Submitted by Ms. Allana!
My Friend, the Starfinder by George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Everyone knows, or has known, an elderly person, like an old Uncle, or maybe a friendly and wise old neighbor. In this bedazzling and whimsical story, a little girl listens to the stories her old neighbor tells her. In particular, the story about him finding a falling star is most special to her. I enjoy the layout and flow of this book. Although the illustrations are not sharp with detail, they are right for this story, and one simple but meaningful line on each page is appealing to the littlest ears and eyes. See this book listed in our catalog
Outer Space
Moonpowder
Submitted by Allana from Leonardtown!
Moonpowder by John Rocco. Eli Treebuckle likes to fix things, and as we quickly find out he also fancies himself an inventor. He has just fixed the radio, and is listening to it when his mother tells him it’s time for bed. “Sweet dreams” she tells him, however, Eli hasn’t had “sweet” dreams for months. His dreams are more like nightmares. Mr. Moon pays him a visit that night and takes him on a strange and wonderful adventure to the Moonpowder factory. Mr Moon tells Eli that moonpowder is a “magical marvel, a masterful miracle, a mystical masterpiece……”
Moonpowder, it turns out, is the essence that makes sweet dreams. So, Mr. Moon flies Eli off to the factory where his fixing services are required, and he flies him in a life size helio-rocket copter, the very thing that Eli himself has designed and is in the process of building! While at the factory, Eli has a nightmarish episode inside Mother Nature’s closet. This is a beautifully written and illustrated story with shades of Roald Dahl.
Ron’s Big Mission
Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden, and illustrated by Don Tate, is a truly inspirational story. Ron McNair loved to go the library and look through books about airplanes and space. But he couldn’t check them out and take them home, because he was black, and this story takes place in the south during the time of segregation. Only white people could have a library card, and Ron thought this was unfair. One day he had enough. In protest of the unfair rules, he climbed up on the library’s front desk and refused to come down. They called the police! They called his mom! Finally the librarian gives him a card and Ron takes his books home. And Ron grew up to be an astronaut! When he tragically died in the Challenger accident, they dedicated his childhood hometown library to his memory.
Alien Al
Alien Al is from the Funny Faces line of children’s books, with interactive features. Each of the pages have tactile elements, and introduce us to a new alien friend. Izzy is an interplanetary explorer with googly eyes and a furry green mouth! Zak and Jak visit the White House for fun and take a picture of their rough pink polka dots! Gaz is visiting a cousin on Mars in his shiny spaceship, and Beelo is having a birthday party on his parents’ moon base! The last page is the best! At the alien dance, Deejay “shakes and moves, to spacey sounds and future beats, and cosmic disco grooves” which you can hear for yourself when you turn the page!