School for Bandits

School for Bandits by Hannah Shaw
Illustrated by Hannah Shaw
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
2011

     Ralph was very well behaved, with impeccable manners, sweet, and tidy.  Unfortunately for him, that's not what is expected of you when you are a raccoon.  How could he ever become a great raccoon bandit like his Grandpa Cutlass or his Uncle Whiskers? His parents were really worried, so they decided there was only one solution: to send Ralph to Bandit School. With his necktie and peaceful spirit, Ralph didn't fit in at all.  He failed all his classes miserably. He just didn't seem to get the idea, and his teacher Mrs. Mischief scolded him: "Ralph Raccoon! You MUST learn to take things that aren't yours WITHOUT asking.
     At the end of the term, the teacher gave each raccoon a loot bag to fill during the break. Whoever gathered the largest loot, would win the BEST BANDIT IN SCHOOL competition.  Ralph wasn't a bit interested, but when his good deeds around town earn him enough rewards to fill his loot bag, the rest of the raccoons find out that they can learn a thing or two from Ralph.
     School for Bandits is a very witty picture book.  Young readers will love the crazy bandit school and will root for the misunderstood Ralph.  There is plenty of funny details in the illustrations to enjoy during multiple reads. Nice to see a raccoon with a behavior we can stand behind!

Willy

Willy by Geert De Kockere
Illustrated by Carll Cneut
2011

     Willy was an elephant with legs like pillars, a massive body, huge ears, and a tiny "insignificant little" tail with "a ridiculous little brush at the end."  "And still Willy was invited everywhere." His huge ears made him a great listener.  With his huge body he could push children who didn't want to go to school, or cars that stood in the way. With his little brush at the end of his tail, he could draw and write beautifully. He was welcomed everywhere. Sometimes, someone would make a comment mocking his ears or his legs like pillars, but "those remarks where brushed off very quickly" or "overruled."  And then he was comforted by many who loved him.
     At this point in Willy the author talks directly to the reader and the point of the story becomes clear: "So if you have legs like pillars or ears that flap in the wind or if you have a body as big as two [...] then think of him. Think of Willy. HE HAD IT ALL." And still he was loved.
     Willy is an interesting book to share in the elementary classroom and discuss the topic of self-esteem and bullying.  The illustrations by Cneut and the length and style of the text, give the book a feeling more connected with the upper elementary grades.  Great book to show kids to own who they are, just like Willy.

Too Shy for Show and Tell

Too Shy for Show and Tell by Beth Bracken
Illustrated by Jennifer Bell
2011

     Sam was a very quiet little boy who kept to himself at school. "Nobody knew much about him."  He loved trucks, chocolate cake, and dogs, but nobody knew it.  The one thing everybody knew about Sam was that he didn't talk much.  "Sam really didn't like talking in front of people, which is why Sam hated show-and-tell." So when his teacher announced that they would be having one at the end of the week, Sam got scared.  He was so nervous, he felt sick and wanted to stay home. But his mom told him he needes to go school.  Once at school, he tried to get out of it by telling his teacher he'd forgotten to bring something to show.  As he sat on the rug watching his classmates share their items, Sam tried to gather up courage.  And then it's his turn.  He didn't faint or cried, and no one laughed.  Today, everyone in class learned a little bit more about Sam, who's already thinking about his next show-and-tell.
     Too Shy for Show and Tell is a sweet story to share with the pre-k and lower elementary classrooms, as well as with the shy kids at home.  The illustrations by Bell are tender and welcoming (the kids are depicted as zoo animals and Sam is an adorable giraffe wearing a stripped turtle neck).  I got to admit that the book had me at its dedication when it quoted The Smiths: "Shyness is nice, but shyness can stop you" ('from doing all the things in life you'd like to').  So "ask me, ask me, ask me," if I liked it.

