The Moon Came Down on Milk Street by Jean Gralley

What really stood out to me about this book was the AMAZING illustrations. Each page is so bright and colorful. The use of light is especially amazing. The moon literally radiates on the pages, sending the kids looking out the window into shadow. Even when you can't see it, you know the moon is always there because of the yellows and blues on the page. The story is in a bright, peaceful dream world where the moon is the center of the night. In this world, the moon has fallen down on the street and people run out of their homes to push it back up into the sky. It is magical and colorful and imaginative.

The format of this book is also very intriguing. The book itself is a tall, skinny rectangle, an unusual shape for a book. The text is different sizes and colors on each page, playing again with the light of the moon. The dedication page is on the very last page of the book, which seemed to make the dedication even more meaningful - as though, after the story was written, the final thing the author thought about was Tony and how this story reflects what he means to her. It was very powerful.

The whole book was powerful. Dreamlike.

If Kisses Were Colors by Janet Lawler

This book was beautifully written - something that people of all ages would appreciate. I found myself reading this book as though it were being read to a young child before bedtime - the child snuggled tight in linens of bright blues and yellows, head on pillows of down, the Lion King nightlight aglow beside the bed. The child's mother sits next to the bed on a wooden rocking chair with a red cushion, rocking quietly back and forth as her tongue glides over the cheerful words, her voice a quiet hum. The chair was once the child's grandfather's - his favorite chair. I can see this book being the pair's favorite bedtime book, the pages dog-eared and worn to the point of separating from the spine.

This book was very much like Love You Forever by Robert Munsch to me. It is something I imagine children and parents finding really endearing and meaningful. It is something I can see very young kids memorizing, reciting it to their parents before they can read the words, flipping the pages as they go along in time with the words that are still foreign. The words are accessible for young kids because they follow a very simple rhyme scheme and the pictures match each page precisely. Young readers would really enjoy reading this book.

And so would families right before the go to bed. The Lion King nightlights aglow.

Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins

Rosie's Walk is a book about a cute little hen who goes on a walk across the farm she lives on. It is such a simple story - the entire book is just one long sentence. Reading the story, there seems to be just one character, so the book is very easy to follow. However, what is fun about this book is the story that is being told in the illustrations. Though he is never mentioned in the story, the pictures introduce a new character to the book: a sly fox who wants to eat little Rosie for lunch. He follows Rosie as she walks across the yard, around the pond, over the haystack, past the mill, through the fence, under the beehives, and finally back home for dinner. Teachers can use this book to show young learners that they have to not only use their ears but also their eyes to understand the full story.

Teachers can also use this book to begin talking to young kids about direction words.

It is a short, sweet story that young kids would love to read and feel proud about their reading.

Trainstop by Barbara Lehman

I would pick out a wordless book by accident. I knew when I saw the cover of Trainstop that something looked familiar. The second I opened the book, I realized that it was illustrated by the same woman who illustrated the wordless picture book, The Red Book. The main character looked so similar to the girl from The Red Book that I imagined it being the same young girl. She has just found herself in a new adventure in this story.

The young girl gets on a train and, when all of the other passengers are asleep, she sneaks off the train into a new world. My favorite part of the book, though, was when the girl was sitting on the train watching the landscape pass by outside her window. It brought me back to one train ride I went on with my best friend. We rode the train from his house in Wheaton, Illinois, to downtown Chicago. It was the first train I had ever been on, probably a fifty minute ride. I remember sitting by the window watching the cities pass by. We went downtown to see the musical, Wicked, which was absolutely amazing. Afterward, we knew we were cutting it close to the last train's departure. Of course, we were about five blocks away from the trainstation and the train was leaving in two minutes, so we ran as fast as we could across downtown Chicago to catch our train. It was so fun and definitely the first thing I think about when I think of trains. This book brought me back to that memory.

Daley B. by Jon Blake

Aw! This book was so cute. Ha, I loved it. It's about a rabbit, Daley B, who is very confused. He does not know what kind of animal he is, or especially why he has such big feet. He finally decides that he is a squirrel, and he sits in the trees eating acorns with them. Honestly, it reminds me of a couple very confused people I know. But we won't get into that.

It's hard to read too deeply into this one. It is definitely a book that is intended for kids to have fun reading. They can get inside Daley B's crazy, confused imagination as he wonders what kind of animal he is. The illustrations are simple and colorful, as is the rest of the book. Ya know what it reminded me of? Tacky the Penguin! No wonder I liked the book. And there's a text-to-text connection for ya - take that, Block A. :)

I would love to have this book in my classroom library. I think it is something that kids would read over and over again because it is so simple and fun.

George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra & Madeleine Comora

Back to the historical fiction books apparently. I'm not quite sure what led me to selecting this book off the shelf. I felt like I had either read it before in one of my classes or that someone had recommended it to me. Either way, I had heard of the title, and maybe it was in search of where I had heard it that I picked this one up.

I thought it was a fun book. It depicts George Washington, a very serious character in American history, from a playful angle. We get to learn all about his teeth, which apparently were the cause of great pain for him. We see him in a vulnerable state that we never really hear about in school. And the book is all about teeth, which young elementary students have lots of experience with.

The book was simple, with an ABCB rhyme scheme that can really help beginning readers learn to decode words. They realize that the second and last lines have to rhyme, and they can use this clue to help them read words that would otherwise be somewhat advanced for them. This book also includes a real timeline in the back where students can learn about some of the great accomplishments of George Washington as well as some of the real dates in which his teeth were causing him trouble. This one would be kinda fun for kids in history class.

Never Poke a Squid by Denys Cazet

I have to admit I was kind of intrigued by the title to this one. It sounded like it would be an amusing book, and for the most part, it really was. The best part of this book to me is that it takes place on Halloween. In an elementary school, Halloween is one of the most fun and crazy days of the entire school year. The kids wait all morning to finally put on their costumes and walk around the school yard in a celebratory parade. Then they go back to their classroom and eat sweets until we send them home with their parents who know the sugar high is just beginning. It is seriously my favorite day ever.

This book is formatted so that there is one main story that runs throughout the book. However, there are also little side stories taking place on each page, where the kids are bantering back and forth and getting into all sorts of mischief, usually while the teacher is talking or doing a lesson. The side conversations were fun because it was a very realistic depiction of the craziness that goes on at school, especially on Halloween.

I also thought it was interesting how the author used exaggeration. It is no secret that kids are prone to exaggeration. In this book, though, the kids' tales of the stories that happened that day at school are very modest - short and to the point. The exaggeration lives in the illustrations, and it is through them that we see what really happened at school that day.

This was a pretty fun book. The kids would especially love reading the conversations on the side of the story - they make the book exciting. I also loved that there were Spanish words. Overall, I'd say this one was pretty good.