Thea Feldman

My Friends Tigger and Pooh is my least favorite Pooh television show. It's aimed at toddlers, using the format perfected by Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer where the characters talk to the audience, trying to involve them in the mystery or problem being solved. Certain songs and actions have to occur every episode as the characters change outfits or think, think, think about a solution. Other Pooh works have clever bits that can be appreciated by adults, but this one aims solely at show more engaging the littlest ones.

And while I like that Lumpy is included from Pooh's Heffalump Movie, I'm not a fan of newcomer Darby -- who has somehow pushed Christopher Robin out of the Hundred-Acre Wood -- and her little dog, Buster.

The book in hand is an adaptation of a first season episode wherein Roo's kite has gotten stuck in a tree and the Super Sleuths -- Pooh, Tigger, and Darby -- are tasked with getting it down. If you keep the intended audience in mind, neither the original show or the book is bad per se. To engage little minds by occupying their hands, this book has a clever toy integrated, with solid and deep magnetic dolls that can be stuck to the pages thanks to some metallic inserts. It's a little annoying to have to remove all the characters each time a page has to be turned, but I could see a child having fun swiping them off and placing them anew. However, if the pieces get lost, you are left with a book that consists of five slightly different pictures of the same CGI tree.

FOR REFERENCE:

Picture book adaptation of My Friends Tigger and Pooh animated segment "Roo's Kite-Tastrophy," from Season 1, Episode 3; first aired May 19, 2007; directed by David Hartman; written by Brian Hohlfeld.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) show less

My own "girl obsessed with horses" phase as a child was extremely brief, but it's definitely still a phase many kids go through and I had friends who took it way farther than I ever did. Back in the day (like, a hundred years ago! according to my book club kids, no I'm not that old) Marguerite Henry's horse stories were passed around between us and hugely popular. Some of this was probably due to the small group (homeschooled) I grew up in, but the books were still quite popular at that show more time. Forward to the future, and although I have many of the books, originals and new editions, in our library, horse lovers seem to gravitate to newer series, especially those with more drama. I wonder if any of them are even familiar with the classic Misty of Chincoteague any more.

All of which is a long introduction to this upper level easy reader telling the story of Marguerite Henry and how she came to write the classic horse story (and by the way, it still annoys me that the girl wasn't allowed to go on the horse drive. I've long forgotten the kids' names, but it STILL BOTHERS ME.)

The story starts with the Pony Penning of 1946, as people from all over the world, including a writer named Marguerite Henry, gather to watch the wild ponies of Assateague gathered up and some are selected for sale. Henry visits a special pony named Misty, owned by the Beebe family, and fell in love. She asked the Beebes if she could borrow the pony, write a story about her, and take her on tour. When Misty arrived, she thought she had the wrong pony until her winter coat was shed and her unique markings reappeared. Misty traveled and lived with Marguerite until she was old enough to have her own foals and then she was returned to the Beebes.

A final page of facts gives some additional information about the ponies of Assateague and Chincoteague and Marguerite Henry. There are a couple things I suspect are historically inaccurate. The first picture shows a racially diverse crowd waiting for the pony penning - that seems highly unlikely in 1940s Virginia. The same thing applies to the darker-skinned members of audiences for Henry's author visits. While it would be nice to think that libraries were always open to all, that simply isn't true. I'm also a little leary of the exploitation of Misty - would a horse really enjoy being carted all over the place? I don't know much about horses though, so maybe she was fine with it.

Verdict: Despite its flaws, this is a fun book to introduce younger readers to a class horse story and an author who is undeservedly mostly forgotten today. Make sure you have the books on hand, possibly in audio for readers who can't handle the lengthier text, so they can learn more about Misty.

ISBN: 9781534451537; Published November 2019 by Simon Spotlight; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

This quartet of easy readers all features animals from history, with varying success. Some of them are just sort of random sentimentalized stories, but this one is a really nice blend of animal rescue and science.

This is the true story of a sea otter in an aquarium in 2001. Toola was a wild sea otter who had become chronically ill due to pollution in the water and could not be released. When a rescued sea otter pup was later brought into the aquarium, the staff debated what to do with him. show more In the past, staff had raised orphaned otter pups, but they rarely survived long when returned to the wild. They decided to try to give him to Toola and she quickly adopted him. Toola was an excellent foster mother and became the first in this program to raise pups that could be rehabilitated, as her foster son was. The publicity around Toola also inspired legislation to protect and study sea otters.

Back matter is a page of facts about sea otters and ways to help endangered sea otters. Incidentally, I think their first fact is wrong or at least questionable - while the sea otter may be the heaviest of the mustelidae or weasel family, the giant river otter is almost twice as long, so would be, in my opinion, the "largest."

The staff featured show a variety of races and genders, primarily female. The pictures show lots of cute sea otters and people in various settings. The text is in a large, easy-to-read font, set in paragraphs. It's for an intermediate reader, probably about 2nd grade.

Verdict: The subject of this was fun and it has a nice selection of true facts and cute sea otters. Of the set, this is the one I'd purchase first if budget is limited.

ISBN: 9781534443389; Published June 2019 by Simon Spotlight; Purchased for the library show less

These facts will give young readers an entirely new look on the world of snakes and make even snake fearers a tiny bit curious.

This book is all about snakes. It's brightly illustrated with real life photos, which alone are fun flipping through and gazing at. But this book isn't just about introducing snakes, it hits upon a few lesser known facts, which show how interesting and versatile these creatures are.

More than a few snakes are presented as their habits, abilities and unique show more characteristics are brought to light. There are some things little snake enthusiasts will probably already know, but there are also facts which will surprise them. It's written for readers, who have just gotten a little bit better grasp on words, but still aren't ready to hit 'older' books. The terms are simple and well presented. The text is never overwhelming but sticks to a few lines on each page.

The photos are, of course, lovely to see, but this one also includes other illustrations to perk things up a bit. Comic like illustrations also pepper certain sections, which is something even reluctant readers will appreciate it. And all of this does work to deliver the facts about snakes clearly.

I would have definitely picked this one up as a kid...out of sheer curiosity, if nothing else...and my own children aren't any different. It's a fun way to support beginning readers while giving them a bit of biology along the way.
I received an ARC and found this one (as did my kids) to be a fun read. show less