"OH NO, Little Dragon" -Jim Averback

A fun book about a dragon practicing his fire-breathing. The best parts of many picture books are the details in the background. The dragon's viking boat in the tub is a nice touch.

Read Also:

"How to Train Your Dragon" based on the books by Cressida Cowell, was an awesome movie! Great soundtrack! And I thought a better story.

Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" - fantasy series of dragons during the Napoleonic war, which includes a lot of training techniques.

"Is Everyone Ready for Fun?" -Jan Thomas

The title says it all...Is Everyone Ready for Fun? is a great book about cows ready for fun and a chicken who isn't. Unfortunately, it's chicken's couch at risk to 3 cows jumping, dancing, wiggling, and napping on it.

Great illustrations, bold lines, simple words, big font, Jan Thomas writes a good book! Also wrote Rhyming Dust Bunnies (fun) and Here Comes the Big Mean Dust Bunny (soon to be read).

Read Also:

An oldie but goodie: Robert Kalan Jump, Frog, Jump! - similar in art.

Mo Willems' We are in a Book - breaks the 4th wall as well.

"How to Marry the Man of Your Choice" -Margaret Kent

Not sure how to preface this one except I'm always looking for tips on how to better understand men.

Kent's How to Marry the Man of Your Choice, in fairly simple and straightforward language, tells how men view women and how women can respond and use this view to move men toward marriage.

The first half of the book offered some good tips and insights about behaving around men. She talks about what they look for, how they evaluate what they see, and how you can adjust yourself to still be "You" but wait for the appropriate time to reveal things. I especially liked her approach to discussing politics, religion, and sex with men: essentially nothing is off limits when talking with a potential mate. This is true! If you're going to marry a man, you have to be able to discuss anything.

Now, the second half was not so good. It was more of a guidebook for training your dog rather than finding a man. It was slightly distasteful when dealing with criticism; she adheres to using criticism, both towards him and yourself, to humble your husband instead of for improving the relationship. Not a bad book but keep it in perspective of your morals, ethics, and goals.

Read Also:

I highly recommend Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages which offers help with showing love in the way others perceive love.

For fun, How to get Married by me, the Bride by Sally Lloyd-Jones is a fun picture book check-list of how to plan a wedding.

"Maus I: A Survivor's Story" -Art Spiegelman

This is a well-known graphic novel which tells the story of the holocaust through caricatures: mice represent the Jews and cats representg the Nazis. What I didn't realize was there were other animals: pigs represent the Poles. It's a dark graphic novel, not a comic book. I read the section My Father Bleeds History.

I had mixed feelings while reading this book. The main character is called by his son "the stereotypical miserly Jew" and he is not a nice nor rational man. However, the goal of the story is to show what the Jews lived through. The reader makes this journey with the son, you learn as he learns. Several emotions: hate, disgust, frustration, pity, went through my mind. I have not finished the series so I don't know what the final "lesson" is.

Read Also:

I don't read a lot of graphic novels that aren't about superheroes or graphic renditions of literature (Yay Shakespeare!) but I did read V for Vendetta which was a dark, political commentary on a fascist government.

"The Shadows of Ghadames" -Joelle Stolz

And to make myself feel better about taking so long with that last book, I read this one in less than 3 hours!

This was a short tale about a girl learning about becoming a woman in a Muslim city. The "shadows" are the women who live in their world, separate from the men. The story covers a brief period of time when a wounded man is taken into the world of the women. It's a beautiful story.

Read Also:

An out-of-print book by Madys Lee Chastain, Emmy Keeps a Promise is also a story of a girl who learns about her world. I love this book and have read it at least 3 times.

"Into The Storm" -Taylor Anderson

It took me so long to read this book, I felt like I was missing a post.

Another series, Destroyermen, is about a parallel world to WWII. A destroyer in the Asiatic Fleet, Pacific Theater during WWII goes into a squall and travels to a parallel world, geographically identical but with fun dinosaurs!! Man-eating lizards(!) are in a war with the local population of primates while man-eating fish(!) populate the waters.

Yeah, it's a dangerous world to take a step in. And That's the catch, this is a whole world Anderson's created. There are 7+ books, a committment I haven't yet made. Not sure if I want to keep reading, thrilling but thick. I'll leave you know...

Read Also:

I don't read a lot of parallel/alternate universes so I don't have much to recommend: Naomi Novik's Temeraire is a what if...dragons existed during the Napoleonic wars. A really good series; read them all!

"Nightsong" -Ari Berk (Illustrated by Loren Long)

Love me some picture books! And because I do, I included the illustrator of the book Nightsong by Ari Berk because the artistry is why I picked it up in the first place. It's a simple story of a young bat's first flight and using his radar to fly in the dark. As cute as the story is, the illustrations were gorgeous!!! They were soft and deep with contrasts between light and dark. Just beautiful! (My vote for the 2013 Caldecott award.)

Read Also:
For various reasons, try Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
Akiak: a tale from the Iditarod by Robert Blake
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (a Caldecott winner).