Hugs

No Hugs Till Saturday
by Julie Downing

Felix asks his mother what kind of hug she wants on Sunday morning, and she asks for a super squeeze. Felix makes it a “super special” super squeeze. After he eats breakfast, Felix starts throwing his ball around, and his mother reminds him that the rule is not to play ball in the house. Unfortunately, Felix has already broken a vase with the ball, so his mother tells him he needs some quiet time. Felix spends his quiet time drawing, and he seems to be pretty angry with his mother. When his mother offers him a hug at the end of quiet time, Felix tells her that there will be no hugs until Saturday. Felix asks his mother when Saturday comes, and she shows him the calendar. Felix changes Saturday to Friday. No hugs until Friday. Then Felix builds a tower with blocks, but he cannot give a hug until Friday. Felix decides he will give hugs on Thursday. Will Felix keep changing his mind about what day he will give hugs? What day do you think will be the day he decides on? Will he give his mother all the hugs she has missed?

Hugging Hour!
by Aileen Leijten

“Drool” is left with her grandmother, and she wonders why her parents have left her. Drool loves her grandmother, but she is missing her mom and dad. Then her grandmother tells her that three o’clock is hugging hour, and Drool and Grandma hug for the whole hour. Then Drool asks Grandma what they are having for dinner, and there are a whole bunch of goodies like shortcake and waffles. While her grandmother is knitting a sock, Drool plays with Kip the chicken. They play dress up and then hide-and-seek. When she looks around, she cannot find Kip anywhere. Will Drool be able to find Kip? Will she make something special with her grandmother? Will her parents come to pick her up soon?

Hugless Douglas
by David Melling

A young brown bear named Douglas wakes up in a cave one spring morning. He decides that he needs a hug, gets ready, and then goes to look for one. Douglas first hugs a big rock, because it is the biggest thing he can find, but the rock is a “heavy” hug and not what he was looking for. Douglas’s next hug is a tall tree, but it is not the hug he wants and gives him splinters. Then Douglas sees a “comfy” bush, but the bush runs away from his hug. There are sheep in the bush, and they do not want a hug from Douglas. Douglas tries to hug a rabbit, but the rabbit does not want a hug, either. The rabbit does know where Douglas can find the best hug. Where do you think that the rabbit will lead him? Who can give Douglas the best hug? At the end of the book are all kinds of hugs that you can try.

Christian, the Hugging Lion
by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Amy June Bates

There is a store in London named Harrods that once promised that you could buy anything that you wanted there, such as a racing car, yacht, or camel. Ace and John went to see what they could find in the store, and they found a little lion cub from the zoo. They buy the lion cub, name him Christian, and take him home to their apartment. Christian was happy to have a home. Christian also likes to play and hug, and he behaves very well for a lion. Ace and John also take Christian with them when they go on walks and when they go to restaurants. After a year, Christian has gotten a lot bigger, and Ace and John decide that he belongs in the wild in Africa, instead of their little apartment. They leave Christian with Mr. Adamson, who will teach Christian have to live in the wild. Ace and John miss Christian and all of his hugs, and they decide to go visit him in Africa. Mr. Adamson tells them that Christian might not remember them, but they decide to look for him, anyway. Will Ace and John find Christian? If they do, will Christian remember them and the hugs he used to give them?

Hats

Hilda Crumm’s Hats
by Linda Hendry

Hilda loves every kind of junk there is, and she is always bringing home new kinds of junk. Hilda has junk all over her apartment and on her balcony, and it makes her very happy. Her neighbors, though, are not very happy. The neighbors ask Hilda to clean off her balcony. While she is cleaning the balcony, some of the junk falls down on top of Hilda’s head. Then Hilda hears a car suddenly stop. There is a lady in pink in a pink car that asks Hilda where she got the cute hat on her head. (The junk that has fallen onto Hilda’s head looks like a hat.) Hilda tells the lady that she “made” the hat. The lady asks Hilda to make her a hat for a party that she was going to on Friday. The people at the party love the hat, and soon, Hilda’s phone is ringing with orders for many different kinds of hats. Will making these hats leave any junk around Hilda’s apartment to make her happy? Will Hilda continue to make the hats if she uses all the junk she has?

