Don't Look Now By: Ed Briant

Don't look now is a very interesting children's book that is designed in a comic book format. There are very few words, which is why it is so important that the illustrations are amazing. They are very bright and vibrant, helping to bring the story alive. There are two boys in this book that go on an adventure, finding and creating things that cross from reality to fantasy and back again. The lack of words do not make this book any less climatic or interesting.

Amelia Bedilia's First Day of School By: Herman Parish

Amelia Bedilia is a student that a lot of teachers dread. Unfortunately a brand new teacher has Amelia in her class and she definitely has her work cut out for her because Amelia takes everything she says literally. I can definitely relate to this situation, as I have many younger brothers and sisters who innocently mistake what I am trying to say. Although this story is very funny, I can see my self getting very frustrated in this situation. After all, who would really glue themselves to their seat?!

Annie's Chair By: Deborah Miland

I enjoyed reading Annie's Chair,especially because I was surprised by the ending. All throughout this book it is made known that Annie loves to do everything in her chair and no one else is allowed to sit in it. Near the end of the book she finds her dog, Benny, sitting in her chair, so she tries everything to get him out of it, but nothing works until she starts crying. Annie crying makes Benny cry, they end up consoling each other and Annie tells Benny never to sit in her chair again, without her. I can relate to this story, because I have certain things that I do not like lending people, but I do not mind as much when I am with them.

Best Buds: The Adventures of Max and Pinky By:Maxwell Eaton III

This book is so simple, but I found my self laughing out loud while reading it. This book is about two best buds, Pinky and Max who love adventure and have an adventure day every Saturday. One Saturday Pinky did not show up so Max had to figure out where he was. I found this book to be quite entertaining, becuase when Max was looking for him and thinking of possible explanations, every aspect of it was quite random. I also love the fact that they are shown playing tricks on each other at the end of the book, because I think that that is one important aspect of friendship that does not get played out enough and is thing that I personally love about have good friends.

Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes

When reading Chester's Way, the first thing I noticed was how much the watercolor paintings added to the story. The story was about Chester and how unique he and his friend Wilson are. They are best friends and do everything together, until Lilly moved to the neighborhood. Chester and Wilson ignored Lilly until she stuck up for them one day and then they all became best friends, sharing their uniqueness with each other and acquiring some of their habits. The watercolors add so much, because there is a small picture for nearly every sentence. Without the pictures, I do not think the story would be as enjoyable, or make as strong of a point. A couple of times in the story Henkes does not even write what they are doing, but the beautiful pictures are enough to fill in the blanks and make this story come alive.

The Big Game by Louise A. Gikow

The Gig Game by Louise A. Gikow leaves me with some mixed feelings. Overall, I do think that this book presents many positive messages. First off, this book does have a group of divers students depicted. Secondly, I like that it rhymes, especially since it is for beginning readers. Thirdly, I think it does show that you may not be good at everything, but everyone does have things that they are better at and some things that they are worse at.

One aspect, however, that I do not like is that the main character is a typical character for this story, a Mexican male named Jose. I know that soccer is a universal sport, but when I think of it, I think of people of Mexican decent playing it. I may have this stereotype because we did not have soccer in my town growing up and one of my friends from Mexico loved the sport so much. I think that is crucial to have diversity in books, but when this diversity comes in the same typical areas it does not have the same affect.

The Secrets of Droon;The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet by: Tony Abbott

Finding a magical land with new creatures and powers is something that most every child dreams of. The Secrets of Droon is a series of books about three friends that go on adventures in a magical land that they stumbled upon, named Droon. The first book is about their very first discovery and is filled with tons of action. The ninns, evil flying lizards that work for the evil Lord Sparr, are depicted so beautifully that I could imagine them flying over head shooting flaming arrows at me. This creature was first described as a flying lizard. After getting a closer look they could see that it had a red, puffy, fat face and slitty, close-set eyes and a pointy chin and ears. I think that this is a perfect description of a children's book villain, because it was just the perfect amount of scary. I am one that gets scared easily, and I was pleasantly on the edge of my seat the whole time in anticipation of the climax.