Eva reviews: “Mammals”

Mammals by Herbert Zim

The publisher says… An accurate and fascinating introduction to more than 200 of the most common species of mammals in North America, including information on habits and habitats, family trees, raising young, foods, enemies, and more. Full-color illustrations accent features that help you to recognize each animal in its natural environment. Range maps show where various species can be found.

Eva says… MIMI always gets me the best books and this one is PERFECT. It’s a fact book and you know, just the pages about FOXES told me more than I knew already about those guys. But there’s other animals in here too. There’s maybe 200 different animals in here and they’re all MAMMALS, which means they drink milk from their moms. And this book shows you where you can see these guys, and whether they’re in Vermont or not, so that’s real useful.

This one is written like a grown-up book but it’s not hard, and it also has lots of pictures so kids can use it, too. And what makes it great for kids too is that it’s LITTLE, so you can carry it around and read it anywhere. And that’s what I’m doing. So in case I see any of these guys I can read about them.

So this is a good one.

So thank you, MIMI!!!

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Mammals by Herbert Zim. A Golden Guide. Published by St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 978-1582381442)

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Eva reviews: “Toni’s Topsy-Turvy Telephone Day”

Toni’s Topsy-Turvy Telephone Day by Lori Ljungkvist

The publisher says… Toni asks her friends to bring the goodies for a pot-luck dinner party. But when her guests arrive…Ruth was supposed to bring punch, not a pooch! Kirk was supposed to bring balloons, not baboons! In fact, everyone’s brought something different, and there isn’t a speck of food in sight.

Eva says… So this girl Toni wants to have a party, but you know what? Instead of spending her money on her FRIENDS, what she OUGHT to do is buy a new PHONE!! Because NO ONE understands that girl when she talks on that thing! And I don’t think she was speaking French or some other language. It just gets ALL confusing.

I thought that the drawings in this one were kind of random at first but then Mama showed me some real paintings in some art books by these guys and their stuff was TOTALLY random!! And I guess when you do art you can do that, but in a kid’s book you have to be more careful. But I guess this girl (the author) was. Because she does stuff like take the wire from the phone and draw it on every page all the way through the book, which is real creative. And also it was funny, and no one cares HOW random you are when you make people laugh.

So this one was just right. OK?

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Toni’s Topsy-Turvy Telephone Day by Laura Ljungkvist. Published by Abrams. ISBN 978-0810944862)

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Eva reviews: “Exploring the World of Foxes”

Exploring the World of Foxes by Tracy Read

The publisher says… The facts and fun of life as a fox. With their catlike faces, big ears and fluffy tails, foxes appeal to youngsters, but children may not know that a fox can smell prey deep in the snow and that some can climb trees. Young readers will learn about the various fox species, such as red foxes, arctic foxes, gray foxes and swift foxes, and they will read about what it would be like to be a fox pup. Photographs of adult and young foxes in their natural habitats and sidebars with storylike content round out this rich portrayal of foxes in the wild.

Eva says… Now I know a LOT about foxes but this book has things even I didn’t know. Like they eat more than just chickens and mice and eggs. And they can jump seven feet in the air. And they have really great hearing and smell and eyesight.

I just don’t get why more people don’t really LOVE these guys. Because they do a LOT of things better than other animals, and PLUS they’re floofy and cute.

But people still hunt them and that really bugs me.

But there’s not anything about fox hunting in this book, so if that bugs you, you’re safe.

Anyway, MIMI and Maggie sent me this book, so THANKS, Mimi and Maggie!! This is a GREAT one!

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Exploring the World of Foxes by Tracy Read. Published by Firefly Books. ISBN 978-1554076161)

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Eva reviews: “Should I Share My Ice Cream?”

Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie book) by Mo Willems

The publisher says… Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
In Should I Share My Ice Cream? Gerald has a big decision to make. But will he make it in time?

Eva says… So here’s Elephant and Piggie again. And this time Gerald (that’s ELEPHANT!) has ICE CREAM and he can’t decide if he should share it with his best friend (that’s PIGGIE!) or eat it all himself.

Now he could just buy Piggie an ice cream cone and then they’d BOTH have ice cream.

Anyway, Elephant thinks about this PROBLEM too much because something BAD happens. And I don’t want to tell you what it is, but in the end it all works out, because I’ll give you a hint: because PIGGIE likes GERALD as much as Gerald likes Piggie! That’s why they’re friends and that’s why they have so many books together.

And what I like is how even when Piggie looks sad it kind of makes me laugh. This guy writes good books. And I know he’s not doing any more Elephant and Piggie ones, but I hope he does some other ones real soon. Because all the ones I’ve read of his are real good. And so is THIS one!

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Should I Share My Ice Cream (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems. Published by Hyperion-Disney. ISBN 9781423143437)

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Eva reviews: “Roland the Minstrel Pig”

Roland the Minstrel Pig by William Steig

The publisher says… Roland the pig plays the lute and sings so sweetly that his friends never have enough of listening to him. He has bigger dreams, though, so he decides to take his show on the road and share his music with the world. He has a hard time finding an audience and is lonely at first, but then a fox named Sebastian appears and offers to take him to perform before the King. Little does Roland know, Sebastian actually plans on eating him.