Millie’s Marvellous Hat
by Satoshi Kitamura

Millie stops at the hat shop while walking home from school. She really likes one of the hats and goes inside to ask about it. Millie asks the man behind the counter to see the hat, and she really likes it. The hat costs a lot of money, and Millie asks the man if he has a hat that costs the amount of money she has (which is none). The man goes, gets a hat box, and places a hat on Millie’s head. He tells Millie that her “new” hat can be anything that she imagines it. On the way home, Millie thinks about a lot of different kinds of hats, such as a peacock hat, cake hat, flower hat, and many other different kinds of things that she sees. Will Millie’s imaginary hat be the only hat that she sees? What will Millie’s parents think about her new hat?

Whose Hat is That?
by Ron Roy and photographs by Rosmarie Hausherr

First there is a question, such as “Who wears a straw hat with a wide brim?” Then behind each of the questions is an answer. The page also tells you why that group of people wears that kind of hat. The hats that are asked about in the book include: wool hats, waterproof hats, hats with nets, hard hats, chef hats, paper hats, firefighters’ hats, cowboy hats, and many others. Do you have a favorite hat that you really like to wear? See if your hat is somewhere in this book. Will there be a hat that you might wear some day?

Don’t Touch My Hat
by James Rumford

In a town called Sunshine, there is a sheriff named Sheriff John. With Sheriff John’s ten-gallon hat, he can round up rustlers, stop fights at the saloon, save ladies in distress, and take care of any robbers that might come into Sunshine. Sheriff John does not believe that he can do these things without his hat. So he tells other people not to touch his hat while he is at the barber, taking a bath, or at home with his wife. Sheriff John’s wife, Lil, believes that Sheriff John likes his hat more than her, but she has a lot of hats, too. She had just bought a really fancy one yesterday. One night, rustlers were at a ranch, robbers were at the bank, there was a fight at the saloon, and there could also be a range-war. Sheriff John picks up his hat and goes to work. Will Sheriff John grab the right hat when he goes out to take care of all the trouble? Will he always have to have his ten-gallon hat to be a good sheriff?

Bedtime

Bedtime Without Arthur
by Jessica Meserve

Bella has a bear named Arthur who keeps all the monsters away at night, and this lets Bella dream about things like rainbows and rainforests. One morning, Bella thinks Arthur looks really tired after a night of fighting off the monsters, so she makes him breakfast and puts him to bed. That night when Bella goes to get Arthur, she cannot find him. Bella looks around and her family looks around, but no one can find Arthur anywhere. Mom and Dad tell Bella that they will find Arthur tomorrow, but Bella is not so sure. That night, Bella has bad dreams about dragons, slugs, and grizzly bears. Bella is very tired the next day, and nothing she did that day could cheer her up. Arthur is still missing by bedtime that night. In the middle of the night, it looks like monsters are outside Bella’s window, and she runs into her brother’s room to get away from them. What will she find in her brother’s room? Will she ever be able to get a good night’s sleep without Arthur?

The Patterson Puppies and the Midnight Monster Party
by Leslie Patricelli

Petra wakes up in the middle of the night as she usually does, and Petra is afraid of the dark and the monster. Her brothers and sister always sleep through the night, but Petra cannot. Petra tells her parents about the monster, but they tell her that everything is fine and put her back to bed. Her brothers and sister try to make her feel better, but nothing works, not even the sixteen stuffed animals she sleeps with. When she tells her brothers and sisters that the monster wants to eat them up, they come up with the idea to feed the monster cookies, instead. Petra agrees that they should try this idea. They leave the cookies and a note for the monster. When Petra woke up that night, she could hear noises. She woke up her brothers and sister. Will they find a monster eating their cookies? Will the monster scare them, or will they scare the monster? Will Petra be able to sleep at night without being scared?

The Random House Book of Bedtime Stories
illustrated by Jane Dyer

This book contains twenty-one different bedtime stories. Some of the stories that can be read for bedtime are How the Camel Got His Hump, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Gingerbread Boy, The Little Snow Maiden, The Hare and the Hedgehog, and many others. Most of the stories are pretty short, and these stories come from all over the world.

