Superkids by Anya Damirón

Rating: WORTHY!

'Superkids' as a title is way-the-heck over-used, but this is the first book with this title that I've ever read, and overall I think it's a worthy read for appropriate age children, with bright colorful illustrations by Pablo Pino.

Ivan is a regular tear-away boy who has lots of energy and is obsessed with the super heroes he sees in movies and reads of in comic books. One day his parents (who are smarter than they look!) decide to take him to meet some real super heroes - kids who have overcome various difficulties to make their life what they want it to be despite obstacles.

Ivan gets to meet a boy who can paint with his feet, a girl who reads Braille, wheelchair-unbound kids who play basketball, a girl who can use sign language, a boy who can dress himself with the only arm he has, and so on. Ivan learns a valuable lesson from this, though he can't emulate any of these people when he tries. His parents point out to him, however, that he does have one superpower which is perhaps the best of all: he can accept people for who they are, and find the best in everyone.

I'd like to see a version of this in which Ivan meets people who are different in other ways: overweight, impoverished, of different race or beliefs, and so on, but that aside, this was a great start towards encouraging children to accept people for who they are, and which teaches them to dwell upon commonalities rather than differences even as they learn to appreciate difference and variety. That said, I recommend this book. I think it's well done and full of heart.

Deception by Working Partners Limited

Rating: WARTY!

Here's another middle grade book which disappointed me. The main problem is that it was set in 1569 yet it read like it could have been written about events taking place yesterday. Obviously you don't want to write a novel in the actual language which was used over four hundred years ago, but you do want to try and imbue your writing with a little bit of antiquity. This one didn't feel that way. Worse than this, it's written in first person PoV, and worse than that, it's written as diary entries. These never work for me because they're patently unrealistic, recounting exact details and word-for-word conversations. It constantly throws me out of the story in disbelief. Worse than this, the author is so focused on including all her research in detailing daily events in Elizabethan times that the story loses all immediacy and urgency which is the whole point of using first person PoV (not that I agree there is a point!).

This is a series which, judged by the titles (Assassin, Betrayal, Conspiracy, Deception, and so on), is intended to run to twenty six volumes. I can't think of anything more tedious than that. It's penned (and I mean that in both senses of the word) by anonymous writers who all contribute under the pseudonym of 'Grace Cavendish', the main character. She's a young maid of honor who is supposedly a pursuivant - an investigator for Queen Elizabeth. 'Pursuivant' didn't actually mean that, and in Elizabeth's time was far more likely to have still been used in its French version, poursuivant.

Even if it were as the writer claims, and while the head of state was a woman, in 1569, they didn't even have adult women in any positions of responsibility, much less running around investigating anything. They would certainly never have had a young girl doing so, especially one who was so dis-empowered that she had to sneak around deceptively to get anything done instead of being allowed to pursue her investigations, None of this made any sense. Neither did it make sense that a woman of nobility, such as Lady Cavendish supposedly was, would have to kow-tow to, and live in fear of the "common" women who were employed on the palace staff.

In 1569, Elizabeth was in her mid-thirties and had been queen for over a decade, yet here she's portrayed as a petulant, ill-tempered brat who lacks control, and who has less maturity than the youthful story teller! Nonsense! Elizabeth was coolly navigating the waters of avoiding marriage - at this point to a French Valois - and dealing with the Pope's rejection of her as a valid monarch. She was hardly the spoiled child we see here.

Though this is supposedly set in late 1569, in the grip of an icy winter, at this time in that year, three Earls from the north of England were leading a rebellion against Elizabeth. They were trying to install Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne in England, yet we're expected to believe that the sole thing bothering a petulant and spoiled Elizabeth was the introduction of a new silver coin? I'm sorry, but I cannot take this series seriously or pursue it. I guess I'm just not pursuivant enough!

The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Rating: WARTY!

While I've seen the Dolittle movies (both the Rex Harrison version, and the Eddie Murphy version) I've never read any of the books. You could argue that I still haven't since the one I review here is a Dalmatian Children's Classic (so-called), and as such is a condensed version (adapted by Kathryn R Knight) illustrated (by Nick Price) with many line drawings in which Dolittle is very much drawn in the mold of WC Fields!

As with many older books, there have been complaints of racism inherent in the book's pages, which I find rather disingenuous when applied retroactively. Yes, there are old books which are racist by today's standards, and the Dolittle books are among them. There are even old books (Mein Kampf comes to mind) which are racist by their own contemporary standards. I can't really speak to that since the version I read was an adaptation which has been washed clean of the original racism. I also find it interesting that Eddie Murphy agreed to act in this role given the book's history! Maybe they were aiming for some sort of redemption by making Dolittle black?

I have read various commentaries on this topic. It isn't a defense to say that this book isn't racist by its own contemporary standards. The original of this novel was racist by any standards. Is it a defense to say it isn't maliciously racist? By that i mean did it actively intend harm through the racism it contained? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean it wasn't harmful. In this version, the racism has been bleached (yes, that is a reference to the original!), but I think as long as I'm mentioning this, it's only fare to also mention that Lofting wrote other books in this series condemning of slavery, and that even in this book, he depicts an African king who is pissed-off with white men because of their depredations of his nation's natural resources. To me, this goes a little way towards mitigating against charges of overt or active, or outright malicious racism. That does not make the book lily white, so to speak.

My biggest complaint about this particular version of the novel isn't about racism or the fact that the doctor speaks to the animals or they to him - it's children's fantasy after all! - but that the author doesn't have a clue about animals. Hugh Lofting was a soldier (he originated the idea for these stories in the trenches in France in World War One), not a veterinarian or a biologist, but even so, it would not have taken much effort, even in 1920, to look up a little bit about Africa to discover that it isn't home to Orang-utans. Nor would it have taken much more effort to discover that gorillas, orang-utans, and chimpanzees are apes, and not monkeys, and eagles are not commonly found out on the open ocean! It was that kind of thing which annoyed me more than anything else, so for me, the story was sadly lacking in a decent foundation.

Given the premise - a doctor discovers he has more affinity with animals than with humans, and can understand them and therefore treat them expertly - it seems to me that a golden opportunity was wasted here to teach children something about animals, biology and evolution. The novel may well be be moderately entertaining for very young children who question little, but for my money (and note that the book is available free online) it really wasn't a worthy read at all (I skipped a lot of the second half), not when there are more modern and better written novels with these themes - animals and adventure. Besides, this novel is out of copyright now, and neither Hugh Lofting (who died in 1947) nor his estate are going to get anything for it if you buy it! Whether oyu think he ever deserved anything for it is up to you! Maybe it's time for someone to rewrite this in an intelligent, educational, and non-racist way?

The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York by Geoff Rodkey

Rating: WORTHY!

I favorably reviewed this author's The Tapper Twins Go to War in December 2015, and I got this other volume from the library and read it through very quickly. it was in a way, more of the same, which is why I liked it, but the story was different, and equally as inventive as the first one, and it was highly amusing.

It's told in the same way as the previous volume, wherein Claudia, the female half (or maybe two-thirds) of the Tapper twins, gives an oral history of an event. This isn't, of course an oral history - it's a written history, or at best, a transcription of an oral history. You'd have to listen to the audio book to get the actual oral history! That aside though, the story was well told, being both funny and inventive. The premise is that Claudia organizes a scavenger hunt in order to raise money for the Manhattan food bank. The hunt consists of groups of four children from the school - each group with an adult escort, I'm happy to report, taking pictures of landmarks and other not-so-readily-visible items. In order to prevent cheating, each photo must include the school mascot, a small plush toy of which each group has in its possession.

The first prize is front row tickets to an event at Madison Square Garden, which features both sports and music events, so it appeals quite widely The fembots (spoiled rich kids) are cheating (or are they?), and so is Claudia's brother's group. Things get out of control. Children go astray. Liverpool fans are angered...wait, what? But it all works out in the end and the winner is completely unexpected. A fun romp which entertained me and which I'm convinced will entertain its target audience. I recommend it.

Bubba the Bulldog Tries to Smile by Bree Clausen

Rating: WORTHY!

I'm not a fan of bulldogs. They're quite literally deformed little dogs, but this story really has little to do with them. Real ones, anyway! Bubba the Bulldog is in a sorry state: he doesn’t seem to know how to smile! His best friend Ryan the Human smiles miles of smiles all the while. Apparently Bubba suffers from heavy lip syndrome! He just can’t lift ‘em! One day Ryan came home with his leg in a cast. Skateboarding was going to be out for a while. So was smiling, it seemed. No matter what Bubba did, Ryan could not seem to lift his lips any more than Bubba could his own.

Ryan would never tape up his dog’s lips to make him smile, but when Bubba got wrapped up in tape all by himself, his mouth did seem to be sporting a smirk, but it would take something truly odd which Bubba found inexplicably under Ryan’s bed to bring a really toothy grin to his face. I wonder what it was he found?

I liked this story because it was fun, and absurd, and the colorful drawings were highly amusing. For all I know, this might even be based on a true story! I recommend it.

Still There? A Little Zen for Little Ones by Sanjay Nambiar

Rating: WARTY!

In a retelling of an old zen Buddhist story, we read here of two boys with improbably, amusingly, large heads, who encounter a girl in the school yard. She's lost an earring and isn't dealing. She seemed to think that stomping and yelling was the best way to find her earring, and in actual fact, she was right! One of the boys thought the best thing to do was get down and dirty and search for it. The other boy didn't, but once the earring was found and the girl stomped off without even thanking her helper, the boy who didn't help was annoyed! The girl was rewarded with her earring. The two boys were rewarded with nothing, but wasted time and dirtied clothes and hands.

It seems like the lesson we're supposed to learn here is that it doesn't do to cry over spilled milk (it's actually much better to clean it up before it stains and stinks!). There are several lessons to be learned here though, and we're offered only one, which is that when you perform an act of kindness for someone, do not expect a reward. I agree with this. You set yourself up if you expect something in return, and the quality of your life is lessened by the act of wanting. The girl didn't specifically ask him for help of this particular boy. The boy volunteered. As a lawyer (Buddhist or otherwise!) might say, there was no contract entered into here. The boys should not expect anything in return, not even thanks, and therefore shouldn't by adversely affected when none come. Nor should the unhelpful boy be upset by the helping boy's attitude.

I think that the author missed a great opportunity though, to look at other lessons here. He focused on only one perspective, which doesn't seem very zen to me. There's a better story here. For all I know this is the one which inspired this children's version.

It would have been a better story had we looked at each perspective in turn, and then looked at how things could have been better all around. Of course, in real life, you rarely get an opportunity like that, but in real life, there is a concept of justice and equity. It doesn't do to let those who are selfish, ungrateful, fraudulent, arrogant, or endlessly demanding. It is better to teach them the error of their ways - or to at least try. Only one lesson was learned here where several could have been. None of the other lessons were considered, which lessen the lesson! In a way, this is a very selfish lesson to teach a child. This was a very short story so there was room for lots more.

In some ways, this book is the polar opposite of one I reviewed favorably back in 2014. In that book, not focusing on the now was the point which was extolled. In this book, it seems to be just the opposite! Now that's zen! But I can't recommend this story as it stands. There's no still there, there!

A Small Pony Tale by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

A Small Pony Tale, in addition to being a pun worthy of a horse laugh, is a story about a pony, and thereby hangs a tail. All the pony's brothers were saddled with some talent or skill, be it strength or speed, but the one thing those horses didn't have? Well, that was this pony's great strength, and it wasn't even the mane thing abut her! This is a very short review for a very short and very adorable story!

