(3) K-3 National Geographic Kids Chapters series. These nonfiction chapter books should delight pet lovers. Readers encounter three stories of heroic working dogs (at a firehouse, tracking missing pets, and as comfort dogs at a wildlife sanctuary), and three stories of cats having unusual adventures (living on a sailboat, stealing human belongings, and trekking around national parks). Engaging photographs and sidebars complement the lively, conversational texts. Websites. Ind. Review covers these National Geographic Kids Chapters titles: Hero Dogs! and Adventure Cat!

Reviewer: Russell Perry

(3) K-3 National Geographic Kids Chapters series. Animal lovers looking for nonfiction accounts of lovable creatures will appreciate this slim, unintimidating title. The book contains several stories of devoted animal friendships: baby chicken Penny and two-legged Chihuahua Roo; goat Mr. G and donkey Jellybean; and cheetah cub Siri and black Lab Iris. Each section is broken into entertaining, easy-to-read chapters and studded with background information and color photographs. Websites. Ind.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(4) PS Illustrated by Laura J. Bryant. Jo and her grandfather visit the woods, where they hear and see a variety of creatures. Patterned after the song "Old MacDonald," the parallel to a noisy barnyard doesn't quite work in Quattlebaum's text--could even an astute naturalist hear a turtle? ("everywhere a shuffle-shuffle")--but pleasant art and informative back matter on forest ecology may engage young hikers.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(4) PS Illustrated by Laura J. Bryant. This story takes the "Old MacDonald" song to the garden, where Jo and her cousin Mike plant seeds, tend a vegetable and flower patch, and provide a homegrown salad for their grandfather, Old MacDonald. Though the text, like the song, can become tedious, readers' interest may be sustained by the book's challenge to search the lively illustrations for specific animals and plants.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger. Bad Bart and Mean Mo engage in a blustery battle of the sexes to determine who is the biggest and baddest. Readers fond of pirate language and lore should enjoy spirited read-alouds of the text (set in an appropriately named typeface "CC Treasure Trove"). The caricature illustrations imbue the stormy sea--and the stormy relationship--with just the right atmosphere.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Patricia Castelao. Pierre and his daughter Marie transform Fred the ghost's dusty, creaky old New Orleans home into a bright and busy restaurant. His dinnertime hauntings, rather than scaring diners away, are outrageously original, and they turn the restaurant into a five-star success. Hazy, Disneyesque illustrations are more successful than the text at evoking New Orleans both of old and today.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(4) PS Illustrated by Laura J. Bryant. Quattlebaum's text, set to "Old MacDonald," acquaints children with the sights and sounds they might encounter around a pond: "And at that pond she saw a dragonfly... / With a whir-whir here / And a whir-whir there..." Bryant's watercolors show a little girl interacting with nature. Pictures and text are entirely bland but somewhat useful; appended notes tell more about "The Pond Community." Reading list, websites.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(3) 4-6 This third book in the series opens with ten-year-old Jackson taking a clipping of a special rose that grows in the cemetery. Roses have always meant bad luck for Jackson, and his "doom-and-gloom" friend Reuben thinks a ghost is haunting him. The story is suspenseful without being too scary, and the satisfying ending doesn't try to overexplain the curse.

Reviewer: Amanda Sullivan

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Andrea Shine. While many of the poems in this anthology read more like prose, the verses manage to cover not only the pleasures but also the pain, boredom, and serendipitous events of family reunions. Characters reoccur from poem to poem, giving the reader a clear sense of all family members at the reunion. Watercolor illustrations accompany the text.

Reviewer: Jim St. Claire

(2) 4-6 In Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns, Jackson's tenth birthday present was not the basketball he had wanted but a plot in a community garden. Now the city garden is under threat from a developer. Quattlebaum's talent for depicting a lively, diverse neighborhood and funny interchanges between kids remains strong, as does her gift for simple, conversational writing.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2004

(2) 4-6 Eleven-year-old foster child Ben Watson has been stuck in the system for years, moving from one disappointing placement to another. He's survived so far by trying to blend in--that is, until fourteen-month-old Grover G. Graham, a fellow "stray," toddles into his heart and rescues him from his emotional isolation. Quattlebaum pulls off this unlikely pairing with restraint and without resorting to sentimentality.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2002

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Tim Ladwig. Desperate for customers one cold December during the Depression, a homeless shoeshine man nonetheless takes pity on a tattered young boy, by first giving him his hat, then his gloves, and finally a homemade toy and a free shine. The story takes a religious turn at the end, when the boy is revealed to be a manifestation of the Christ child. The watercolor and acrylic illustrations, which play with perspective, emphasize the sentimental tone of the tale.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Chesworth. Although Mama says she doesn't want any birthday fuss, her daughter, a "take-charge kind of girl," plans a party with her slapdash aunt CeeCee and her nitpicking aunt Belle. Hilarious chaos reigns right up to the last minute when Daddy arrives with a very surprised Mama. Art nouveau style illustrations, using dialogue balloons, set the story in the roaring twenties.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley