Moonpowder by John Rocco

Brilliant young Eli Treebuckle, fixer of all things fixable, can't seem to escape his reoccuring nightmare until one night when the moon visits. They go on a journey to the Moonpowder factory where Eli is asked to discover the cause of the factory's malfunction. He finds that the key ingredient in making Moonpowder has been completely depleted! Will Eli be able to help the factory produce sweet dreams again?

Moonpowder by John Rocco is a fun, creative story. The beautiful illustrations are the real strength in this book--they are vivid, colorful, imaginative, and have loads of interesting and fun details. I especially liked that the moon man reminded me of a round lumpy mound of cheese and that Eli wears footie pajama pants! The story is a little disjointed in places but the adventure aspect combined with the great pictures will keep children interested.

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Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

Review: Super Boba Cafe

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Plain Kate

Plain Kate by Erin Bow Scholastic, 2010. 314 pgs. Fiction Katerina Svetlana is named after her mother, who died giving birth. Her father, Piotr the woodcarver, calls her plain Kate and she is soon known as Plain Kate, after the butcher's witticism, because she is "plain as a stick." But her father calls her Kate, my star. Piotr teaches his daughter to carve and she is on her way to becoming a master when her father dies of a strange sleeping sickness that plagues her town and the country round about. In a magical land, Kate has no magic but her skill. Still, she is so good her neighbors think her a witch and drive her away, but not before a real witch comes along and she trades him her shadow for the promise that she won't have to travel alone. He gives her a talking cat. Kate falls in with gypsies who also find reason to hurt and abandon her and she is rescued by the witch who takes her upriver in a terrible quest to avenge his dead sister and bring her back from...

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