lewis to help them retrieve their ships currently residing in the local museum. Along the way, he reads Peter Pan to them (only the Hook parts) and finds the courage to show more address bullies at his school.

Pick up th’book, or forever a landlubber ye be! show less

Of all the Early Reviewer books I have received this one could be the most entertaining. But then, Tundra Books never disappoint. Eddie is a tiny green bug who lives with his parents, various other relatives, and 53 siblings in a crack in the wall behind a classroom chalkboard. When his adventurous book-lover Aunt Min doesn't come back from a visit to the library, Eddie volunteers to set out on a search for her. After a long risky journey to the library he found Aunt Min injured, hungry and show more thirsty. While he tended to her, the friendly librarian went on maternity leave, only to have a nasty replacement take over and plan to close the library. This spurred the tiny hero to take action. (What this librarian would like to know is why we are always represented as very, very good or very, very evil?)

This is an absolutely charming story that most children who have advanced to chapter books will love. There are many indirect references to favourite books that create a sort of guessing game to determine which book is referenced. A "bugliography" at the end will provide answers. Eddie's many escapades would also make it an excellent choice for a book to read aloud by instalments. I will never look at a little bug again without thinking of Eddie and his Aunt Min. show less

The whimsical title, a play on the rhyme, The Three Little Kittens, is the reader’s first clue that this will be a delightful book. A Little Girl has three mittens, Dotty, Other Dotty, and Stripes. At first, Stripes is always left behind. After all, Little Girl only has two hands. One day, however, Other Dotty is forgotten in the snow. “Suddenly, Dotty and Stripes were partners —because they had to be. And here’s the surprise. As they got to know each other, they began to like each show more other.” And so begins the realization that mittens (and many other things!) don’t have to be matching. In fact, it’s more fun when they don’t! The acrylic and watercolor pencil illustrations by Ukrainian native, Natalia Shaloshvili are delightful. The colors are bright, the smiles are whimsical, and everything has a blurry, furry appearance—suitable for mittens, dogs, curly hair, and snowy days. The characters include Little Girl, Dotty, Other Dotty, Stripes, and even a sock called White-One-with-the-Hole-in-the-Toe. A final double-spread illustration features the Little Girl with a parade of friends of various skin tones, and a child in a wheelchair, each dressed in outlandish fashion. This is an enjoyable reminder that differences are fun! show less

This book is spooky, swashbuckling fun. Lewis is a very shy and terribly lonely boy. He was very close to his great-grandfather, who while odd (he talked to walls), understood Lewis in a way that no one else did. When the great-grandfather dies, he leaves his crumbling seaside mansion to Lewis’s family, with the condition that they live in it for six months. Lewis excitedly chooses a the tower room for his bedroom, but soon discovers that the room is haunted by the ghosts of seven pirates, show more who enlist Lewis’s aid in retaking their sunken ship, now on display on the local museum. The book is silly fun, with serious and meaningful subplots: Lewis’s alliance with the pirates serves to make him weirder than he already was, but also helps to draw him out of his shell, helps him to make a friend, and teaches him what he is capable of. Really well done, and another page-turner. show less