You Can't Eat a Princess! by Gillian Rogerson

It is Princess Spaghetti's birthday and everything is set perfectly for the celebration. But the celebration is put on hold when it is discovered that her dad, King Cupcake has been taken by aliens. Without another thought, Princess Spaghetti revs up the rocket and takes off in search of her father. She quickly finds the culprits but must escape, with her father, in time before the aliens have them for lunch! Such a cute book that girls will quickly add to their "okease buy me list!!!

Text:4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves -front endpages are covered with milkshakes, cookies, cakes, candy.....how can you go wrong! The end endpages...in Mil

I Spy With My Little Eye by Edward Gibbs

Is it a nonfiction animal book? Is it a color book? It is BOTH!
"I spy with my little eye...something is red."
"I'm a fox."

With the rhyming "clue" that children will enjoy guessing which animal is "looking at them"....orangutan, fox, lion, etc. Great interactive book that preschoolers and early elementary students will delight in reading.


Text: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

The Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera

I love this book....But I have always been a fan of taking an original book/story, or in this case song, and changing the words. I think it is great for kids to have new words to add to a tune and even challenge themselves to make up their own version. As you might tell from the cover, this bus is full of animals! (Animals - another great way to get kids to sit up and pay attention!)
"The flamingos on the bus go FLAP, FLAP, FLAP;"
and
"The monkeys on the bus go CHATTER CHATTER CHATTER."
Kids are going to love this one! We will be purchasing for school....and hopefully for home too!

Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye Leaves - Love the bright colors and the FULLNESS of the pictures (in other words not a ton of
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves - LOVE, LOVE LOVE them...animals all waiting at the bus stop...

Yes....our list of "MUST BUYS" increased by one tonight....darn it :)

Visit Jane Cabrera's Website: http://janecabrera.co.uk/

Back to School Tortoise by Lucy M. George

Now that summer is over, Tortoise is headed to school. Tortoise starts thinking about all the things that COULD go wrong.
"What if...he tripped and fell? Or he didn't like lunch? Or the kids were mean to him? "
Then Tortoise changes his thinking,
"But then he started thinking, what if it was fun? Or lunch was his favorite? "
With a change in attitude Tortoise is determined to head in to school with confidence as the....
Another great book that children can easily relate to with a surprise ending sure to bring about a giggle.

Text: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 3 Buckeye Leaves

Orange Peel's Pocket by Rose Lewis

Orange Peel, nicknamed such by her parents because she use to try to eat the peels when she was little, is asked by classmates questions about where she was born, China, and is upset she can not provide the answers. That afternoon after c;ass she sets out to talk to neighbors that know more about China than her. Orange Peel visits Mr. Fan at his tailor shop, Ma Sang, the poet, Mrs. Liu's flower shop, Mr. Yu's noodle shop, and finally Jasmine at the ice cream store. Each person not only gives Orange Peel knowledge about her birth country but also a little gift in her pocket to show her class. The next day Orange Peel enters school with her items, knowledge, and a bit more confidence than before! As a big, HUGE, fan of Lewis' book I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Yes, now I can ALMOST get through it without crying....almost), I was very excited to see a new book from her about adoption. Although the book does not focus on adoption (which I love), it does point out one of the challenges as children get older. I have researched both China and Kazakhstan for my kiddos, though China is MUCH easier to find information on! Living in Kazakhstan for almost 5 weeks I am hoping we can pass along the information we learned about the every day life to Adam. Thank you Rose Lewis for adding another book to our wish list for our house and one that every cross cultural adoption house should add to their home libraries!


Text:4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations:4 Buckeye Leaves
Endpages: 3 Buckeye Leaves

Bear With Me by Max Kornell

Owen's life is perfect.....until one day.... One day Owen's parents arrive home with a surprise - a surprise named Gary! Gary is a bear! Gary turns Owen's perfect life upside down! He takes Owen's stuff, takes over his room - and he snores, and most of all, takes mom and dad's time away from him. In the end, Owen learns an important lesson about accepting change. Readers will quickly make the connection to a new baby in the family. The book lends itself to a great discussion about change.

Text:4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves - drawings of characters, by characters

The Gingerbread Man Loose In the School by Laura Murray

Hilarious! I love this book! I loved it so much I read about 3 pages, did not read the rest, and bought it on the spot! How can you go wrong when it starts off, "I began in a bowl." A group of children measured and mixed to create a gingerbread man. Unfortunately it was time for recess and the children sped out of the room....without the gingerbread man knowing it. A distressed gingerbread man then sets out in search of the lost children. "I'll run and I'll run, As fast as I can. I can catch them! I'm their gingerbread man!" Along the way the gingerbread man meets lots of other school employees: art teacher, principal, nurse, etc. I can NOT wait to share this with the kids! Adults will love the humor used throughout the book as well!


Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves - in a word - CLEVER
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves - Fits perfectly
Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves

*AND I got a poster too!!!

UPDATE: Laura Murray, author of The Gingerbread Man Loose in the school, commented below - providing me with her website....check it out! Super cute and fun! I love when authors provide things for teachers and librarians...helps that she is a teacher too!!

http://www.lauramurraybooks.com/index.html


STAY TUNED!!! I HAVE ORDERED A BOOK FROM AMAZON....SUPPOSE TO BE OUT TODAY.....AND I CAN BARELY STAND THE WAIT!!! WILL BE POSTING ABOUT IT SOON!! YAHOO!! (THERE ARE FEW THINGS I GET THIS EXCITED ABOUT...)

Amelia Bedelia's First Field Trip by Herman Parish

Amelia is very excited because her class is headed to Fairview Farm!! Mr. and Mrs. Dinkins show Amelia and her class how to collect eggs, milk cows, and plant seeds. Along the way Amelia learns about Mrs. Dinkin's green thumb and how to NOT toss a salad. Typical Amelia with her literal intreptation of things, adding of course to her appeal and overall humor of the book.


Text: 4 buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 buckeye leaves

Bunny's Lessons by Harriet Ziefert

Charlie and Bunny are best friends. Bunny credits Charlie with everything he knows. From LOUD to OUCH to Messy, Charlie has taught Bunny so much. Very Simple book but the three year old at our house loves it. This book provides a great opportunity for discussing words as well as friendship.

Text:4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 4 Buckeye Leaves

Princess Palooza by Joy Allen

What do you get when six princesses meet another 6 princesses at the park?
A PRINCESS PALOOZA of course :)

In Joy Allen's Book Princess, the twelve princesses come together, with their imagination, and it is one big party.
"Ballerina Princess has been to France
She teaches the girls a fancy dance."

All the Angelina Ballerina and Fancy Nancy books fans will fall in love with this pink, purple, tutu, and everything frilly book.

Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves -fit the story nicely
Text: 4 Buckeye leaves - Simple but cute and fun
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves - cute

The Wheels on the School Bus by Mary-Alice Moore

Another beginning of the year classic.....as each "person" on the bus encourages students to "Read Read Read", "Learn, Learn, Learn", "Eat, Eat, Eat" students will love the familiar tune. This book is a great way to introduce younger children to each person that works at the school and what they do.

Test: 5 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leavees

I Love School! by Philemon Sturges

Ho hum.....It is coming...and for my district it is coming sooner than usual as they are adjusting the calendar to fit the whole first semester in before winter break! That being said, my side kick and I were at the library yesterday so I figured I better start stocking up! I Love School! is a very simple, rhyming text introducing kids to school. I Love School! is a perfect choice for preschool-kindergarten. BUT what I love most about this book....again, my students would probably roll their eyes as I always point them out....THE ENDPAGES!! Not only do they have super cute chalkboard background BUT also facts, related to school, all over the chalkboard! Love that!

Stay tuned...more BACK TO SCHOOL BOOKS to come....eek!

Text: 4 Buckeye leaves - very basic
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves

Come and Eat! by George Ancona

Which of the following are used to eat food: Chopsticks, forks and spoons, or fingers? ALL!! Traditions and customs from around the world, are explained through this photographic nonfiction book about EATING! This book has lots of great information, which opens up the possibilities for great discussions.

Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves - very informative
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye Leaves
Endpages: 5 Buckeye leaves - good enough to eat :)
*Warning: One of the first pages contains a photo of a mother nursing a baby. Depending on your patrons, this may or may not be acceptable.

Dog Number 1 by Ami Rubinger

Meet some new furry friends and count to 10! From Rover to Missy to my favorite, number 10, Spike, each dog has a personality revealed through rhyme. I am one of Rubinger's biggest fans because her books are interactive! The reader finishes each sentence.

"I'm different and that's just great. Call me Missy. I'm dog number..."

At this point Adam yells, "Eight!!!"

Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye Leaves - some of these dogs' facial expressions are HILARIOUS!
Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves

Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer

We love this book....and are on the hunt to find a copy as the library will soon be showing up to take this copy back!! Eliot Jones is a quiet boy....he reads, he feeds his goldfish, he watches the neighbor wash the car....BUT......AT NIGHT HE IS A SUPERHERO!!! Eliot leads a group of escaped lions back to the zoo, saves a ship from crashing into rocks, recovers stolen royal jewels, etc. No wonder he is so quiet during the day!! We are TOTALLY into the superhero idea at our house and I am avoiding some of the other, better known superheros. This is a great book because it fulfills the need for SUPERHERO-NESS while still being appropriate and more importantly NON VIOLENT for preschoolers! And and I love this book!

Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye Leaves
Endpages: 5 Buckeye Leaves

Wow! Ocean! by Robert Neubecker

On Izzy's newest adventure she finds herself at the ocean! Animals of all sorts, whales, dolphins, fish, jellyfish, of all kinds- oh my! As in Neubecker's other "Wow!" books, this one has few words, lots of pictures. This book is a great, sit and examine book for kids.

Text: 5 Buckeye leaves - great identification of different sea life
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves

We HEART Our School! by Judy Sierra

I am trying to decide just how many copies of this to buy for school.....I HEART this book! You know you have an addiction when you get so excited that a book comes in that you run to the car waving it....as an adult!

Why do I love this book so much...let me count the ways.
#6 The teacher's name is Tom Burkey....he is a turkey!
#5. Rhyming!!!
#4. It is colorful! Lots of bright colors.
#3. Cute illustrations with HAPPY, non-scary characters!
#2. Shows school as a POSITIVE experience!
And the MAIN reason I like this book....the #1 reason....drum roll please.....IT IS A REBUS!!! Yippie! What does that mean? A rebus is when the word is taken out of the story and a picture is put in place of the word. I love these as the 3 year old can follow along, and insert the word, and tell me "I am reading mom!" This book is adorable. All the animal characters are headed to school. At school they do lots of fun things: ABC games, towers of blocks, art, singing, etc.

This will be front and center on all the back-to-school book displays this fall!!

Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves
Text: 5 Buckeye leaves

Makes a mama proud!

Ping Pong Pig and Digby Takes Charge Caroline Jayne Church

Ping Pong Pig and Digby Takes Charge are books we own and I really like. I will admit the thing that first drew me to both of them....the cover art work. I think the art work is adorable. When I took it home for Adam (I got it at a book fair at my school) he liked it too. I also appreciate the fact that the book teaches a lesson - in this case - to do your part and help out. Ping Pong Pig learns this lesson after spending so much time trying to learn to fly and not so much time helping around the farm.

I was at a store in June and saw Digby Takes Charge on the shelf. I thought when I saw the cover the art work looked similar to Ping Pong Pig....and sure enough it was Church. Digby is one of the BEST sheep dogs around BUT is having trouble getting the sheep to listen to him on his new farm. He tries, unsuccessfully, various methods to get the sheep to do as they should. Finally the other animals tell Digby the secret word to get the sheep to move.....PLEASE! Love it!! All kids, and some adults, need reminded about the power of please from time to time!

And as an added bonus....no plain white endpages! woohoo!!!

Text: 5 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves
Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves

Back to Bed, Ed by Sebastien Braun

Ed loves going to bed. He goes through the same routine every night. "Ed loved going to bed...but Ed hated staying in bed..." And every night Ed would climb out of his bed and tiptoe down the hall to his parents room, climb in bed with them, and then sleep soundly all night. Unfortunately his parents were not so lucky. Ed's parents MUST come up with a plan to keep Ed in bed! And they are finally successful....at least with Ed! We have been very lucky at our house....we know this...our 3 year old has only ONCE left his bed in the middle of the night and come to our bedroom. That is NOT to say we have not been called into his room. THAT has happened often. I really hope that reading this book to Adam won't give him the idea to come to our bed...ha ha! What I like the most about this book is the sounds Ed makes as he gets ready for bed. "Clip clop. Sip sip. Splish splash." All fun for kid's to use in their own language to describe things. Great bedtime book....and may help plant the idea in some little kiddo's head to stay in bed!

Text: 3 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye leaves

Froggy Goes To Hawaii by Jonathon London

Froggy can't wait to go on vacation...to Hawaii. While on vacation, Froggy visits a volcano, which he almost falls in; hula dance lessons where even the mynah birds laugh at him; surfing with Dad, wipeout; and on and on. As is usually the case, trouble just finds Froggy, even in Hawaii. Fans of Froggy will love this newest book in the Froggy series.

Are You A Horse? by Andy Rash

For his birthday Roy gets a great big present from his friends. It is a saddle with directions: 1. Find a horse 2. Enjoy the ride. Problem is Roy does not know what a horse IS! As he encounters many non-horse things along the way (wagon, cactus, snake, crab, etc) he gathers clues to make the hunt for the horse easier. He finally finds a horse, with a surprising ending. We have really enjoyed this book at our house. I love that each item Roy encounters gives clues describing the horse. This could translate nicely into a guessing game with students. And of course the ending is funny, and I was surprised that the 3 year old here actually "got it" as I thought I would have to explain it to him, but he burst out laughing and actually explained it to me! Great fun read!!

Text: 4 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye Leaves
Endpages: 4 Buckeye Leaves

Old MacNoah Had an Ark

"Old MacNoah built an ark, Ee-i-ee-io....And on that ark he got some wood, Ee-i-eei-o. With a BANG! BANG! here..."

Take the story of Noah and his ark, combine with Old MacDonald....and you have Old MacNoah Had An Ark. Noah must first build his ark. Next he loads up the animals - two of each, of course - cows, ducks, pigs, etc. Now Noah is ready to set off on the adventure. Children will never forget the story of Noah as they hum the tune of Ol MacDonald. Adorable book which kids will love.

Endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves
text:4 Buckeye Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

Purple Little Bird by Greg Foley

Purple little bird LOVES purple...purple house, purple fence, purple, garden, but something was not quite right. Purple Little Bird decides it is time to go out looking for something new. Along the way he meets Brown Bear, Gray Goat, Yellow Camel, Blue Frog but their homes, though perfect for them, does not work for Purple Little Bird. Then he meets three Pink Possums and they guide him to a PERFECT place for him. This is a great book for those colors that are not always emphasized. Simple text that preschoolers and kindergartners will understand and enjoy.

Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks

"Alex is loud. Zina is quiet. Alex likes sour things. Zina likes sweet things. Alex is messy. Zina is neat."
These two friends are opposite in everything, from their color to their home location but somehow they seem to get along enough each year to "meet in the middle", literally, at the Galapagos Islands. Cute book that addresses both the idea of opposites as well as friendship and makes the connection that opposites CAN still be friends. Great book for discussion about friendship and accepting differences.

Text: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye leaves

Al Pha's Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Al Pha really wants to invent something. Everywhere he turns, someone is coming up with the next great thing: fire, the wheel, etc. One day the king announces that 26 letter, had recently been invented, needed to be arranged in a better manner. Al decided to make a bet with himself to get this arrangement done, while not telling anyone else his plan. And arrange he did, from A to Z, Al is working hard, determined to create the best arrangement. In this very clever book, Rosenthal, one of my favorite authors, creates a creative, humorous look at the alphabet. A great picture book to use with a variety of ages, including adult. Love Rosenthal!!

Text: 5 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye Leaves
Endpages: 4 Buckeye Leaves - very appropriate for theme of the book