Chapters and Pictures

 *CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER!

In a wordless book with gentle, dreamlike spreads, Daisy, a feisty, black-eared dog plays with a beloved red ball indoors and out, before a climactic encounter with another dog in the park. Working loosely in ink, watercolor, and gouache, Caldecott-winner Raschka alternates between large closeups of Daisy curled up with the ball on a sofa, looking nervous when the ball lands behind a fence, and smaller panels for action scenes. Readers should relate to Daisys sadness over the loss of her treasured object while understanding that such losses can sometimes lead to unexpected gains maybe even a friend.

- Publisher's Weekly

 *CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK!

Rocco's sublime account of a city blackout reveals a bittersweet truth: it sometimes takes a crisis to bring a family together. In a series of graphic novel style panels, a small child tries to convince family members to play a board game one hot summer night, but they're all too busy. When the lights go out, though, the neighborhood comes alive and the whole family drifts up to the roof to look at the stars: "It was a block party in the sky." In the most poignant spread, the family sits on the stoop, eating ice cream: "And no one was busy at all." It's a rare event these days.

- Publisher's Weekly

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing. Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories--Ben's told in words, Rose's in pictures--weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder.

It is a dark time at Ralph McQuarrie Middle School. After suffering several Origami Yoda-related humiliations, Harvey manages to get Dwight suspended from school for being a "troublemaker." Origami Yoda pleads with Tommy and Kellen to save Dwight by making a new case file--one that will show how Dwight's presence benefits McQuarrie. With the help of their friends, Tommy and Kellen record cases such as "Origami Yoda and the Pre-eaten Wiener," "Origami Yoda and the Exploding Pizza Bagels," and "Origami Yoda and Wonderland: The Musical." But Harvey and his Darth Paper puppet have a secret plan that could make Dwight's suspension permanent . . .

Cade says: This book was about a Dragon named Danny and an Iguana named Wendell. One day, when Danny was eating his lunch, his hot dog bites Wendell and he grows hair that makes him itch. Wendell and Danny find out early that Wendell is becoming a minion that in two days will help a giant hot dog, “The Alpha-Wurst”, take over the school. They have to consult a giant potato salad in order to send his army of rats to help Danny and Wendell defeat the Alpha –Wurst. I liked this book a lot; it is great for 2nd graders. This book is kind of a combination of funny and weird.  I would recommend it for people who like potato salad. 

Brody says: I really liked that the book was two-sided, and that the illustrations were good! The Number One Kid was about a new kid named Michael at Zelda A. Zigzag School. He was really nervous about it since he was from a different country, but he ended up liking it a lot. I really liked the book because it reminded me of school and all my friends!

Brody says: "This book is about Humphrey. He is sad that school is ending.  But when he finds out he’s going to camp  Happy  Hollow, he  gets  exited  because  he’s going  with  his  friend Og. It’s a really good book. I liked it because in Camp Happy Hollow there was a competition called clash of the cabins and there were sports like volleyball, canoeing, and swimming. Your cabin had to win the most points in all of the sports and you would get to go to a really spooky cabin. It was called Haunted Hollow. I would recommend it to my friends because I liked Humphrey and Og!"

Cade says: One morning, Nate gets a fortune cookie from his friend Francis. Ever since then, Nate has been trying to "surpass all others" as the fortune cookie told him he would. But Nate has been working too hard at that, and at the end of the day he ends up in the detention room with seven detentions. The author of this book definitely has some imagination. I'd give this book 5-stars! I like this one even more than Diary of a Wimpy Kid!