(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kristy Caldwell. Isabella Bird (1831–1904) overcame childhood maladies and, perhaps equally hard to surmount, rigid social expectations of female behavior to become a world traveler, explorer, and best-selling author; snippets of Bird's writing appear in this ebullient treatment of a life well spent. Illustrator Caldwell incorporates occasional dialogue balloons and comics-style panels into the digital illustrations, staving off any accusation of Victorian creakiness. Timeline. Bib.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Matt Phelan. Wendell gets to thinking about what he'd do if he had a walrus for a friend. Mortensen's pitch-perfect child humor combined with Phelan's knack for body language and facial expressions brings the pair's joy clearly to the pages. The problem is that Wendell doesn't have a walrus. Then Wendell meets another boy with a whale for an imaginary friend, and the two become nonimaginary friends.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2018

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Nina Victor Crittenden. Shy and cautious chick Lily is nervous to read her poem in front of the class at the Grand-Slam Poetry Jam. The sweet story, rife with chicken-related puns, emphasizes that there's no shame in being chicken sometimes, if you're brave when it matters. Crittenden's soft but defined watercolor, pen, and ink illustrations portray an amiable farm-animal cast.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(4) PS Illustrated by Betsy Lewin. One by one, ten mice in fancy garb prepare for a ball. When a masked cat appears, the count quickly reverses as the revelers flee. When they realize that "Cat has come to dance," all ends well. The text's meter and rhyme are sometimes forced, but Lewin's signature jaunty watercolors bring each individual mouse to life.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Allen Austin. Cowpoke Clyde greets a newspaper advertisement for a bicycle with interest: "It wouldn't eat. It wouldn't stray. / It wouldn't buck or bite or neigh!" But his wobbliness on the vehicle leads to near misses with various animals. The book offers bouncy rhymes, comical illustrations of the rubber-faced protagonist in an Old West landscape, and a lesson in true grit.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) 4-6 Snap Books: Famous Female Authors series. These biographies of popular YA authors spend much of their focus on the writing and publication processes. Brightly colored page layouts include photos, vocabulary words, quotes from interviews, and other callouts. The texts are clear and easy to follow, though readers advanced enough to have read these authors' best-known works may find some of the information obvious. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers the following Snap Books: Famous Female Authors titles: Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Allen Austin. Plucky rhymes with a Western twang relate a cowpoke's comic attempts to bathe his dog, who's "all caked with mud from end to end." Dawg objects, and other ranch animals--fleas, a hog, cats, and a mule--are caught in the struggle. After considerable mayhem, Dawg eventually relents and joins Clyde in the tub. Children will delight in Austin's colorful, boisterous illustrations.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jeff Mack. After some barnyard cows overhear a girl reading the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle," they grouse that a cow can't really jump over the moon; cow Cindy Moo, however, rises (literally) to the challenge. Her ultimate success is a foregone conclusion, although her means aren't. This mild story succeeds by dint of Mortensen's nimble rhymes and Mack's affection for bovinity.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Raúl Allén. Though it was commonly believed to be true, scientists couldn't prove with certainty that the earth turned on its axis--until Léon Foucault revealed his astonishing pendulum in 1851 Paris. Mortensen describes not only Foucault's early life and scientific work, but also the history of the physics question at hand. Allén's illustrations, by turns shadowy and luminous, amplify the drama of the biographical tale.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(4) 4-6 Innovators series. Zuckerberg focuses on the Facebook inventor's youth while Greiner and Taylor highlight the contributions of women in engineering and medical research. Though the texts are accessible, the information (especially statistics) will quickly be outdated. Stock photos of varying relevance illustrate the texts. Taylor includes a reading list. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Innovators titles: Doris Taylor, Helen Greiner, and Mark Zuckerberg.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cris Arbo. This book provides a glimpse into the lives of honey bees. The golden-hued, realistic illustrations are more notable than the text-- rhymed couplets ("Blossoms out. / Dancing scout. / Sisters fly / through the sky") accompanied by captionlike text that provides some facts. An informative "The Buzz About Honey Bees" spread, including four small photos, is appended. Reading list, websites.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(4) 4-6 Innovators series. These volumes focus on contemporary inventors of items or technologies of interest to young people. Biographical sketches accompany information about the inventions, their popularity or uses, and business aspects of the inventors' work. The photographs are often tangential; Tajiri includes no photos of the man himself, and in Kwolek a stock photo of Polish immigrants stands in for her parents. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Innovators titles: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, Satoshi Tajiri, Stephanie Kwolek, and John Lasseter.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) 4-6 Monsters series. This book presents information about sharks in a clear, concise (if somewhat dry) manner. Readers may enjoy learning about different types of sharks and exploring the truth about when and why sharks might attack. Sharks in popular culture (Jaws, Finding Nemo) are also presented; photographs (most aren't gory) support and expand the text. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) 4-6 Monsters series. Each volume presents the history and legends associated with the title creature, including appearances in popular culture and connections to real animals (where applicable) that might have inspired the legends. Stories from different parts of the world are included, which adds interest and context, though the texts can be dry. The range of photographs and illustrations will appeal to readers. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Monsters titles: The Sphinx, The Kraken, Mermaids, and Sirens.