Home from Hawaii So Now It's REALLY DOWN TO BOOK BUSINESS

All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The design nut in me giggled at how beautiful the layout of color and text work together in this book. I almost gave it a five. In fact, for design I would give it a five.

The teacher in me knows this is a great beginning explanation to water and why we need to be careful and conserve what we can. Protect the planet and all. A little more depth might have been good. But it is an introductory piece so I will let that slide.

But seriously. Publishers, take note. You're doing pretty well but more books like this would be most awesome.

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Leap Back Home to Me by Lauren Thompson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, how cute. Love the illustrations. Little kiddos will love the simple, repetitive, rhyming text.

I have never been a big flannel board person ... but I recently started "following" some librarian bloggers who post lots of cute ideas. And I think this one would be fun. I love the pictures in the book ... but the little ones might have fun moving the little frog around and sort of interact with the story.

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Grin and Bear It by Leo Landry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is one of those too long to be a regular picture book, vocab too advanced to be an early reader, but in the end too short to be what most of the teachers (at least at my school) are thinking of when they say "chapter book." So it will need some talking up because the right readers won't necessarily just find it on their own.

That said ... it is cute. The shock poor Bear goes through when he tries to fulfill his dream and it doesn't work out quite like he thought it would. We've all been there, right? I like how it ends.

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Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not for research ... but for CUTER THAN CUTER THAN CUTE (oh, my goodness, I have become one of those people) this is the one.

Kiddos will be able to read a lot of it themselves, which is nice.

And the pictures. Did I mention the pictures?

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Blackout by John Rocco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I already loved his artwork. Now I love it even more.

I will try to remember to take advantage of the time when the rolling blackouts (due to energy consumption during a heat wave) make us lose power. Take advantage of it. Unplug. Try not to sizzle. ;]

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Buglette, the Messy Sleeper by Bethanie Murguia




This little bug is so cute. I loved the book ... until the end. Sort of fell a little flat for me. But it's OK because I still think the kids will enjoy it.



How fun does this little launch party look? http://randomactsofreading.wordpress.com...



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