Thomas Raccoon's Fantastic Airshow was a fantastic read. When he finds out that the airport is closed and the airshow cancelled, he plans one of his own with various birds. From the hummingbirds and cardinals to the stubborn Mr. Eagle, the airshow is a great success. I am beyond impressed that 8 year old Shintaro Maeda wrote and illustrated this fantastic book. It was fun and entertaining and I adored the illustrations.

Very useful book for a pre-kindergarten-1st grade teacher about to take their class to the library for the first time. It covers a lot of the do's and don'ts you want kids to know beforehand to protect the books ad save you librarian some trouble!

I thought this wordless picture book was very entertaining with its picture inception.

From blueberries to vanilla, every haiku (sorted in alphabetical order) made me crave its accompanying food. Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico! puts food native to America into mouth watering haikus. I thought this was a great book that would be fun to share in a classroom for a poetry section. It's a great way to show kids that poetry can really be about anything and it sticks to the traditional 5-7-5 haiku syllable structure.

Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems combine short unconnected poems with fantastic illustrations. Each page was alive and entertaining an full of color. I love that this book celebrated Mexican culture and various foods (and even Cesar Chavez at one point) in both English and Spanish. The best poem (in my opinion, of course) found in this book is called "Words are Birds". I just love the personification and comparisons made between two seemingly incomparable things like: "the letters on this page are the prints they leave by the sea".

I found many of these poems genuinely funny and they were very fun to read aloud. However, I think if you need to include a glossary for certain outdated terms, then maybe those terms shouldn't be included in the poem. A lot of the rhyming seemed force and uncomfortable and many of these poems weren't rhythmic at all. I think kids would be at a loss for what a Jabberwocky is unless they've read Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. It would be fun to keep the glossary page from the kids and have them infer what the odd words mean but in that case I would introduce this to an older class. Overall, this was a funny book with silly poems as promised by the title.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening is a staple in any K-12 class that's started their poetry section. Robert Frost's poem gets a new lease on life when combined with Susan Jeffers' impressive, clever and beautiful illustrations. The man in Frost's poem is the only speck of color in this beautiful monochrome landscape that's filled with camouflaged winter animals like the snow owl and white rabbits and even the occasional deer. At the end he reunites with his equally colorful family and I finally understand just how great this poem really is.

Jon J Muth captures my attention once again with pandas. This time in an adorably fun book about haikus, the alphabet and the seasons. Each haiku was unique but each season could easily a much longer poem. I really enjoyed the breathtaking and entertaining water color illustrations. Koo is a miniature child version of the wise Stillwater and this was a very fun twist for me. I also appreciate the pun-ny (funny) title. Haikus are a brilliant and brief form of poetry that typically take on the 5-7-5 syllable scheme but these haikus break from that tradition with each letter.

I am once again plagued with multiple perspectives and there are EVEN MORE in this sequel to Seeker, Traveler. There is more lore and mystery and intrigue that made me plow through this book. I did find it easy to walk away from but I felt compelled to see it through. I like Quin and Shinobu's budding relationship. I still love reading from Maud's (Young Dread) perspective the most but the others weren't unbearable like last time (looking at you John). I just wish Dayton was able to make them all equally interesting so I'm not invested in just two or three characters but the whole slew of characters she kept throwing at me. Bravo for the slow reveal and the action scenes.

Eleven year old Serafina has dreamt of being a doctor ever since she met Antoinette Solaine but she must work and help Manman instead of going to school. It's the least of her worries when a hurricane floods the island and washes away her home and her dreams but Serafina continues to hope and work hard. Serafina's Promise is beautiful and poetic. I was excited to learn this was a verse novel. It reads like a typical narrative but far easier to digest. I really enjoyed every apsect of this book, especially Serafina. She came off as very real and genuine and strong and that amazing for an 11 year old girl.

A new addition to the family affects everyone. I think Woodson does a great job capturing the feeling an only child gets when she find out there's a new baby on the way.

It's not often you can find a book that address the subject of bullying from the bully's point of view.

Fairy tales get a new twist in Mirror Mirror. I adored these poems.

Malala and Iqbal are perhaps two of the bravest figures from this corner of the world. This book doesn't even begin to cover everything they went through (and in Malala's case continue to go through) but it is a fantastic start and great way to introduce them to young readers.

Electricity is explained in Switch On, Switch Off. I thought this book did a great job of explaining this modern day commodity. It even included a mini-experiment for children to do with their parents! The explanation of how electricity is generated and gets to and from places was really easy to follow. The book did a great job of covering every aspect from switches to light bulbs and even the circuitry.

More, Fewer, Less is a wordless picture book where the reader is supposed to decide if there are more, fewer or less. What I can easily see happening is someone picking this book up and just flipping through the pages. This book is not interactive at all. It doesn't state what any of the titular terms mean. There's no narrative because there are no words just a bunch of seemingly (albeit nice) unrelated pictures. This book wouldn't work well if used for instruction.

