In first-person narration, Riley recalls happy times as the focal point for all of his “parents’” attention, followed by the chaotic aftermath of family additions: first one child, then another, then a new puppy. While each addition is disruptive, Riley learns to take it all in stride and celebrate the positive. The babies drop scraps of food from their high chairs and the new puppy is a great […]
The Jellyfish Monster by Bryan Kwasnik, with illustrations by Jackie Hahn, is a sweet good-natured children’s book about Billy, who’s playing at the shoreline and comes upon a jellyfish creatures with arms and legs who he dubs the Jellyfish Monster. The Jellyfish Monster takes Billy on a journey through the undersea world, where sea life acts a lot like humans, and Billy gets to participate in things like a shark race, and getting swallowed by a whale.
The illustrations are professionally-done and full of detail, though they could have done with a splash of color to make them as lively […]
★★★★½ 
The Case of the Mona Lisa by Yvonne Jones is a lively and inventive beginning to The Amulet of Amser series for children, aimed at 5 to 7-year-olds. On a visit to his grandfather’s house, Wen is told of an old family secret that he’s now ready to hear: members of his family can travel back in time.
What’s more, Wen’s family is tasked with saving priceless works of art that have been stolen throughout history. Wen’s first task is to rescue the Mona Lisa in 1911 – a theft that really happened, which added to the painting’s aura. […]
The Fantastic Travels of William and the Monarch Butterfly: Fly, Fly Away on the Wings of a Monarch Butterfly by Christina Steiner is about a young boy named William, a born explorer, who one day meets a talking butterfly named Anka and shrinks down to her size, then flies away with her as she makes her migration down south from North Dakota. Their journey mimics the real migration of the Monarch butterfly, so kids will learn fascinating facts about butterflies as readers follow William and Anka on their series of adventures.
Though the level of the prose is aimed at […]
While Nothando’s story is an […]
★★★★½ 
Handy Andy Saves the World by E.J. Altbacker is about handyman Andy who saves the Earth from a marauding band of aliens. Considered the “best” handyman, according to what’s written on the side of his truck, the aliens beam him up to fix their broken spaceship. The aliens say they they’re there to make “peace,” but it turns out “peace” means killing everything, not to mention kidnapping his family to be put in a zoo, and Handy Andy must use his handyman powers, limited as they are, to defeat the aliens and save everyone.
This is a professional book […]
The book is sort of like the anti-Roald Dahl. In Roald Dahl’s stories, the external world is sinister and depressing, until you start looking at the magic underneath. In Reedy’s stories, the opposite is the […]
Sharky Marky and the Scavenger Hunt (An Alphabetic Adventure) finds Sharky Marky in a car race as he races to find different items in a scavenger hunt, each corresponding to a letter in the alphabet. Written in rhyming verse, it’s a sweet, good-natured children’s book with colorful and detailed illustrations.
Like Sharky Marky and the Big Race, Scavenger Hunt begins with a stoplight countdown. Sharky Marky then races to the finish line to find each item in the alphabet. First, Sharky sees some algae (“Marky scoops up some Algae, his first on the list. As he speeds by Eddy […]