Michael Anthony Steele

I received a copy of this for free from the publisher in exchange for a review on NetGalley. I found the story predictable, but it is a children's book, so I think that's okay. Predictability could be useful to prevent truly scaring children too. Batman wasn't used to his full potential. This is a Scooby-Doo mystery that Batman fell into and you won't be seeing any grappling hook usage or detective work. He does some punches and kicks and that's about it. I do enjoy that a glossary of show more vocabulary words and little writing prompts were included at the end though! show less

This was a great early chapter book for 7 to 8 year olds. This pirate crew is made up of four monkeys who do not always make the best decisions. When the Captain tells them about the Octo-Shark, they don't believe him so they set off in search of one. Lots of silly adventures follow this group. The illustrations are large, vibrant and full of small details to entice the reader to look carefully. I would recommend this book to schools, classroom teachers and families, especially for children show more who love pirates and/or monkeys. It looks like this will be part of a series with three more to come. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley. show less

King Julien's Guide to Ruling the Zoo by Michael Anthony Steele had many engaging pictures for my youngest son to see, but my other boys did not find it engaging enough to finish the book. Oh, we finished reading, but several walked out before it was finished.

He is king and he lets everyone know what it takes to be king in the most obnoxious, tongue-in-cheek way. He probably reflects a movie, which we haven't seen, and thus finds added humor for those knowing the background. But as we show more haven't seen anything related, it doesn't help to engage us nor tempt us to try being king.

I almost didn't finish it. But it was a quick read that allowed us to finish it quickly. show less

Cute story about animals from the city zoo that want to go "to the wild". The story is a little long and a little advanced for beginning readers. The illustrations look like they are straight from the movie. The pages of the books are busy and colorful with lots of pictures to look at. This story isn't appropriate for a shared "read aloud" story because it has games at the end that would be difficult to share. Awesome book for one child with excellent reading skills or a child that needs to show more be challenged. show less