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.

The Hinky Pink - Megan McDonald

Illustrated by Brian Floca
Published 2008
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Pumpkin

Similes and metaphors: "Her stitches were straight as a new set of teeth. Her French knots were perfect roses. Her lace, why it was as wispy as any spider web in the kingdom." Alliteration and elipses: "If only she could embroider silk and satin, touch velvet and voile..." Great vocabulary: "Holy ratatouille!" "Poodle curls as plain as pennoni." Great verbs: loomed, creaked, snatched, peered,

This is a terrific folk tale, based on another but twisted and turned and recreated by Megan McDonald. There are a couple of places that I thought there was something missing, even going so far as to see if two pages were stuck together. Other than that, it was good storytelling. She might have even gone a little overboard with the figurative language, so this would be a great teaching tool for many reasongs.

Anabel, a young seamstress who dreams of creating and stitchin a ball gown, is called to the home of a princess and given one week to do so. They give her a beautiful tower room in which to live and sew, but she finds she cannot sleep. Something is pinching her and stealing her covers all night long. She ingeniously figures out how to solve this problem just before it's too late and she'll not finish the beautiful gown she's making. But, as we know will happen, all comes out perfectly, tra la!

Lots of text, very cute illustrations, good story. This works together well. I'd love to read it to kids and ask them to watch for places that it needs a few more details to get from one point to the next! Transitions, organization.....

First Line/s: 'Back when mirrors could talk and princes were frogs, there lived a girl in Old Italy named Anabel. Alas, not Anabella."