Pirates-By: C. Drew Lamm; Illustrated By: Stacey Schuett

This book was a little scary but involved another sibling pair. The big sister wanted to read a scary story and the little brother was forced into it because of course, she is the big sister and what she says goes. The illustrations were drawn at different angles, not just straight on like many of the other picture books. The pictures just drew the reader in. The pictures filled the whole page but weren't too detailed but the detail that was there was there for a reason. The characters are drawn into the picture wrapped into their blankets and observing from a distance through a window, the pirate story I liked how it was a story inside of a story. The sister started reading the book and Max (the little brother) would interrupt at times to ask questions or to ask to switch books. The book kind of reminded me of Jamanji because the two characters are pulled into the story and have to fight their way out of it. The siblings facial expressions really told how they were feeling without even having to read the words. I especially liked the ending because it turned out to scare the big sister and Max got her to close the book after all and he turned out to be the brave one in the end. I can see a lot of little boys loving this book who like a little scare, however, I wouldn't read it to them before bed time or there might be some bad dreams.

I'm Gonna Like Me-By: Jamie Lee Curtis & Louis Cornell

This book had fun pictures, they were colorful and the little details in each of the drawings were entertaining. It's a great book to develop self-esteem and encourage the children to like who they are and what they see in the mirror. It shows kids that nothing is weird. All the kids in the book are different. There are boys and girls and kids of different ethnicity's. and their stories are all connected and the statements go throughout the school day. The girls writing is in cursive and the boys writing is in standard print. Most of the "I'm Gonna Likes.." are positive and some are negative that are made into something positive that the individual will still "like". The book sends messages like: it's okay to be wrong if you try and it's okay not to be a winner all the time, which I think are important messages to send to students, especially at a young age. The two things that bother me is the grammar and the phrase "I'm gonna like me when..." because in school, they students are always doing Daily Oral Language and learning proper grammar but yet this book is promoting students to use those words. I know that's how most little kids talk but that doesn't teach them to use proper language. The other thing that bothers me about the book is that half the writing is in cursive and is hard to read, especially for the younger kids that this book is aimed toward. Cursive isn't taught until around third grade, so it's going to be kind of hard for a second grader to read this book. I think this book had good intentions but there are still some little things to fix to make it easier and more grammatically correct for young children to read.

Tyler's New Boots-By: Irene Morck; Illustrated By: Georgia Graham

I really really liked this book. I looked for a book for my child study since him name is Tyler. I found this book and I figured it was the perfect book. Not only did he really like it, I really enjoyed it too. The illustrations were awesome! I think the illustrations were both of our favorite parts. We both were reading the book at the beginning but by the middle the illustrations were too captivating for him to continue reading. All his attention went to the pictures. They were so life like and accurate and the detail within the pictures were amazing. The characters weren't developed in much detail but the setting and plot were very detailed. It made the reader actually feel like they were there doing the work. It wasn't a very predictable book, it want in chronological order and it had a beginning, middle and an end. I thought it was a very cute story and there was even a little romance in it. It was a little long, but it kept the readers attention. Although Tyler was the main character in the book, his new boots were the main object. They had the focus for the first part of the book until the importance of the cattle driving he was doing took his attention and he found a new focus and love for what he was doing. As I read the book for a second time, I wished that Tyler wouldn't have been such a passive character. He didn't stand up for himself. Working on a ranch, you have to be semi-aggressive or you will get walked all over not only by the animals but the cattle drivers also. He was a pretty young character but I would have liked to hear more of his aggression and frustrations.

Mr. Baseball-By: William H.Hooks; Illustrated By: Paul Meisel

This book was another "easy reader" meant for grade two and three. It was set up like a chapter book but but there were illustrations on each page and there were only like a paragraph worth of text on each page. It would be a very good book for readers that still need the illustration clues as a little boost. The illustrations were cartoons and not fantastic but they definitely told the story as they were meant to. I think it was very relatable for children that age with a younger brother or sister wanting to be just like them and do everything that he/she does. I know back when I was that young my sister was always following me around and trying to do what I did. The language used in the book was also very appropriate. The main character was the big brother and you could read the text like he was telling you, the reader, the story. Another main theme in the book was baseball and kids at that the second grade level are just starting to get into the game and real develop a strong love for it. I used this book with my second grade child study and he related to a lot of aspects of the book. The characters in the book were diverse. There were female loving baseball as much as the males and there were many different ethnicities. That was encouraging to see because girls can be just as "in to" baseball as boys are, especially at that age and any one at any age can play the game.

The Cow In The House-By: Harriet Ziefert; Illustrated By: Emily Bolam

This book was about a man whose house was so noisy he couldn’t sleep, so he asked a wise man for advice. The wise man told him to get all these animals and the house ended up being even noisier, so he gets rid of them all and doesn’t notice any noises any more. This book was an “easy reader” book. It was made up of the same words repeatedly and a lot of the phrases were repeated though out the book and had a lot of visual clues. I read a book almost identical to this book this summer to the kids at the child care center I was working at. It was really interactive because they picked up the pattern of the book very fast. The illustrations weren’t very fancy and didn’t have much detail but they were recognizable for the children who use visual clues to help them read. I didn’t like the wise man in the book though. This is like the third book I have read this semester that has had a wise man or some powerful person and they are supposed to be so smart but they are actually really dumb. If they are labeled as “wise”, then the writer should make them actually smart. If they aren’t than they shouldn’t be labeled as such. I think it is misguiding and to top it off, the wise person never gets corrected at the end either. The man in the book was made out to be so stupid through the whole book and then the wise man was the one to be wrong the whole time.

Dexter The Tough-By:Margret Peterson Haddix; Illustrated By: Mark Elliot

I really liked this novel. It was about an elementary boy experiencing a lot in his life. He is attending a school, living with his grandma and the reader finds out later that his dad is very sick. By looking at the cover I thought it was going to be about a boy causing all kinds of trouble for no apart reason, because the book starts out with him writing a short story about how he beat up a kid in the bathroom and all the trouble that he caused on the first day of school. But later the reader coming to find out why he is causing all this trouble. He is dealing with a lot in his life. I liked it because the author solved a lot of the problems in the book but some of the things like his fathers sickness weren't completely solved because the time period that the book covered would have been unrealistic for a father with cancer to magically become all better. That's one thing that really bothers me in children's novels, when authors try to solve all the problems in the book when the book takes place in such a short time period. The author covered a lot of sophisticated issues like friendship, sickness, apologizing, learning right from wrong and finding yourself. It was also something different from what I have read previously because the main character was a boy. I enjoyed reading something from a different point of view. I thought it would be harder for me to relate to the character but I really felt for the boy and at one part I even teared up a little bit. The main character wasn't so dramatic and full of gossip like some of the novels I've read with a female point of view. The writing was more of the facts and what really happened. I think it's interesting to see the difference in genders of the main character of children's novels, because the characters sound so different even for characters at young ages. I also liked how the book was written within a fairly short time period and it didn't drag throughout the whole year. It told the story of a boy transitioning in his life and it ended when he started to figure out himself and I think that was perfect for this particular story.

Pigs In The Mud In The Middle Of The Rud-By: Lynn Plourde and John Schoenherr

This book was very silly and would be a great interactive book to do with kids because it is very repetitive and has the same pattern. A teacher could also use it to talk about different dialects and speech across the United States because the book doesn't use the normal spelling for (rud=road). The words aren't spelled the same but that's how it sounds to different people. There are even some made up words in the book to make it a rhyming book. The main character is the grandma. She is the one that tries to clear the animals off the road. The illustrator doesn't draw her face so the reader has to use his/her imagination until nearly the end when she yells to clear the road. The book definitely takes place in the early time because there is a Model T Ford and everyone is dressed in old clothes (overalls, dresses and skirts). The illustrations are very funny. All the characters body positions and facial expressions really make the pictures tell the story. This book kind of reminded me of my grandpa and grandma and mom and dad because sometimes the animals get out of the fence at my grandpas farm and it's a family affair to get the animals back in the fenced in area.It is not as easy as it looks, the animals are very stubborn, but like the book shows. You have to know what to do and something it takes many tries. It's definitely a relate-able story to many farmers in Iowa!