The Little Duck and the Great Big Pond by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

I'm not talking about a pond which put on a bit of weight over the holiday season. I'm not talking about your typical overly large pond. I'm talking about a great big pond. This pond was huge. It was resplendent in its massive pond-i-ness. If Doctor Who said, "Come along, Ponds," this pond wouldn't even be able to move an inch. It was that grand. At least that's how the Little Duck saw it.

Can I just say a word about overly generous families as long as we're banging on about largeness? This momma duck had twenty ducklings. I am not egging you on. This was a sizeable, yellow, fluffy ball of a ducklings. Unfortunately, there was only one girl and she was hydrophobic to the max, like totally!

Told poetically, this story of the huggable duckling is very sad, no mater how cute she is. She's hardly unflappable since she so wants to get into the swim of things, but entreaties from the rest of her family are like water off a duck's back. I kid you not. It looks like a stuck duck. A duck stuck in a tree. How will this fluffy duckling ever get down?(!) Call me quackers, but I loved this story.

Princess Maddie Mouse by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

Moving into the second day of my Lily Lexington Retrospective, today I feature the mouse princess! Maddie Mouse lived in a hole in the side of a red barn with her mom, the queen, her dad, the king, and her kid sister, the Princess Molly, and her two older brothers, Mitchell and Mark. My word! There goes the throne! Each of the children was the royal heir of something. Mark is in charge of the crops. Not the riding crops, but the growing crops. Mitchell is in charge of the animals. Not the five-member pop group from Newcastle of swinging 60's in Britain, but the farm animals. Maddie was in charge of the bugs. Not the Volkswagen's, but the insects and other creepy crawlies. Young Molly was in charge of the flowers...okay, I got nothing. Let's move on!

One day Molly's crying was so bad it woke the sun early (!), and all day, everyone was tired. This wouldn't do at all. Maddie set herself to thinking how she could help her sister sleep. I wonder if it had anything to do with her little six-legged charges? Well don;t let it bug you! Buy the book! I loved this story. A kid who cries so loud she wakes the sun early? C'mon! That's treasure that is! And Princess Maddie ought to be arrested for gratuitous cuteness.

Princess Tiffany Tooth Fairy by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

Princess Tiffany rides a royal cart pulled by two ponies as bright as the moon. Not only does she fulfill all the usual royal duties, she also had to collect teeth. it;s hard work, but it's not like pulling teeth, since these have already fallen out and have been placed hopefully under pillows by young children.

Do you have any idea how heavy teeth are when you’re a tiny fairy and you have fifty seven of them in a huge bag? I thought not. Well, neither do I! But it has to be something that makes you grit your teeth, right? It’s especially onerous if the young child wakes up right as you’re carrying our such an important duty, and rudely traps you in a glass jar. What a royal pain!

This little girl greatly underestimated Princess Tiff, however. The princess is not only cute, she’s also smart. The princess would give her eye teeth to get free, but unfortunately she has none, so she tricks the girl into letting her go. Actually it’s not even a trick. It's more like a brush off as she offers some really good advice that all children would do well to heed, and escapes by the skin of her teeth. Delightfully told and warmly illustrated, this is a fun and inventive story you can really get your teeth into. If it made an old codger like me smile, it can probably work wonders on your child!

Gracie Gourd by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

I have no idea what goes through this author's mind, but a conversation with her would probably be weird if her routine thoughts are anything like her authorial meanderings! A gourd named Gracie? A gourd who can't get moored?! Why not?! Gracie has no idea where she belongs (she's a bit green) and she tries to take up residence with the pumpkins (which are kin - not to pumps, but to some gourds), but when the pumpkins round on her (and they're a lot rounder than she is!), she finds she has to move on.

She considers popping round to the corn, but she really doesn't fit in. She has no ears, and evidently rumors of her kinship have not even a kernel of truth to them. Where else can she go? Not the tomatoes. She makes them see red, and watermelons are even greener than she is, so perhaps it's just as well that the farmer's daughter has a stately residence available! I liked Gracie Gourd.

