Jasper is Star of the Week!! He has been waiting for that honor all school year and FINALLY it is his week. He has high hopes that his week will be simply awesome and he will be the best Star of the Week that his class has ever seen.
Day 1 is Show -and-Tell Day just for the Star of the Week, but, unfortunately things don’t go exactly as Jasper had hoped. First, Ori steals the limelight with the news of the arrival of his new baby sister and then the class is not at all impressed with Jasper’s very special show and tell.
Day 2 is Family Tree Day, which proves to be tricky for Jasper because his family is so small. He uses a tree branch for his display and rather than calling it his family tree, he names it his family stick. He puts on a leaf for every single family member he can think of, including a brother named Earl who doesn’t even exist.
Day 3 is Science Experiment Day, which Jasper totally forgets about because his focus is on producing the “pretend” brother who is on his family stick. He ends up constructing his brother, Earl, from wood and since it turns out that Earl has no heart (because he is made from wood), there is a vague science discussion. Jasper’s heartless brother also causes him trouble on the playground which results in a trip to the principal’s office.
Day 4 is Talent Day, which after an enormous drink of water from the water fountain, Jasper delights the class with water sloshing “music” from his tummy.
Day 5 is Special Snack and Compliment Day which turns out to be a great day for Jasper!
Not only does Jasper’s special week to be the class Star turn out to be highly amusing, but other quirky and humorous events are sprinkled in along the way. This new book series promises to be a hit with early readers!
Posted by: Wendy
Marty McGuire’s 3rd grade class room is charged with a very important task: create a Save the Earth Project. Marty is inspired – she and her best friend Annie have long admired natural scientists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, and they often go into the woods behind Marty’s house and pretend to be studying gorillas and chimpanzees themselves. Now they have a chance to really make a difference!
Penny comes home with a new song, and she wants someone to listen to her! But Mama and Papa say it’s the babies’ nap time. Penny tries singing to herself in the mirror, but that isn’t the same, and neither is singing to her little glass animals. So Penny waits all the way until dinner time, only to be told, “Not at the table,” by Mama. Finally, after dinner, Penny gets her big chance. Penny sings her song beautifully, and then the whole family joins in, including the babies (“in their own baby way”). They all have a little family dance party, with Mama in funny sunglasses and Papa in a funny hat. Penny’s song was worth the wait – it brings the little mouse family a joyful end to their day and ushers in sweet sleep for the babies.
It’s always fun for me to see how an author will highlight all 26 letters in an alphabet book. I was not disappointed when reading ABC ZooBorns! It is a delightful alphabet book with adorable and, often, cuddly looking baby animals. Each page features a photo of a baby animal along with a simple statement describing the animal. The back of the book offers a glossary with additional information such as the species, home and conservation status of each animal. Don’t skip looking over the beginning words by Paul Boyle, PhD about learning how to protect animals. You might find yourself paging through this book over and over again – the photographs are just that much fun to look at!
Blanche is a young witch who belongs to a special scurry of witches known for its beautiful flight formation. Some witches might think she isn’t fit for such a distinguished scurry – Blanche is young and scatterbrained, and despite her best efforts she always manages to be late. But she also has a very special bright blue nose which she can flash on and off at will, and that counts for a lot. Even so, Blanche realizes she cannot be late for the most important flight of the year on Halloween night. Her efforts to be early work a little too well, though, and Blanche finds herself awake hours before midnight, fallen in with a group of human children out for trick-or-treating. The children are charmed by Blanche’s fantastic blue nose, her flying broom, and her little black cat named Brockett, so they invite her to join them – and that is how Blanche the little witch has a Halloween adventure unlike any her fellow scurry-members have ever had. 
This is not a new book but it is a cute summer read. Piggie gets her first ever party invitation and she asks Elephant to go with her. He is delighted and tells her that he knows about parties. He advises her that it might be a fancy party and that they should dress up for it. They do! But then he says that it might be a pool party. So they wear their pool accessories also. But wait, it might be a costume party too! Does Elephant know parties like he says he does? Look for this book in the Easy Fiction section under the author. It is a lot of fun. And if you like it, there are more Elephant and Piggie books.
Here is a simple quiz to determine if you are (or if you know) a picky eater:
Fancy Nancy is growing up and so are her readers. Kids who are growing out of the Fancy Nancy picture books and leveled readers will be thrilled to see this new series of chapter books featuring all of the characters from the previous books by Jane O’Connor. O’Connor’s sweet, funny text is paired well with Robin Preiss-Glasser’s illustrations once again in this story.
I have recently become a huge fan of the author 
Just in the nick of time comes a new mystery series that is lots of fun for young readers. The main characters are a boy named Milo and a girl named Jazz, and they are friends that like to solve mysteries together. Not a new concept, but it’s fun to have a new series to recommend. This book includes all the things that make up a good mystery – clues, ever changing suspects, a surprise ending … but also is set at summer camp, including a food fight, a stolen mascot, camp “color war” games, and lots more. What more could you ask for in a mystery? When the blue team’s moose mascot goes missing, it is up to Milo to figure out who took it and why… and to get it back. The likely suspect, Tony from the red team, seems to have an alibi, but there are some things that Milo doesn’t know yet about Tony – that’s where his partner Jazz, who happens to be at the girls camp across the way, comes in. In the end, the two of them put all the pieces together to solve the mystery. Kids will really like these easy to solve mysteries and will really enjoy “Super Sleuthing Strategies” at the end of the book. This series is one that I will be recommending for those early mystery readers.