Interrupting Chicken
by David Ezra Stein

It is bedtime for Little Red Chicken, but first, papa must read her a bedtime story. Papa says he will read one of Little Red Chicken’s favorite stories, but Little Red Chicken should not interrupt him. Little Red Chicken promises to be good. Papa starts reading Hansel and Gretel, but Little Red Chicken interrupts the story to say that she told Hansel and Gretel that it was a witch and they did not go in her house. Papa tells Little Red Chicken that she interrupted him, and Little Red Chicken tells him she will not do it again. Papa starts reading Little Red Riding Hood, but Little Red Chicken interrupts again and says that she would tell Little Red Riding Hood not to talk to strangers. Will Little Red Chicken’s Papa keep reading her stories? Will Little Red Chicken keep interrupting him? Will there be enough stories to help Little Red Chicken go to sleep?

Some New Books for January

Petal’s Problems
by Lauren Baratz-Logsted with Greg Logstead & Jackie Logstead

The sixth book in the “Sisters 8” series is Petal’s story. Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, and Marcia have all received their powers and gifts, and with the arrival of June, it is Petal’s turn. It seems, though, that June should already have arrived, and it has not. That is okay for Petal, because she is not ready for her power and gift. The sisters have received an invitation to attend the wedding of two of their family members in France. The girls decide not to go to France. Then June arrives, and Petal is terrified of receiving her power. She hides under her bed every day, refusing to come out and go to school. Her sister, Rebecca, pulls her out every day, and her sisters make her go anyway. Their mechanic friend Pete tells them that he will get them passports so that the girls can go to France. Then he tells them that he and his wife will go to France with the girls. The girls finish school with no problems and pack for their trip to France. On the flight to France, Petal’s power finally shows up. What do you think Petal’s power will be? What will she get as a gift? Will Petal learn to not be so scared of her new power? Will her new power help her while she is in France?

Tina Cocolina: Queen of the Cupcakes
by Pablo Cartaya and Martin Howard and illustrated by Kirsten Richards

Tina Cocolina goes to the Gingersnap Academy for Rising Cupcakes, and most of the other cupcakes had already found their toppings. Tina, however, had not found her topping yet. One student, Candyce Cremiere, had found hers on a recipe during snack time, and Cremella du Chocolat had found her while playing the viola in music class. Tina looked all over for her very own topping, but so far, she was unable to find one that worked. Tina did not think that she would find it in time to be part of the Cream of the Top Cupcake Queen contest. Her mother had been Queen three times, and Tina would be very disappointed to not take part in the contest. Tina tries to create her own toppings using a balloon, dark chocolate, and a licorice shoestring, but the balloon pops. Will Tina get her topping in time to take part in the contest? What will her special topping be?

The Present
by Bob Gill

Arthur finds a present while he is looking for something in his father’s closet. Someone tried to hide the present, but Arthur sees the white wrapping paper with blue stars and the big red bow. Arthur knows his mother always wraps his presents with a red ribbon. Arthur imagines all the different things that could be in the box. Is it a cake, a ring toss, a sailboat, a teddy bear, or chocolate bars? Arthur also thinks about the things he could with the things the present could be. He could take the sailboat to the pond in the park and sail it or paint a picture of his house with a paint box. Arthur checks to make sure his present is still there every day. What do you think is in the present for Arthur? What do you think Arthur will do with that present?

That’s Awesome!: The World’s Most Amazing Facts & Records
by Time for Kids

This nonfiction book is full of things that are AWESOME! The chapters are Awesome Size, Awesome Price Tags, Awesome Animals & Plants, Awesome Sports, Awesome Eats, Awesome Arts, Just Awesome, Awesome Space, Awesome Weather & Other Forces of Nature, Awesome Collections, Awesome Jobs, Awesome Technology, The Awesome Human Body, Awesome History, and Awesome Mysteries. Some “awesome” facts include Willard Wiggin who makes art that is so small that you cannot see it without a microscope. Most of the art can fit into the eye of a needle. The titan beetle is the largest insect at up to 6.5 inches. Venus Williams has the fastest serve by a woman at 128 miles per hour. There are nutrition facts on different kinds of insects that are eaten around the world. It took 2,300,000 stone blocks to build The Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt. A tornado forms in space every three hours, but it is only dangerous to electrical equipment, not people. There are many other very interesting facts to find.

Family

Family Fun Nights: 140 Activities the Whole Family Will Enjoy
by Lisa Bany-Winters

This nonfiction book is full of fun ideas for activities that the whole family can take part in. The activities are broken down into sections which include Talent Night, Circus Night, Poetry Slam Night, Movie Star Night, Giggle Night, Sticky Icky Night, Splash Night, Opposite Night, Animal Night, and many, many more. Each section contains at least three activities. Some of the activities include a parade, rhyme time, movie title charades, trick time, paper towel art, backyard in a bottle, face masks, masquerades, gypsy dance, life stories, around the house trivia, and take the tail off the donkey. Some of the activities are crafts, games, experiments, and many other fun things to do.






















Turtle in Paradise
by Jennifer L. Holm

In 1935 Turtle’s mother gets a new job as a housekeeper, but the lady who hires her does not like children and does not want Turtle to live there with them. There is not much of a choice, so Turtle has to go live with her aunt in Key West, Florida while her mother is working. Her mother’s new boyfriend, Archie, has told Turtle that someday they are going to live on “easy street,” but Turtle is not convinced. Turtle is also not a big fan of other children, as they have never been that nice to her, and her aunt has three boys, which does not improve her mood. Turtle learns that her cousins earn some candy by taking care of “bad babies” so that their families can have a little peace. They also have a diaper rash crème that works really well. For this reason, the boys are nicknamed “The Diaper Gang.” Turtle is not impressed by this at all. She spends her days hanging out with the “gang” as they take care of the babies. The boys learn, though, that Turtle is pretty clever when she figures out how to get a free ice cream one night. Turtle finds that she really misses her mother. Turtle also finds out that everyone on the island has a nickname, so she does not feel so bad about hers. When she goes out to find sponges with Slow Poke, Turtle learns the tale of Black Caesar’s treasure. The next day she gets to meet her grandmother, who is not very nice, but she and Turtle come to an understanding. Soon Turtle seems to be fitting into Key West. Will she get to stay there or will she end up living in a new place with her mother? Will Turtle and her cousins find Black Caesar’s treasure? Will Archie be able to give them a life on “easy street?”






















The Name Quilt
by Phyllis Root and pictures by Margot Apple

Whenever Sadie went to stay with her grandmother over the summer, her grandmother would tuck her in at night with the name quilt. The quilt was made of all kinds of little pieces of fabric and had many names on it. For a bedtime story, Sadie would ask her grandmother to tell her about one of the names on the quilt. The pieces of the quilt are fabric from the clothes that the people were wearing when the events of the story happened. Sadie felt close to all of those people whose names she could see on the quilt. Then one day after washing the sheets and quilts and hanging them out to dry, Sadie and her grandmother go fishing. They take a nap, too. When they wake up a bad storm has blown in, and her grandmother tells her get down, because there is a tornado. When they get back to the house after the storm, the quilt is gone. Sadie is very depressed, but her grandmother is just happy that they are both okay. That night, grandmother asks whose story Sadie would like to hear. Sadie did not believe that her grandmother would remember the stories without the quilt, but her grandmother tells her that she does not need the quilt to remember the stories. Sadie remembers names from the blankets, and her grandmother tells her the stories. Will Sadie’s grandmother remember all of the stories of the family members whose names were on the quilt? Can Sadie and her grandmother make another quilt to help them remember the stories?

Say Daddy!
by Michael Shoulders and illustrated by Teri Weidner

At the hospital a mama bear reads a book to her newborn baby bear about life and its wonder. Mama makes sure to say “Say Mommy” to the baby, because she wants “Mommy” to be the baby’s first word. Daddy reads a book to the baby about dreams and wishes. He tells the baby, “Say Daddy,” because he wants “Daddy” to be the baby’s first word. All of the members of the baby’s family: brother, Aunt Grace, Uncle Roy, and Grandma read books about friendship and kindness, adventure, laughter, and families. When they are all finished reading their books, they encourage the baby to say their names as the first word. At the family reunion, the family gives presents to the little bear baby, and the baby speaks for the first time. What is the present that inspires this first word? What do you think the first word is?

Winter

Snow Friends
by M. Christina Butler and illustrated by Tina Macnaughton

Little Bear cannot wait to go out and have fun in the snow. He does have fun playing in the snow, but he wishes that he could have a friend to play with. Then he decides to make a snowman to be his friend. While Little Bear is rolling the snowball to make the body of the snowman, Otter comes up to find out what he is doing. Then Otter asks if he can help. While making the snowball bigger, the two animals hear a voice coming from under the snowball. When they roll the snowball away, Rabbit pops his head out of a hole and asks to also join in. The three friends work on the head of the snowman, and Rabbit draws a smile on the snowman’s face. Then all three of the animals go home to find something to add to the snowman. What will each animal bring to put on the snowman? Will the animals become each others’ friends? Do the animals think that the snowman should also have a friend?

Time to Sleep
by Denise Fleming

Winter time is here, and bear knows that it is time for many of the animals to go to sleep. First bear tells snail that it is time to sleep. Snail sees that frost has been on the ground and agrees with bear. Snail must tell skunk about winter before he can go to sleep. Skunk also sees signs of winter coming and knows that it is time to sleep, but first he must tell Turtle. Each animal tells the next that winter is coming. Turtle tells Woodchuck, and Woodchuck tells Ladybug. Who will Ladybug spread the new to? Will that animal know yet that winter has come? Will that animal be happy with the news?

The Winter Solstice
by Ellen Jackson and illustrated by Jan Davey Ellis

Hundreds of years ago people believed that ghosts, witches, and trolls wandered around the Earth, and a very dangerous time for this was the winter solstice (or the first day of winter). The day of the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and many people believed that the sun may not come back after this night. This was a time when people believed that they had to join together and have ritual and ceremonies to bring back the sun and keep away the bad spirits. Some places, like Stonehenge, were built to mark when the sun would “disappear” and come back. The Romans traded places with their servants, gave each other presents and candles, and brought evergreens into their homes at the time of winter solstice. In the far north, when the first light was spotted after many days of darkness, the people would have a feast of Yuletide where they would burn a Yule log. In northern Europe, people had big bonfires and would place fruit and candles on the empty trees to remind them that spring and summer would come again. Other traditions discussed were those in Peru, Arizona, New Mexico, and the United States. Then the author discusses why the days become shorter in the winter. Finally, the author talks about the traditions that people have now and how they compare to the traditions discussed earlier in the book. There is a solstice story at the end of the book from a Cherokee tale.

The Night the Whole Class Slept Over
by Stella Pevsner

Dan is moving with his family again. This time they are moving to his mother’s home town, and they are going to stay with his grandparents. Dan is tired of moving around. His parents believe that if they keep moving around, one day they will find the perfect place to live, but they do not seem to have found it yet. Dan’s mother tells her parents that they intend to move into a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but her parents are concerned about Dan and his sister Martha. How will they go to school? Dan decides to ask his grandmother to sign him up for school in their town. He hopes that he can convince his parents to let him stay with his grandparents, who he considers much more normal than his parents are. On his first day of school, Dan meets a new friend named Felix. Luckily for Dan, his parents are not having a lot of luck finding the cabin that they were dreaming of. Dan is also enjoying spending time with his grandparents. When he goes over to Felix’s house, he finds out that Felix spends a lot of time alone since his parents work a lot. His parents also had to work during Thanksgiving, so they did not have a family dinner. Dan feels a little sorry for his new friend. On the day of the first snowfall, the children get out early and go play in the snow, but after helping the unpopular girl in class, B.J., Dan ends up on the sidelines feeling like an outsider. The girls, including Amanda, talk him into helping with their “snowwoman,” and he has a good time helping them. Amanda even asks him to help her come up with a design for the snow sculpture for the class for Snowfest, and Dan really does not want to move anymore. His mother, though, seems determined to move. Will Dan’s mother really make them move when no one else really seems to want to? Will Dan be able to keep the new friends that he has made? Will Dan get to enjoy all of the fun of the Snowfest including the sleepover in the library with his class?