Luna the Night Butterfly by Lily Lexington

Rating: WORTHY!

Luna has issues. She's glowing luminous green to begin with, which is a problem, because she's a night "butterfly" and those nighttime predators are pretty skillful. Fortunately, she meets none in this poetic paean to positivity and perseverance (and don't try saying that too fast unless you cover your mouth!). Luna's kinda cute actually, despite having two legs and four arms, but you know what they say - four armed is forewarned. Maybe I got that wrong. Never mind.

Poetry is only one pleasing part of the picture (there I go again! Sometimes you just have to pee....). The images are gorgeous. Colorful (yes, even the night-time ones) and wonderfully rendered. Luna actually doesn't realize that she's a Luna Moth, but when she finds out, she adapts admirably and ably. She's absolutely awesome! I give her an 'A'!

Which is My Way Home? by John G Pedicini

Rating: WORTHY!

This was a fun children’s book: seagull vs coyotes featuring snail and puppy! What’s not to like? Note that the coyote encounter was a bit scary, and the images for that encounter are suitably dark, so really young children might not appreciate it.

The story is that a young seagull loses his home on an iceberg and is chased by a polar bear. If I had a penny for every time that;s happened to me. We can conclude from all this that these events took place at the north pole. Somehow this little seagull seems to rub everyone up the wrong way and ends up shunned, even by other seagulls. Finally there’s some rest to be had in a forest, which is just as well since it’s dark already. This is hardly the natural habitat of a gull, and there are many new and scary things, not least of which are the hungry coyotes. They’re always hungry, the predators, in these stories, aren’t they?!

Well it turns out that the gull is not the only lost soul in the forest that night. There's a puppy and some young children, and working together, the avian, the mammal, and the gastropod manage to make it through, and bring the children to safety. A fun, scary and unusual adventure told in poetry. I liked it!

Mr Getaway and the Christmas Elves by Sally Huss

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a nicely drawn and colored, and poetically told story about a school class which gets a substitute teacher. Mr Getaway loves to do field trips (and evidently doesn't worry too much about permission slips!), and this particular excursion spirits the children away to the snowy wilds, where Santa's elves are busily creating this year's crop of toys, games, books, musical instruments and other assorted joys.

Sally Huss books often carry a message, and this one is to the effect that taking pride and joy in your work is a good thing. This is actually a wonderful lesson to impart to children, as long as it's not all work and no play! These children find themselves impressed that the elves are a happy bunch even when at work. They're sad that the elves don't get to play with the toys they make, but they learn that an elf's happiness comes from a job well done, and from giving without thought of receiving. These are good ideals at any time of the year.

We learn what Santa does the rest of the year and it turns out that he's really the Greek god Apollo, riding with the sun, or maybe the Egyptian god Ra, whose blessings come down on the sunbeams. I had no problem with this, until I read this advice: "remember when you look at the sun, think of me." It's not a good idea to look directly at the sun! Maybe "When you enjoy the sun, think of me" would have been wiser? That aside, I liked this story and recommend it. Since my blog is about writing as well as reading, here's a writing issue to ponder: For whom the who tolls?!

When Santa showed up, I read, "And whom do you think appeared in that space?" I think this should be 'who', not whom. Note that I am far from expert on this! Indeed think it's time to ditch 'whom' from the language altogether. No one speaks like that! But which use is correct? The trick, apparently, is to see if you can substitute a 'he' or a 'she'. If you can, then it's 'who', not whom. If, instead, you can substitute 'her' or 'him, then it's 'whom' which should be employed. If that's right and I translated this reasonably, then it's really asking, "Do you think he appeared?" To use "Do you think him appeared?" is clearly ungrammatical, which is why I'm going with 'who' as opposed to 'whom'. Whom knows?! 'And who do you think appeared?' just seems right to me, even if it's technically wrong!

But that's a writing issue to wrestle with. I'm not too worried about it here, because I liked this story. It was perky and colorful, and promises a fun read to enjoy with your children.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians by Lou Harry

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a novelization of a movie from 1964, and it shows! I'm guessing the movie is at the level of a bad fifties or sixties Disney live action movie, but I can see for myself, since it’s included with the novel. It's on a DVD claiming it’s a 'Holiday cult classic' although I’d never heard of it before. It extols the appearance of Pia Zadora - hardly an 'A' list actor, and she's in a relatively minor role as one of the children. None of the other actors are known popularly.

I'm not big into novelizations of movies or TV shows, so maybe this is why I have not encountered this book-and-a-movie deal before. Although the book is dated 2005, almost no effort whatsoever has been expended in updating the novel version of the movie. It is still referencing antique TV shows, for example.

The novel is printed in green text, and the gray-scale pictures are actually green-scale, which is hardly enticing. The pictures are evidently taken directly from the movie and have the amateur look of Hollywood 'B' movies to them. The news caster featured in one picture looks more Martian than the Martians do! The Martians are, of course simply humans with a bad paint job on their faces and hats with antennas on them. Because it’s so old, there is some unintentional (I assume it's unintentional!) humor such as when one Martian, remarking upon a comment on how lively something is, says: "You should see the nightlife on Uranus." That was the only LOL moment I got out of this book.

The plot is that the Martians who are technologically advanced, but profoundly stupid - very much like Spock in the original Star Trek TV show - decide they need to come to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and try to figure out what he's all about. The Martians have no sense of humor, we're told, and no childhood to speak of, but are inexplicably addicted to United States network TV sit-coms. This suggests to me that they never actually leave their childhood! LOL! They end up picking up two kids who tell them Santa lives at the North Pole, so they all head up there and kidnap him.

The story is dumb and childish (and not in a good way), and the plot and script are stupid. There are some amusing moments, but nowhere near enough. The adult characters are universally moronic. I honestly cannot recommend this at all. I saw the movie and it was every bit as crappy as I suspected it would be! I fell asleep half way through and have no intention of watching the rest!

Doodle Adventures: The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs! by Mike Lowery

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a really cool idea to get children totally involved in reading. Of course, it doesn't work in ebook form at all! The book is, in some ways, a do-it-yourself adventure, except that in this case, the adventure is laid out, and the reader has to illustrate it in places here and there, set aside for this very purpose. There are lots of pages for kids to draw on, and lots of different, weird and fun things to draw. I could imagine myself having a lot of fun with this were I of the right age. Maybe even were I not!

The story is about space slugs - duh! - which are causing all kinds of mayhem. You, the reader, are thrown into this at the deep end because the actual agent who is supposed to take this job fails to show. Carl the duck(!) us your advisor, and if you think that's quackers, you're right, but at least he doesn't demand to be addressed as m'llard.... The question is, can you find the missing artifact? And what's in it? Why is it so important? Do you really want to know?

There's one oddball adventure after another here, all crazy and fun. The slugs turn out not to be so bad, so it's nice to see a negotiated ending, and it's nice to see some slugs are helping Carl and the reader. I liked the story. It was fun, enticingly gross in places (it's slugs!), and interesting for the age group. It had lots of doodle opportunities and the doodles are a doddle. Apart from the word 'terribly' misspelled with an extra 'e' on P102, the text was good. I recommend this.

The Tapper Twins Go to War by Geoff Rodkey

Rating: WORTHY!

This novel was flat-out hilarious, and I breezed through it super-fast. Of course, it's not aimed at me, but at middle-graders, but that's never stopped me! Not if the novel is engrossing and entertaining enough. This story is about Claudia and Reese Tapper, not-so-fraternal twins (or nutso fraternal twins if you like) who enter into an escalating war against one another. It's not even clear how it began because both twins disagree. Afterwards, Claudia decided to write a book about it, although she mistakenly calls it an oral history. Her twin gets to say his piece here and there, and other people are drafted in for comments, including Claudia's parents, whose texts she managed, somehow, to obtain.

