Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom - John Rocco

My goodness! I read dozens of picture books a week but I don't have time to post them all. However, I didn't expect to go the whole month without posting again. Well here's one that I thought was terrific:

Rocco has the craziest hair going on! He and his friends get their superpowers from their hair. But when Rocco is taken to the barber, how will he escape its evil clutches?! When he returns to school disgraced (with a haircut), he faces his friends only find they have also been sheared. When a teddy bear is in trouble, Rocco and his friends rise to the occasion and the save the day, learning their superpowers don't come from their hair but from within.

This was such a cute story! My favorite character was, of course, the kid who says "dude" to everything.

Read Also:

Zorro Gets an Outfit by Carter Goodrich has a dog feeling like a legendary hero.

Torando Slim and the Magic Cowboy Hat by Bryan Langdo.

"Hide and Sheep" -Andrea Beaty

They're fluffy. They're small. What isn't fun about mischievious sheep?

The sheep go looking for adventure while the farmer is asleep. He'll round them up for shearing but not before they get to do a few things...

The artwork is full, exciting, witty. Rogue animals!

Read Also:

Elanna Allen's Itsy Mitsy Runs Away.

Nicholas Oldland's Making the Moose Out of Life.

Jan Thomas' Rhyming Dust Bunnies.

"Henry and Mudge: The First Book" -Cynthia Rylant

The Henry & Mudge series are a staple among beginner reader books. Finally got the first one!

Henry wants a pet. When he goes into the pet store, there's the perfect dog: Mudge. A little pup that grows to a big, loveable dog. When Mudge gets lost, Henry goes looking and gets lost.

The artwork is cute, the characters are happy, the stories are charming. There really isn't a downside to this series.

Read Also:

Cynthia Rylant's "Annie and Snowball" series.

Erica Silverman's "Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa" series.

Shirley Mozelle's Zack's Alligator.

"The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" -Jacqueline Kelly

I don't listen to audiobooks often but changes in my commute has really cut down on my reading time. And so I've begun a shift to a little bit o'listening.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is the story of a young girl growing up in Texas at the turn-of-the-century. The book follows Cali from the summer of 1899 to New Year's Day 1900. Cali has an interest in scienec; she teams up with her grandfather to study her surroundings. As she learns, the reader sees how many things in her life mirror those of nature, evolution, and Darwin's theories.

This was a fascinating combination of period technology and modern issues. While characters gawk at horseless carriages, marvel over microscopes, and think the first snow is the end of the world, Cali faces a rocky mother-daughter relationship, annoying brothers, and what to do when she grows up.

Read Also:

Jane Birdsall's "The Penderwicks" series.

Joelle Stolz's The Shadows of Ghadames.

Margaret Sidney's The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.

"While Irish Eyes are Smiling" -Suzanne Supplee

Young Adult romances can be simpler love stories; this one fits the bill. It takes place in Ireland during a Study Abroad program.

Delk Sinclair decides to go to Ireland instead of hanging around Nashville, TN. She's running away from her debutante ball, step-mother, and memories of her mother's death from illness. While in Ireland, Delk makes friends, meets Pather, a boy who's also lost his mother, and confronts herself and her relationships at home, all while traveling among the beauty that is Ireland.

I was slightly impressed by this book. It's still a "cheap" paperback but Delk's character development was surprising. She is presented as shallow but not mean or dumb. Her growth is believeable, especially since the "terribleness" she attributes to her life is the normal exaggerations of a teenager. All in all, cute!

Read Also:

It turns out I don't read a lot of contemporary YA fiction but an oldie (and I mean the 80's) Tough-Luck Karen by Johanna Hurtwitz is about a girl who has a lot of things going wrong in her life. She'd go crazy if it weren't for her love of cooking.

Linda Crew's Children of the River is about a girl from Cambodia making her way in America.

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami.

"Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant" -Tony Cliff

I came across this book twice before I finally read it. It was a fun, funny, easy read.

Delilah Dirk is an adventurer with skills ranging from sword fighting to dancing to piloting in situations ranging from polite society to the jungle to tough cities. She takes up with Selim, a Turkish Lieutenant with a taste (and nose) for tea, accidentally in Constantinople. They face a lot together, come to understand each other, and even sacrifice for each other until they stumble upon a friendship they built. It's a happy story considering all the bloodshed...

Read Also:

Shannon Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel Calamity Jack are very similar in attitude, writing style, and even artwork. Very funny and exciting!

The "Asterix" series by Iscenko & Goscinny.

Stewart Ross wrote a set of 4 Beginner Reader graphic novels set during Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, and China. Although, they are not funny.

"The Crochet Answer Book" -Edie Eckman

I don't usually read entire books that can be considered reference books. Like encyclopedias, you look up what you need, not read from cover to cover. In this case, I read the entire book. I've taken up crocheting again and this time, I'm going wild! I read this to see what tips I could pick up to ease, enhance, and smooth out my crocheting. None of it was a revelation, but there were useful hints throughout.

The format is broken into sections (Yarn, Finishing, Stitching, etc.) and it's treated like a Q&A.

The most helpful section was on blocking and starching which I'd never thought about though I knew I needed to do something similar for some of my projects. The cleverest tip is using a latch hook to weave in the tail ends of the yarn. The funniest tip was [Q: What's the difference between "1 sc" and "sc 1." A: Nothing, they're the same.]

Read Also:

Some of my favorite crochet books are 75 Birds, Butterflies, and Little Beasts to Knit & Crochet by Lesley Stanfield and other similar titled books by her.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amigurumi by June Gilbank was inciteful for stuffed projects.

Basic Crochet Stitches by Erika Knight. Okay, I haven't read this one yet, but it's in the queue!