What's a Pair? What's a Dozen? is an interesting mix of math and vocabulary. It's a very straightforward book that defines terms like: pair, dozen, baker's dozen, many, few, etc. through pictures. I didn't find it very interesting, however. It was a brief read but I think kids will find the pictures entertaining as many of them feature children and bicycles and ice cream. The only concepts that weren't clearly defined were even and odd.

This book checks off almost all of my pet peeves: love triangle? Check. Multiple perspectives? Check. This book actually shifts back and forth between four, FOUR, different characters! I cannot convey how much I wanted to quit reading this about a third of the way through but something clicked for me. I suddenly needed more answers and then more answers! I finished this book out of sheer curiosity alone and it worked out really well this time. The characters got darker and edgier and they found interesting ways to cope with their actions and the fall outs from their decisions. However, I don't feel emotionally attached to any of these characters but that may be a good thing for the moment. I hope I'll be more invested in the next book (that I will definitely be reading/finishing in the next few days).

Let's Go Rock Collcting is a very effective book whose sole purpose is to teach kids about the different types of rocks. It has clear diagrams and examples and it explains new terms well. The book covers igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and has detailed information on the most common examples of each type ad how to identify them. I like the inclusion of the two children. It makes the book more engaging because it's as if these two kids are telling me all this great information so I can start my very own rock collection.

Using clever pictures of every day items, Scott Gifford explains fractions, decimals, and percents. I loved the emphasis on the fact that all three refer to the same thing. Fractions, decimals, and percents are essentially math synonyms and this book does a great job of reinforcing that on each two page spread.

This Plus That: Life's Little Equations wasn't at all what I expected. Life's Little Equations probably should have tipped me off. This was a wonderful book with dos and don'ts here and there and just general rules like "sprinkles + anything = better" or "soul + words = literature" (truer words have never been spoken in my opinion). I loved each page and each rule was simply illustrated and not overdone.

Halloween is my favorite time of year and I love that it's the backdrop for this edition of Jon J Muth's Zen Stories, Zen Ghosts. The illustrations in this book are the most detailed I've ever seen. One two page spread has a dozen kids trick-or-treating in their neighborhood in the best costumes (my favorite is Micheal in his owl-pirate costume). The best part of this story is the tale, Senjo and Her Soul Are Separated. It left Addy, Micheal, Karl, and myself wondering if there were two different Senjos and two Stillwaters or if our favorite panda was also separated from his soul. Unlike the other two Zen nooks I've read, this book is lacking a life lesson for the children to learn. However, it's not worse off for it. In fact, it might actually be my favorite of the four because I didn't look for an overall meaning to take away from reading it. It was simply a great ghost story.

Have you ever seen a panda do ballet? How about a panda playing with giant toy robots? If not, the I recommend reading Zen Socks. This was a great book with two important life lessons: 1) to be great at anything take patience and practice; 2) sometimes bad guys don't think they're being bad. Not everything is as black and white as good guys versus bad guys. I love every aspect of this book from the illustrations to the subtle life lessons. Jon J Muth has a great ability to adapt and incorporate old 'zen' tales in to stories children can grasp.

A cute and funny book about perspectives. Two people (could be of any age really) argue over whether the figure on the cover is really a duck or a rabbit. Personally, I still don't have a clue (kind of wish Rosenthal said which it is but I think it adds to the fun of the story). This is the kind of book that will stay with readers for a long time because it's never said if it's a duck or a rabbit!

This was hard to get through at first. I'm not a fan of split perspectives but I think it's a necessary evil in this case if both Han and Raisa are meant to be the ,main characters. Eventually, the story picks up and all the players are laid out. I'm not 100% sure who is on which side but I'm excited to see what comes of this.

Hana's Suitcase tells the story of Fumiko Ishioka's hunt for information on Hana Brady's life and death. This story was moving and held my attention in a way I never thought non-fiction could. I'd attribute this to how the story was organized. It isn't just a barrage of information and facts one after another. It was engaging and entertaining and makes first time readers want to know more because of how it shifts between the past and the present. The pictures interspersed throughout the story also makes it real for the reader (it did for me at least). They are a constant reminder that Hana was real. Her family was real. And so was her story.

I really enjoyed Looking After Louis.

This is quite possibly the weirdest children's book I have ever read or will ever read. Ever. Crazy Hair is a fantastically poetic tale of a man with, well... crazy hair! I love the art style even though it was initially jarring (but then I remember this is the guy behind Coraline and it all suddenly made sense). The tiger in particular was very realistic while the rampaging bear looked morbid. This was strange but such a great read!

When this adorable, curious little owl (I'm biased because owls are my favorite animal) decided to sleep at night and wake up in the morning she discovers a world full of color. I thought this was a great concept book. It handles each color individually. I think this would the best way to teach kids colors and it even includes the rainbow and color wheel at the end! In the end, the little owl discovers she likes the night sky the best.

What an adorable story! A boy and his two baby sisters pretend they're wrestlers/superheroes and have a blast. This book is in English and Spanish. I loved the illustrations. They were entertaining and done in a comic book style. This book would be great for bilingual children even if it doesn't tell the story in Spanish, it certainly adds color to the story.