Food

What the World Eats
by Faith D’ Aluisio and photographs by Peter Menzel

This nonfiction book is about 25 families in 21 countries and 525 meals that they eat. Each little chapter is about one family and tells you the country that they live in. Each family also has a photograph with a week’s worth of the groceries that they eat and of the area they live in. The author also included a few American families to see how their diets differed from one another. Each chapter lists the different groceries for the family and how much it would cost to buy them in their country and in U.S. dollars. There is also a little story about the families and information about the country and city that they live in. Throughout the book there are also pages of other facts, such as the price of a Big Mac and which countries have a McDonalds. It is interesting to see what is in common with most of the families that live in cities. Can you find a drink that they all seem to enjoy?

Just Grace and the Snack Attack
by Charise Mericle Harper

One of the students in Grace’s class makes fun of the food another student is eating, and so Miss Lois, their teacher, decides to teach the students about different kinds of food that people from other countries eat instead of the insides of a frog lessons that she was going to teach. This makes Grace very excited, as she was not looking forward to learning about the insides of a frog. The students are to write about different snacks that they eat and anything that they find out about foods that people eat in other countries. The next Monday, the class will get to have a snack party where the students will bring unusual or different snacks. Miss Lois even makes a list of snacks that cannot be brought to the party. Grace likes a lot of different foods from all over the world such as sushi (Japan), bulgogi (Korea), moo shoo (China), pad thai (Thailand), and paneer butter masala (India), and her mother decides that they will go to eat a new food at a restaurant that had not been to before. Then Grace goes to visit her friend Augustine Dupre who lives in their building. Augustine is a flight attendant who goes to France a lot, and she gives Grace a “zine.” A “zine” is little comic made from a piece of paper folded into eight pages. Grace loves her present and cannot wait to create her own “zine.” Grace decides that she wants to do her report on different kinds of potato chips from around the world, after Augustine gives her a bag of French chicken-flavored potato chips. While doing research for her report, Grace finds out that there are beef jerky flavored chips in South Africa, ketchup flavored chips in Canada, ham and mustard flavored chips in England, and seaweed and salt flavored chips in Japan. Grace is upset, though, that her dad helped her friend Mimi with her report, but he does not seem even a little interested in helping Grace with hers. This makes Grace feel like a bad friend for feeling jealous of Mimi. Then Mimi walks to school without her, and Grace becomes mad. Will Mimi figure out how upset Grace is and help her feel better? Will the report on potato chips turn out well, even if Grace does not get any help? What interesting foods will the other students bring on Monday? Will Grace’s dad surprise her with any help that she is not suspecting?

Mary Clare Likes to Share
by Joy Hulme and illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

Whenever Mary Clare eats something, she likes to share it with others. Whenever she climbs a tree with Lee, she picks a pear and shares it with him by cutting it into two pieces. At school, she splits a muffin into three pieces to share it with her two friends. When three of her friends come to visit, she cuts a cookie into four pieces so that everyone can have a bite. As the book goes on, she breaks a pie, orange, watermelon, pizza, with each food getting cut into more pieces (five, six, seven, and eight). What event will have Mary Clare sharing ten whole pieces with her friends and family? Will she be able to share it evenly with everyone?

The Sandwich Swap
by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdulliah with Kelly DiPuchhio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Salma and Lily are best friends at school, and they have a lot of fun drawing, swinging, jumping, and eating together. At lunch, Lily eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day, and Salma eats a hummus and pita sandwich every day. Both Lily and Salma feel sorry for one another that they have to eat the “weird and yucky” sandwiches every day, but they never say this out loud to one another. Then one day, Lily tells Salma that her sandwich looks yucky. Salma’s feelings are hurt, and she tells Lily that her sandwich looks and smells yucky, too. Both of the girls are mad and do not do anything together that day. The next day, the girls do not sit next to each other at lunch. The other students hear about what happened and take sides. Then the students start calling each other names, until someone yells “Food fight!” After the food fight, Lily and Salma feel ashamed at what happened. Will the girls be able to talk to each other about their feelings? Will they decide to try something new and find out what the other one likes about their sandwich? Will Lily and Salma be able to help the other students try new things, too?