Eva says… So I’ve read a bunch of books by this guy and they’re ALL great. And I liked them when I was real little and I still like them NOW. Because here’s why. They’re picture books but they have more words than normal picture books, so they’re not super easy. So right now they’re JUST RIGHT. And plus they’re all fairy tales, kind of, with talking animals and magic and stuff like that. And I kind of like those kinds of stories every once in a while.

And plus there’s this too: that this guy’s drawings are REAL GOOD. His animals talk but they look REAL and they aren’t all fakey and cute. And that’s REAL important. Because when you read a story, you want to believe it could really happen, and if the animals look like toys or cartoons, it just ruins it.

I mean, sometimes you want your animals to be funny. Just don’t get carried away is all I’m saying.

Anyway this is another real good story by this guy about a singing pig named Roland who wants to be famous, and so he goes out on an adventure where he meets this SNEAKY FOX named Sebastian who tries to trick him and EAT him. And I kind of don’t like it that some of these writers make FOXES sneaky all the time. But it is just a story. And plus, everyone knows that pigs are WAY too big for foxes. Foxes like to eat rabbits and mice and fresh fruit and other stuff they can carry in their mouths. And I don’t think that a FOX can carry a PIG. But a PIG could carry a FOX!!

And I don’t want to make TOO big a deal out of it, but this is three books of this guy’s that I’ve read that had SNEAKY FOXES in it. And even in one of the others a fox tried to trick ANOTHER pig and eat HIM. (The Amazing Bone)

But I like everything else about this guy’s books so I’m not going to make a big deal out of it.

I think I might need to read ALL this guy’s books. And he has a LOT of them so it looks like I have my work cut out for me. But we already got all the ones they have in the library.

So this is a good one even with the sneaky fox stuff.

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Roland The Minstrel Pig by William Steig. Published by Square Fish/MacMillan. ISBN 978-1250057624)

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Eva reviews: “Squirrels of North America”

Squirrels of North America by Tamara Eder

The publisher says… The squirrels that live in North America are a diverse group of mammals that range from ground-dwelling squirrels to flying squirrels that flit from tree to tree in the night. This book will help identify and understand each species of squirrel you encounter. This book includes 66 squirrels that inhabit the continent featuring color illustrations and range maps accompanied by notes on behavior, habitat and ecology of each species.

Eva says… Now THIS one is a GROWNUP FACT BOOK, so it’s hard, but it’s good, and I figure I want to know this stuff anyway, and plus it’s good for homeschool, so there’s all that.

And it’s got GREAT FACTS about SQUIRRELS. And you know, only a few of these guys are in VERMONT, but that’s O.K. Because then when I go to other places I can tell what kind of squirrels there are THERE. So THAT’S useful.

I think that EVERY page of this one has a real amazing fact that I didn’t know on it. Like some squirrels eat the ends of their nuts off so that they don’t grow into trees.

And then there’s the whole thing that GROUNDHOGS are related to squirrels!! I had NO idea. But when I look at groundhogs, they kind of look like real big squirrels. So THAT fact is useful, too!

This one has a LOT of big words in it so you just need to read it with the internet or a dictionary or something. But you’ll figure that part out.

This one was on the shelf at Bear Pond Books and I had my eye on it for a LONG time and now I bought it and I’m glad I did. Because it’s a real good one! O.K.?

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Squirrels of North America by Tamara Eder. Published by Lone Pine Publishing. ISBN 978-9768200457)

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Eva reviews: “Father Bear Comes Home”

Father Bear Comes Home by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak

The publisher says… Little Bear’s father is finally coming home from a long fishing trip. Little Bear is very excited to see him—even if he doesn’t bring the mermaid Little Bear has been hoping for! The children, parents, teachers, and librarians who so joyously welcomed Little Bear, the first I Can Read Book by this author and artist, will greet the return of these favorite characters with true delight.

Eva says… This one is actually FOUR books in one, kind of like that one about Amanda and her alligator, except it’s a chapter book and it’s not as goofy. It’s just about this little bear whose name is Little Bear! So THAT part’s easy! HA!

And you know, the stories are real good, but you know what the BEST part for me is? That these animals look like REAL animals and not cartoon animals. So the guy who drew this knew what he was doing.

So anyway, there’s four stories, and they all kind of go together. And I love the MERMAID one, because that mermaid has beautiful long red hair like mama,  but you what my favorite one was? The one where Little Bear gets HICCUPS and so everyone has all these ideas about how he needs to get rid of them. But FATHER BEAR’S idea works best.

Because when you try to NOT hiccup, you can’t STOP. But when you try TO hiccup, you can’t START!

It’s just a good thing that Little Bear didn’t end up like that guy Tanya told me about in the Guinness Book of World Records who hiccuped for like TWENTY YEARS. Now THAT would be a LOT of chapter books.

So this is a good one.