Pete the Cat. I Love My White Shoes

Pete the Cat. I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
Illustrated by James Dean
2008

Pete is a cool cat. He was walking down the street wearing his brand new white shoes and singing a song about how much he loved them: "I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes." Then he stepped on large pile of strawberries. His white shoes turned red so, instead of getting upset about it, he changed his song: "I love my red shoes, I love my red shoes, I love my red shoes." Blueberries turn the shoes blue, mud turns them brown, and water makes them white again, but wet. "I love my wet shoes, I love my wet shoes, I love my wet shoes."
Pete the Cat. I Love My White Shoes is a wonderful read aloud. The repetitive text makes it predictable which encourages children to say the words out loud along with the reader. Pet delivers the message that no matter what happens you should keep going and sing along "because it's all good." As you read, you could make up your own song -which my son decided to do- or you could visit the author's site, where you can download the song and read aloud for free. Very cool.

The Ant Bully

The Ant Bully by John Nickle
1999

     Lucas wears a dorky hat and funny glasses.  A lot of kids made fun of him, but Sid was the worse. He bullied Lucas constantly.  Since Lucas couldn't confront the much bigger and stronger Sid, he took it out on the ants.  Lucas uses his water gun to shoot the ants, flooding their colony.  One day, the ants got tired of it and attacked Lucas, pushing him inside their ant hole.  The Ant Queen put him on trial for destroying in seconds what took the ants hours of hard work to build.  He was found guilty and the shrunk him to ant size and made him work in the colony.  Lucas spends his days working with the ants and the Queen asks him one day to steal a human candy as part of his final test.  As Lucas and two other ants are about to steal the candy from his parent's kitchen, his father sees them and he's about to crush them. Just then, Lucas jumps at his father's face so his ant friends can escape.  When he returns to the colony, he's rewarded with going back to his regular size again.  When Sid sees Lucas, he's about to start bullying him again but the ants protect their new friend and Sid ends up shrunk.
      Although the text doesn't flow with ease, the adventure and bullying theme, make it a good read to share in the classroom.  This book was turn into a movie of the same title.

Pigsty

Pigsty by Teague
2007

     Wendell room was a mess. His mother told him to go upstairs and clean his room, that it was "turning into a pigsty." When he gets to his room, he finds a pig in his bed.  Wendell didn't mind the pig at all, and he just picked up a couple of things and shoved them in his closet. His mom came to check on the room and seeing that little to no progress had been made, she said "If you want to live in pigsty, that's up to you."  The next day, when he got from school he found two pigs had now settled in his bedroom.  He figured that as long as there weren't that many pigs, there was enough room to share and now he actually had playmates to hang out and play Monopoly with him.  But as the room got messier, the number of pigs kept increasing and finally, when he sees they've eaten some of his baseball cards and stepped all over his comic books, Wendell's had enough.  He organizes a cleaning crew with the help of all the pigs and leaves his room spotless.  The pigs don't really enjoy the newly cleaned room and say their goodbyes.  Though Wendell will see them again on certain Monopoly nights.
     Pigsty is a fun book to discuss neatness and cleanliness with the kids at home.  The cartoon like illustrations are full of quirky details (I loved the fact that the initial of the first word in the book was spelled using dirty socks) but are also large enough to share during a read aloud.  Cool book for messy kids and neat parents to share.

What a Tantrum! Vaya Rabieta!

What a Tantrum! / Vaya rabieta! by Mireille d'Allance
Illustrated by Mireille d'Allance
Originally published in 2000 in French as Grosse colere
2004

     Roberto has had a bad day.  He has lost his tennis match, broken his racket and is walking inside his house with tons of mud in his shoes.  When his father asks him to take off his tennis shoes, he kicks them off as hard as he can.  And when he finds out there's spinach for dinner, he's had enough! "Are you kidding?"  His father sends him to his room to calm down.  But upstairs, Roberto's anger builds up, until a red monster comes out of his mouth and starts destroying everything in his room. When the red monster ends up breaking one of his favorite toys, Roberto tries to stop it.  While cleaning up the mess the "monster" had done, Roberto realizes he has calmed down and he's ready to go back downstairs to have dinner with his dad.
     The idea of Roberto's anger spilling out and becoming  monster is very interesting.  I can see the story working as a way to approach and talk about anger with younger kids.  The bilingual edition of What a Tantrum! / Vaya rabieta! flows very well.  I find sometimes that bilingual editions are a bit choppy and awkward, but I felt that both English and Spanish versions of the story seemed "natural".  I'm interested in finding other bilingual editions like this one, where the goal is to tell the story in both languages -not to try to teach vocabulary like most bilingual books I've read.