Perhaps her decision to slip a fish into Reese's soccer backpack was a mistake. The weird thing was that he didn't even notice, and when he tried to retaliate later by putting Gorgonzola cheese into Claudia's backpack, she discovered it immediately. While Reese seems to have been endowed with more than his share of physical prowess, Claudia definitely got most of the brains between the two of them. her problem though, is that her brother seems incapable of being embarrassed or put off his stride by anything, so her attempts at retaliation seem to be entirely ineffective, until she decides to hit him where he lives - which is inside an online video game

I lived this story. I loved the humor, and the way the story twits Minecraft (which here is disguised as 'Metaworld'). I loved the photographs used to illustrate the tale, and the Claudia comments 'handwritten' in the text, which looks like it's typewritten. I loved the way it took Claudia three attempts to get chapter one started, and the way both Reese and Claudia reference their babysitter, who is rather less than on top of things. I liked the way Claudia plans and steams and fumes about things, and I especially liked the happy ending. This was a really great, fun novel and I recommend it. it's also part of a series so there's more to go read if you like this one.

Animals That Make Me Say Ewww! by Dawn Cusick

Rating: WORTHY!

This was a cute way to get children interested in learning about nature. I recommend it on that basis although I had an issue or two with it. One issue was a question of wording. On page 13 I read, "help them smell better" and I felt, in order to be clear, it should have read, "help them to detect smells better", or something to that effect! A minor point but worth attention. Other than that it was written well, but personally, I would have liked it better if it had said a word or two about endangered species given that it featured one or two, such as the gorilla. The attraction for kids is based on the gross-out factor, obviously, but since I knew this going in, I had no problem with it. There are other books in a series based on other perspectives, to round-out the picture, such as Get the Scoop on Animal Poop, Bug Butts, Animal Tongues, Animal Eggs: An Amazing Clutch of Mysteries and Marvels, Get the Scoop on Animal Puke!, and Animals That Make Me Say Wow!, none of which I've read.

The novel covers a variety of animals, but is focused strongly on mammals, and often the larger or better known ones at that. This is a bit class-ist, but it's not all mammals, by any means. There is the occasional insect or two, a fish here and there, a spider (my favorite spider, too!), and an amphibian or two, and quite a few birds, so there is variety, and for me, if you can get kids through that potentially difficult door of initial interest with the cuddly ones, that goes a long way to keeping them interested and helping to wise them up to other less adorable animals, and to what we're doing to the world, and how much we have to lose if we don't all wise up! Hopefully they will realize that not all animals are furry and relatively closely related to us. There's a huge variety out there, and maybe they will realize they can find 'eww' locally, too, if they're willing to keep their eyes open and away from their video games for a while! They don't need to travel to exotic locations.

My biggest problem was with technical issues. This is an advance review copy, so hopefully these will be worked out before the final copy is published, but just FYI, there were, for me, two main problems. The first was that many words were missing the letter 'r'. I have no idea what that was all about because it wasn't every 'r' which was missing - just some! For example, on p12 'bird beak' was missing an 'r' - it has a space instead. The same thing happens on p22. The same with kangaroo on p27, with flower on p35, with bird and fur on p39, with strong on p47, sources p51, 'Fly swatted and directions' on p55, 'upward and figure' on p58, 'are' on p59, 'Fight-or-flight and response' on p62. Also one 'f' in buffalo is missing on p77. Just the one!

This problem was apparent my iPad both in the Bluefire reader version, and in the kindle app version (I wouldn't recommend trying to read this book on a smart phone!). The Kindle app also screwed-up the placement of the pictures. Many of the pictures are evidently seated on a blue-green colored background, but in the Kindle app they were missing this completely and were all over the place and appeared in a variety of sizes! Bluefire Reader did not have this problem. Also some of the larger text was a bit blurry on the Kindle app (but not in Bluefire). Again, this may have been because this was an ARC or it may be because Amazon produced a crappy Kindle app.

Those problems had nothing to do with the idea or the writing, so I'm not worried about them! I consider this a worthy read and I recommend it.

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Rating: WARTY!

Read hick-ily by Cassandra Morris, this is a children's novel which at first irked me somewhat, but which then began to grow on me, before really irking me so I quit listening to it (it was an audio book). The irking part was the 'southern bumpkin' accent of the reader. I don't know if she really speaks like that, or if she just adopted the voice for this novel, but it wasn't an easy voice to warm to because it sounded so annoyingly vacant. The text of the novel was what kept me listening for a while. Initially, I liked the way it was written and the kid's philosophy despite it being first person PoV, but the kid was too country hayseed for my taste, and the endless rambling really ticked me off. She used phrases like, "What the hayseed is going on here?" and she used made up words such as "spin-diddly" to signify something wonderful.

If it had been just once or twice, I think I could have withstood it, but when it's every chapter, it's offensive, especially when the story is quite literally going nowhere. I'm not one of these people who likes to read stories about people who are quirky just because it's about people who are quirky. I need for the story to go somewhere or do something. This one didn't. The blurb lied that it was about a magical town that had lost its magic and implied that this country bumpkin would bring it back. She did absolutely nothing - not as far as I listened, which about 75%.

Her friend was 'The Beedle' who was a character who did good deeds for people anonymously. She learned who he really was, but I honestly could not tell if the reader was saying 'Beetle' or Beedle'. I decided it had to be 'Beedle' eventually, but I wasn't sure. Not that it mattered because he did nothing either.

I assume something in the way of fixin' the magic happened at some point before 'THE END', but I sure as heck isn't hell had no interest in traveling all the way through the great state of tedium to get there. It was nothing save endless rambling about day-to-day life, with a mind-numbing amount of tedious detail. I really, honestly don't need to know exactly how she dries dishes. I'd rather watch paint drying than hear that, especially when what I wanted to hear was what they were talking about while they dried the dishes. Her unremarkable experiences in school were equally uninteresting as were her trips to the ice cream parlor. Yes, this is the kind of story where they have an ice cream parlor even if they don't call it that. If you know what I mean.

I can't recommend this one. Stick a Newbery in it and move on.

Lily and the Paper Man by Rebecca Upjohn

Rating: WORTHY!

Illustrated very nicely by Renné Benoit, this young children's picture book (with lots of text!) is the story of Lily and her haunting encounter with a down-and-out guy who is selling newspapers. I read this in Adobe Digital Editions on a desk-top computer, which made for an odd read since the book isn't really set up for electronic format. It shows both pages side-by-side which, unless you switch it to full screen, makes for very small images and smaller text. It definitely wouldn't work on a smart phone!

That said, the layout was wonderful, and the text readable, and the images delightfully colored and drawn to appeal to young eyes. I loved the self-righteous pigeon sheltering under the newspaper as the story began, and the almost Santa-like beaming face of the paper man at the end of it. Lily is walking home with her mom in the rain, and this is how she happens to encounter this guy - old, slightly menacing-looking, grizzled. She literally bumps into him, and decides she wants to take the bus home the next day so she doesn't run into him again. He definitely made an impression on her!

The problem arises when it snows, and Lily can't stand the thought of riding the bus with fresh snow on the ground. Of course, she encounters the same man, selling his papers, and looking like he's freezing with his thin jacket, holes in his shoes, and no socks. He doesn't seem threatening any more, and he may even have winked at her. Suddenly her mind is preoccupied with thoughts of the paper man, his clothes as thin as paper. She develops a plan.

This is not a Christmas story as such, but it's heart-warming enough to be one, and it's really well told. It's actually better that it's not a Christmas story because charity shouldn't be confined to one season. I consider this book a very worthy read.