8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷ 1 Dog = Chaos

8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷ 1 Dog = Chao. Vivian Vande Velde. Illustrated by Steve Bjorkman. 2011. Holiday House. 68 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Being a squirrel is the best thing in the world.

Premise/plot: One day a squirrel named Twitch ends up INSIDE the school. How? Why? Well, Twitch was seeking to outrun an OWL and a dog. Twitch had until then only been acquainted with the school pets through the windows. Now, he finds himself in need of a lot of FRIENDS and ADVICE. Why? Well, the dog--the principal's dog--follows him INSIDE as well. (The owl doesn't!!!) Soon, both are trapped by the closed doors. The dog remains in pursuit of the squirrel; the squirrel has to be quick, quick, quick. The end result is a LOT of laughs. Each chapter is narrated by a different animal.

My thoughts: This one was so much fun. I didn't expect it to be so FUNNY and enjoyable. I think the alternating narrators makes this one even better than it could have been. Almost every chapter has something worth quoting--worth sharing--to draw in reluctant readers. I think this would be a great read-aloud in the classroom.

For example,

A squirrel mother teaches her young all they need to know by the end of summer, but human children spend five years in School. Five years is long enough for a squirrel to grow very, very old, so it's a good thing we're faster learners. And the humans aren't even truly finished in five years!

Ms. Walters never talks about being in first grade, so I think she may have skipped first grade, too. But she does talk about last year's second grade class. I'm smart enough to know that means Ms. Walters was kept back. But I am polite enough not to mention it.

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Log Cabin Wedding

The Log Cabin Wedding. Ellen Howard. 2006. Holiday House. 64 pages. [Source: Gift]

The Log Cabin Wedding was a pleasant discovery to me. I found the book among my mom's over thanksgiving weekend. It was a short read that felt so comfy-cozy right. It would pair quite well with Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Elvirey is the young heroine of this historical chapter book. Out of necessity, two families come together to harvest the crops on their farms. One family is a widow woman and her young family. The other, as you might have guessed, is a widower with a family of his own. Elvirey is the daughter of the widower, and, this let's-get-together-with-the-neighbors idea was her own. Unfortunately, Elvirey didn't foresee that the two might just fall for each other in the process! The last thing she wanted was a replacement for her mother...

I liked this one very much. I like that Widow Aiken, among other things, teaches Elvirey how to read.

This one is easy to recommend.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Pig Is Big On Books

Pig Is Big On Books. Douglas Florian. 2015. Holiday House. 24 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Pig is big on books. Pig likes to read. 

Premise/plot: Readers meet a pig who loves, loves, loves to read books. Big books. Small books. All kinds of books. Pig loves to read anywhere too. But what happens when pig can't find a book to read?!

My thoughts: I loved this book. I really loved, loved, loved it. I do love books and reading. So it shouldn't come as a big surprise that I loved this very reading-focused title. Still, there is something simple and just-right about it. It flows really well. And I loved the direction the story went. I definitely recommend this one. It is an "I Like To Read" book.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 9 out of 10

© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Orphan and the Mouse (2014)

The Orphan and the Mouse. Martha Freeman. Illustrated by David McPhail. 2014. Holiday House. 220 pages. [Source: Library]

I definitely enjoyed reading Martha Freeman's The Orphan and the Mouse, a fantasy novel inspired by E.B. White's Stuart Little. The book is set in 1949. (Note: I haven't read Stuart Little, but, this novel tempts me to seek it out.) This fantasy is told through multiple perspectives: a few mice, one cat who loves to hunt mice, a couple of orphans, and a practically evil orphanage director. It is illustrated by David McPhail.

I liked this one. I liked the setting. It took some time for me to get hooked on the actual story, but, no time at all to get hooked on the premise of the story. I liked the characters. Mary, the mouse heroine, was a great narrator. I also came to care for Caro, one of the orphans living at the Cherry Street Children's Home. The book offers some suspense and mystery, though often the reader knows much more than the characters in the book. Readers get to watch the characters put it all together and possibly maybe save the day.

I also really appreciated the length of the chapters!

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Alice in Time (MG)

Alice in Time. Penelope Bush. 2011. Holiday House. 208 pages.

"I'm not wearing it."
"Yes you are."
"No, I'm not." 
Repeat those last two sentences about fifty times and you'll get some idea of what I'm up against. I'm trying to get my little brother into his page-boy outfit so that we won't be late for Dad's wedding, but I've been trying for the last hour without success.

I picked up Alice in Time because I was interested in the time travel premise. Alice, our heroine, is fourteen and miserable. She thinks her life is ruined, and it just happens that everyone else is to blame for all her woes. Her parents are divorced. Her relationship with her dad and his new wife, a bit awkward. And her brother, well, he's a bother and then some. Her mom is the worst of all. Even Imogen, her best friend, doesn't understand her. It seems the whole world is against her...

One late night in the park, a spin on the merry go round, a little accident ends up changing Alice's life forever. She wakes up from the accident as a seven year old. Her teenage memories are intact, but she's now seven again. She's forgotten how to be a kid, though, which makes this transition a bit tricky. Her mom definitely does NOT like the new Alice, who has turned mean and disrespectful and disobedient. What happened to her little angel that loves playing with Barbie and needed help brushing her hair and braiding it?

Alice soon decides that she'll try to "fix" all the problems of her life. She'll try to stop her cat from getting run over by a car. She'll try to warn her Grandma about the cancer. She'll try to warn anyone and everyone about her mom's postpartum depression. She'll try to stop her mom from throwing her dad out of the house, etc. The question becomes what should she do with her classmates? Should she make the same decisions? Should she choose Imogen over Sasha? Or Sasha over Imogen? Or should she choose a new path altogether? What if she could change her life for the better by choosing a whole new set of friends?

Of course, Alice doesn't really know what the consequences of any of her actions will be... One thing is for sure, this new-new Alice will be a different girl.

I liked Alice in Time. I didn't love it; I didn't hate it. I thought it took a little too long to get to the merry go round. Though that could be just me, since the time travel element is what I was most interested in. And Alice wasn't very likable. She was a brat. A full-time brat. But as she began to grow up a little (by growing down), I began to like her more and more.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews