(4) K-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. While exploring a science-museum spaceship, boy Danny and his dinosaur launch themselves into space and forget their lunch. Hungry Dinosaur eats everything (including their ship and surrounding planets), leaving Danny wondering how they'll get home. Dinosaur's propulsive-poop solution is gross scatological humor at its basest. Still, the illustrations are mainly cheerful, and this British import's rhyming text is easy to read aloud.

Reviewer: Renée Wheeler

(4) 4-6 George's Secret Key series. Illustrated by Garry Parsons. This fifth installment finds friends George and Annie at an elite space camp battling an evil villain intent on ruling the solar system. Character development and plot come second to the science, but lots of danger, robots, and a peek at Jupiter's moon Europa should hold series fans' attention. As usual, relevant scientific essays appear throughout but may be beyond some readers' interest level.

Reviewer: Renée Wheeler

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Whether at Eddie's birthday party, on an island, or even in London, Uncle Morton's pet dragons, Ziggy and Arthur, wreak havoc for dragonsitter Eddie. Somehow everything always works out, though Uncle Morton avoids helping at all costs. Told in email exchanges and plentiful black-and-white illustrations, Eddie's humorous adventures make for engaging light fantasy. Review covers these titles: The Dragonsitter to the Rescue, The Dragonsitter's Island, and The Dragonsitter's Party.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Whether at Eddie's birthday party, on an island, or even in London, Uncle Morton's pet dragons, Ziggy and Arthur, wreak havoc for dragonsitter Eddie. Somehow everything always works out, though Uncle Morton avoids helping at all costs. Told in email exchanges and plentiful black-and-white illustrations, Eddie's humorous adventures make for engaging light fantasy. Review covers these titles: The Dragonsitter to the Rescue, The Dragonsitter's Island, and The Dragonsitter's Party.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(4) 4-6 George's Secret Key series. Illustrated by Garry Parsons. In their fourth story, science-minded friends George and Annie search for a mysterious UFO-based hacker after glitches in major computer systems worldwide cause chaos, including Cosmos, the computer that facilitates their interstellar travel. The characters are plot vehicles for the sophisticated science; essays from prominent scientists expounding on computer science and robotics are interspersed in pullout pages that, while fascinating, disrupt the flow.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. A pirate crew ready for a sea-faring adventure seeks a captain. Young Hugh asks various townspeople who seem to fit the bill; "Are you the Pirate Captain?" But no one is quite right. Finally, the pirates realize that Hugh is the captain they've been searching for. The rhyming text stumbles in places, but the feisty illustrations are sea-worthy. Two sea shanties are included.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Eddie must bring Uncle Morton's dragons to his dad's new Welsh castle (yes, a real castle). What's supposed to be bonding time with Eddie, Emily, Dad, and Dad's new girlfriend turns disastrous with dragons involved. Will Eddie's uncle ever come for his dragons? This third wacky Dragonsitter book is told through the series' engaging format of emails and "photo attachments" (Parsons's illustrations).

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Whether at Eddie's birthday party, on an island, or even in London, Uncle Morton's pet dragons, Ziggy and Arthur, wreak havoc for dragonsitter Eddie. Somehow everything always works out, though Uncle Morton avoids helping at all costs. Told in email exchanges and plentiful black-and-white illustrations, Eddie's humorous adventures make for engaging light fantasy. Review covers these titles: The Dragonsitter to the Rescue, The Dragonsitter's Island, and The Dragonsitter's Party.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. A boy is invited to the dinosaurs' party and almost becomes their dinner. Awkward rhymes detail the games, food, and long bathroom line. The story doesn't contain any real information about these dinosaurs besides their names and that they eat meat, but the bright and silly (see the dinosaurs doing the pee dance) illustrations are sure to appeal to little dino lovers' sensibilities.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. This British series opens with a desperate email from Eddie to his vacationing uncle: the dragon-sitting isn't going well. These two stories are told almost entirely through emails explaining the trouble caused by dragon Ziggy, with added layers from the subject lines and "photo attachments" (Parsons's illustrations). Humor and an engaging format make the series approachable fare for new chapter-book readers. Review covers these titles: The Dragonsitter and The Dragonsitter Takes Off.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. This British series opens with a desperate email from Eddie to his vacationing uncle: the dragon-sitting isn't going well. These two stories are told almost entirely through emails explaining the trouble caused by dragon Ziggy, with added layers from the subject lines and "photo attachments" (Parsons's illustrations). Humor and an engaging format make the series approachable fare for new chapter-book readers. Review covers these titles: The Dragonsitter and The Dragonsitter Takes Off.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. George and Annie search for the most suitable home in the Universe for a pet pig. But soon, aided by Annie's Large Hadron Collider–scientist father, they're trying to thwart an evil scientist's plan to destroy everything. This lively third adventure is interspersed with illustrated lectures on contemporary theories by eminent scientists, all lucid but considerably denser than the predictable framing story.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. In this sequel to George's Secret Key to the Universe, friends George and Annie (daughter of a Global Space Agency scientist) again venture through the universe, this time to investigate possible extraterrestrial contact. Contrived dialogue and precious plotting hamper the story, but the interspersed essays--contributed by leading scientists--are inspiring, communicating both basic concepts and thrilling frontiers. Stunning photos are interspersed.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. After a hen finds her chick stuck in the mud, she becomes trapped during her effort to free him. One by one, other farm animals and the farmer try helping and get mired. The surprise ending--the chick, who loves playing in mud, isn't actually stuck--is only mildly amusing. Parsons's acrylics serviceably capture the farm setting.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. With Christophe Galfard. An amiable supercomputer allows George and Annie to explore space--up close and personal. An evil science teacher provides the requisite peril, but narrative plays second fiddle to a cogent synopsis of the fundamentals of astronomy and physics. The science is enthusiastically described and accessible but poorly integrated into the formulaic story. Includes glossy full-color captioned images of the universe.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(3) PS Illustrated by Garry Parsons. "Down at the Dinosaur Cafe, / everybody was doing fine. / Steggy was slurping his swamp juice, / while Iggy sat down to dine"--until Tyrannosaurus stomps in, terrifying the plant eaters with talk of "tasty dinosaur stew." A quick phone call brings Terry Triceratops to the rescue, and Tyrannosaurus is tickled into submission. Humorous illustrations accompany the bouncy verse.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Billy insists he wants nothing more for his birthday than a bucket. He spends the day staring into his water-filled bucket, naming all the ocean-going animals and vehicles he sees. Billy's amused parents play along, but are shocked by what happens when they use his bucket without permission to wash the car. Vivid illustrations set the reader's imagination loose.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden