The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog retold by Margaret Read Macdonald

A story of the Language of Flowers wrapped in a fairy tale.

This folktale from Great Britian tells a somewhat familiar tale of a beast (in this case a big smelly slobbery dog) rescuing a man from peril. The man offers the beast whatever he wants and the beast wants his daughter. She goes away with him but hates him, often calling him a"big,smelly, slobbery, small-tooth dog" and hurts his feelings. However, in great folktale, fairy tale fashion, she eventually comes to love the big smelly dog and they live happily ever after.
Oh, forgot to mention, of course he turned into a prince once she declaired her love.
Personally, I might have wanted to keep the dog! But what's a fairy tale with out the prince!

The Langauage of Flowers is demonstrated on the endpapers with a pattern of the flowers and their emotion or meaning. Throughout the story, the painted tapestry-like illustrations include the flowers that correspond to the events in the story. Very pretty and an interesting way to show a nice aspect of British cultural.

I Love You Always and Forever by Jonathan Emmett

Illustrated by Daniel Howarth
A father fieldmouse and his daughter play games in the woods where the daughter learns that losing to her father won't last forever but his love for her will. Delightfully realistic illustrations fill the pages making this a great read-aloud for young children. Grades PreK - 2.

Tracks of a Panda by Nick Dowson

A tiny baby panda is born in the wild in China. As he and his mother need food and safety, they travel around in search of a good home. There is a narrative line to this nonfiction story, plus a panda fact on each double page spread. Chinese style paintings match the text beautifully. An index is inculded.
K-3

A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer, pictures by John Butler

This is a fictionalized account of the friendship between the young hippo, Owen, orphaned by the Christmas tsunami, and the old tortoise, Mzee. The story of these unlikely friends has inspired non-fiction books for older readers, but this story is meant for younger readers and focuses on the friendship that develops between the two animals. The illustrations are soft and comforting and the text is simple and repetitive. The non-fiction accounts of this story are much better at telling the story and explaining how this friendship came to be, but this book would be a good introduction for younger children with the non-fiction texts used to add supporting facts. Or it can be used on its own in a discussion about friendship.

One Well; The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss

A timely title for our drought-ridden state this year. One Well is an enjoyable but urgent plea to save our planet's water supply. Short chapters with well-themed titles share the story that ALL things on earth are completely dependant on this non-renewable resource. "The amount of water on earth doesn't change - there's no more water now ...than when dinosaurs walked the earth." Interesting little factiods decorate each double page spread, sharing hard-to-imagine statistics and adding more urgency to the message.
The art didn't work for me though. It's very colorful and attractively done with a script-y font for chapter headings but the artwork's less structured nature fell flat for me. The blocks color used to get the extra facts in were distracting. A few spreads were broken in to blocks with small pictures to illustrate each fact, these seemed to work better than the larger illustrations that were broken up.
Overall, though, it is an attractive, readable, book with an important message. The back includes a section for students to plan ways to learn more or become active in water conservation. There is also a section for parents and teachers that offers even more inf. A very thorough index is included as well.

Animal Poems, by Valerie Worth

Illus. by Steve Jenkins

Selected posthumously, this collection of poems are all about animals familiar to most children for example the porcupine, snake, and gorilla. The poetry makes amazing use of language and imagery to portray the familiar in surprising and unfamiliar ways: a snail's house includes a spiral stairwell; a penguin is "cheerful as a housecat"; and the hummingbird, "flew like a spark from the earliest star." Each poem has its own doublespread with striking cut paper illustrations offset with plenty of white space.

Grades 3 up