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Father Bear Comes Home by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak. An ‘I Can Read’ Book published by Harper Collins. ISBN  978-0064440141)

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Eva reviews: “Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia”

Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish and Lynn Sweat

The publisher says… Prescription Date: A hot day in August. Symptoms: Dr. Horton’s office is full of waiting patients. The doctor is delayed. The patients’ patience is running out. Nurse Ames needs help. Treatment: Amelia Bedelia, helper par excellence, who solves all problems, even if she creates new ones along the way.

Eva says… So in this one Amelia has to go to work at the Doctor’s office. And that must be hard because they still have old school thermometers that take THREE MINUTES to tell your temperature. And of course Amelia gets all confused just like normal. It’s like she hears all the words but they just mean something ELSE to her.

And that could lead to TROUBLE but guess what? If someone got hurt, they’re already AT the doctor’s office! So that’s lucky, anyway.

And this is a real good one. You know, I really like these chapter books! They have more words than just plain picture books, and the pictures aren’t as big, but the stories are real good. Some of them are mysteries and some of them are about animals and some of them are just plain SILLY like Amelia.  And there you have it.

So this is a good one, but I already said that.

And that’s ALL.

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

(Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish and Lynn Sweat. Published by Scholastic. ISBN 978-0439576536)

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Eva Kelly is this blog’s six-year-old resident children’s book critic. 

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Eva reviews: “Crinkleroot’s Book of Animal Tracking”

Crinkleroot’s Book of Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky

(previously published as Crinkleroot’s Book of Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs)

The publisher says… Can you find the signs that tell about raccoons, deer, rabbits, foxes, otters, and other animals in the wild? Crinkleroot can — and he’s eager to share his secrets! His lively introduction to the art of animal tracking is packed with solid, useful information– including his own wildlife charts. Why, Crinkleroot even knows how to find an owl in the daytime — and he wants you to be able to find one, too. Happy tracking.

Eva says… O.K., now THIS is MY kind of book! Great facts AND a story! I mean, it’s got LOTS of facts about all these animals. And what it’s mainly about is, how you find these guys in the woods by looking at their FOOTPRINTS. Because their feet are all different and so their footprints are all different too. And when you look, those footprints GO all different places that tell you about where they live and what they eat and where they hide and even who else is following them. All from FOOTPRINTS. It’s like those footprints even tell a STORY. Wow.

What I like about this one is that each animal gets his own page with lots of facts AND drawings on it. And that’s because the guy who wrote this one is a good writer PLUS he’s a real expert about animals. He’s done a LOT of books about animals. The ones I’ve read are about turkeys (All About Turkeys) and raccoons (Raccoon On His Own) and armadillos (Armadillo’s Orange) and bears (Every Autumn Comes The Bear). The armadillo and raccoon ones were stories, but the other ones were kind of stories and kind of fact books.

So this guy can do both kinds. Now THAT’S talented.

And you know what the best part is? He’s from VERMONT! And that’s good because if he’s from Vermont, then he must have seen all these animals HERE, right? Which means I can see them, too. Including FOXES. So that makes this book EXTRA useful!

I might need to buy this one because you can only renew a library book one time and then you have to take it back and wait to get it again. And I want to keep looking at this one.

Oh, and one other thing I like is, it’s not super easy. I like some easy books with pictures when they’re stories, but when they make fact books too easy, that means they’re not telling you enough, which means they’re MISSING FACTS. And that’s not good.

But this guy doesn’t miss anything. It’s informative and USEFUL.

So this is a real good one! YEAH!

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

Crinkleroot’s Book Of Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky. Published by Bradbury Press. ISBN 978-0027058512 

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Eva Kelly is this blog’s six-year-old resident children’s book critic. 

Click below to read more of her reviews…

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…on her Goodreads page, or…

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is now available in print!

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Eva reviews: “This Is Sadie”

This is Sadie by Sara O’Leary and Julie Morstad

The publisher says… Sadie is a little girl with a big imagination. She has been a girl who lived under the sea and a boy raised by wolves. She has had adventures in wonderland and visited the world of fairytales. She whispers to the dresses in her closet and talks to birds in the treetops. She has wings that take her anywhere she wants to go, but that always bring her home again. She likes to make things — boats out of boxes and castles out of cushions. But more than anything Sadie likes stories, because you can make them from nothing at all. For Sadie, the world is so full of wonderful possibilities … This is Sadie, and this is her story.

Eva says… Now this girl Sadie is SO MUCH like me. Because she likes pretending and playing and reading and imagining, but you know what else? Guess what kind of stuffed animal she has. A FOX! THAT nailed it for me!

So I hope I get that fox puppet for Christmas.

Eva’s rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (out of five)

This is Sadie by Sara O’Leary and Julie Morstad. Published by Tundra Books. ISBN 978-1770495326

 

 

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Eva Kelly is this blog’s six-year-old resident children’s book critic. 

Click below to read more of her reviews…

…on this blog, or…

…on her Goodreads page, or…

Eva Kelly’s Book Of Book Reviews 

is now available in print!

120+ children’s book reviews written by avid reader Eva Kelly (with help from her parents and author Max Harrick Shenk).

Click here for more information.