December is National Read a New Book Month

Here Are Some New Books

for December to Try Out!

Calvin Can’t Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie
by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Keith Bendis

Calvin is a starling with three brothers, four sisters, and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins, so he has a very big family. While his brothers, sisters, and cousins all discover things like worms, grass, dirt, and water, Calvin is different, and he finds books. He teaches himself how to read, and he goes to the library instead of learning how to fly with his brothers, sisters, and cousins. He learns about all kinds of interesting things through books. His brothers, sisters, and cousins made fun of Calvin, because he was different. So he went to the library, the only place where he could be happy. When fall came, though, it was time to leave and fly south. Calvin knows he cannot fly, so he thinks that the other birds will leave without him. Will the other starlings take Calvin with them when they fly south? Will Calvin be able to help his family with something that he learned while reading all of those books?

Children’s Book of Music: An Introduction to the World’s Most Amazing Music and Its Creators
DK Publishing

This nonfiction book is filled with facts about all kinds of music. There is also a CD that has extracts of music that correspond to different pages in the book. The music covered in the book is early music, classical music, and modern music. In these chapters there is information about different instruments, people, and the kind of music that they played. In the early music section some instruments include the lyre, didgeridoo, and the sitar. In the classical music section some instruments include the organ, violin, and the French horn. This section also discusses famous composers and operas. In the modern music section some instruments include the drum kit and the electric guitar. This section discusses recorded sound and artists that have had their songs recorded. At the end of the book there is a glossary and an index of musicians.

Curtain Up!: A Book for Young Performers
by Dirk McLean and illustrated by France Brassard

Amaya loves to sing, dance, and act, and now she is auditioning for a role in a musical. When it is her turn to audtion, Amaya stands alone in front of director and stage manager, and she does so well, they ask her to come back for a second and third audition. Soon Amaya learns that she is going to have the lead child in the musical. On her first day of rehearsal, Amaya and the other members of the cast play a game to learn each others’ names, and then the read through the lines of the play together. The actors get to see a miniature of the set and get measured for their costumes. The director shows them where to stand on their positions on the stage, and the choreographer shows them all the dance moves. Amaya and the other children work really hard learning their lines and their moves to get ready for their performance in a couple of months. During the preview performance, Amaya becomes nervous and forgets her line, but the stage manager whispers it to her, and Amaya makes it through the rest of the performance. Will Amaya be ready for opening night? Will the musical be a success?

Aldwyns Academy
by Nathan Meyer

Dorian is more interested in following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a warrior. His mother, a powerful seer, decides to send him to Aldwyns Academy for wizards, instead. Dorian does not wish to attend the academy, but his mother insists. On their way to the academy, Dorian and his mother are attacked by dire wolves. His mother attacks the wolves with her wand while Dorian throws hot coals on the wolves with his dagger, but the wolves still keep coming. Then they receive help from Archmage Lowder and Professor Blackburn of the academy. Another student, Helene Miridori, is to be Dorian’s tutor in the academy, but she does not want to be. She also has a secret that someone has figured out, and she is worried. She also knows that ghosts have come to the academy, and even the more powerful wizards cannot drive them away. Dorian meets Maverick, a shopkeeper, who tells him of the dangers that have come to the academy lately, and Maverick also gives Dorian a little present and tells him not to tell anyone about it. Dorian decides to prove to the professors and to Helene that he can be a great wizard. He manages to get into trouble his first day, though, and he is not confident that he will be successful at the academy. Helene finds that her familiar was stolen, and she has to find him and get him back. Dorian and his roommate Caleb notice her sneaking off to meet the kidnapper. Both boys noticed that she was not afraid of the ghosts she had seen, and since they are suspicious, they decide to follow her. Dorian runs into a ghost who tells him that someone is after Helene, who is really an elf princess. The ghost tells him that he must save Helene or the person after her will destroy everyone in the academy. Will Dorian and his friend Caleb be able to help Helene? Will they find out what is causing all of the problems at Aldwyns Academy? Will Dorian be able to prove that he belongs at the academy?