Picture Book - If I Built a School by Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author

2019 Dial Book for Young Readers

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.24 - 413 ratings 

My rating:  5
Endpapers:grenn with white outline drawing of OTHER crazy school ideas - lots of fun to look at!

1^st line/s:  "Jack, on the playground, said to Miss Jane,
This school is OK, but it's pitifully plain.
The builders who built this I think should be banned.
It's nothing at all like the school I have planned."

My comments: I love Chris VanDusen!  I love his illustrations, his ideas, and his very clever rhyming.

Goodreads: In this exuberant companion to If I Built a Car, a boy fantasizes about his dream school--from classroom to cafeteria to library to playground.
     My school will amaze you. My school will astound.
     By far the most fabulous school to be found!
     Perfectly planned and impeccably clean.
     On a scale, 1 to 10, it's more like 15!
     And learning is fun in a place that's fun, too.
                 If Jack built a school, there would be hover desks and pop-up textbooks, skydiving wind tunnels and a trampoline basketball court in the gym, a robo-chef to serve lunch in the cafeteria, field trips to Mars, and a whole lot more. The inventive boy who described his ideal car and house in previous books is dreaming even bigger this time.

Picture Book - Ruby's Birds by Mya Thompson

Illustrated by Claudia Davila

2019 Cornell Lab Publishing Group

HC $16.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.52 - 63 ratings

My rating:  3
Endpapers: white with puffy clouds

1^st line/s:  "School's out.  Mom and Dad are at word.  My brother, Malik, is at soccer practice.  Grandma's at her spot near the window.  Alex keeps her company.  Things are too quiet around here."

My comments: A young girl is introduced to bird-watching in Central park by her neighbor.   There are lots of birds to search for in the illustrations, which are really fun.  The story has a really flat ending, however.  A great writing extension for 4th & 5th graders might be to write a better ending!

Goodreads: Sometimes the most beautiful things in nature can go unnoticed. Meet Ruby, a seven-year-old kid with the energy of the city in which she lives--New York City. She plays the piano--LOUDLY. She romps around the apartment--LOUDLY. And she sings songs she makes up herself--LOUDLY!
          So, when her downstairs neighbor Eva takes her on a nature walk through Central Park, Ruby has to learn how to slow down, step carefully, and be quiet enough to see and hear the amazing birds that are everywhere around her.
          From author Mya Thompson and illustrator Claudia D�vila comes a delightful story of a brand-new bird watcher just spreading her wings.

PICTURE BOOK - If I Had a Gryphon by Vikki Vansickle

Illustrated by Cale Atkinson

2016, Tundra Books

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.35 (399 ratings)

My rating: 4

Endpapers:  Peach, with tiny mythical figure silhouettes in orange

Illustrations: bright & fun, a bit cartoony and fun

1^st line/s:  "Last week I got a hamster.
                    My first and only pet.
                    He mostly eats and sleeps and hides
                    And gets his shavings wet."

My comments:  Told in abcb quatrains, this adorable picture book introduces all sorts of mythical and fantastical creatures (unicorn, hippogriff, sasquatch, gryphon, kraken, dragon, jackalope, phoenix, manticore, harpies, chupacabra, fairies, kelpies, basilisk, mermaid, sprites, chimera...)  in a simple and fun way.  A great extension for older kids:  make a glossary or afterword for the book using others as models.

Goodreads:  Sam just got a hamster for a pet. She's not really impressed. The hamster isn't very exciting--he mostly eats and sleeps and gets his shavings wet. BORING!
     After reading a book about mythological creatures, Sam gets some ideas for more exciting pets. But she soon realizes that taking care of these magical beasts might not be as wonderful as she though. Unicorns are shy, gryphons scare the dogs at the dog park and having a fire extinguisher handy at all times makes dragons seem like an awful lot of work. 
     Maybe the hamster really is the best pet for her. A nice, safe pet... right?

PICTURE BOOK - Someday by Eileen Spinelli

Illustrated by Rosie Winstead

2007 Dial Books for Young Readers

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.14

My rating: 5

Endpapers: pale lime green splashed with stars of different sizes

My comments:  Love this book!  Love Eileen Spinelli!  Great ideas...great details....great writing prompt.

Someday

I am going to be

a great artist.

I will wear a blue smock.

I will carry my paints

to the beach

to paint the sea.

A very rich person

will offer to buy my painting

for two million dollars.

But I will smile.

And I will say:  “I’m sorry,

this painting is not for sale.

It is a gift for my art teacher.”

Someday…

A girl fantasizes things that will happen to her “someday,” then shows the current happening that prompted each thought.  There are 6 (including the one above):  

Someday I will make friends with a dolphin.’Someday I will dig for dinosaur bones.

Someday I will be invited to the White House to have lunch with the president.

Someday I will be an animal scientist.

Someday I am going to be a gymnast in the Olympics.

Someday I will spend the night in Egypt.

(ending with Tonight I’m sleeping on the bottom bunk with Roger, who is afraid of monsters and the dark.)

Goodreads:  It’s hard to be content with the present moment when you are little. The future has infinitely more possibilities!

Here, the prolific and poetic Eileen Spinelli offers us the opportunity to truly enter the mind and heart of a little girl whose dreams reach well beyond today. With Spinelli’s gift for capturing the authentic experience of a child and Rosie Winstead’s utterly accessible and adorable artwork, this is sure to be a book that will inspire kids to think about what their own plans are for someday.