Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

A friendly, uplifting children’s book about working together and looking out for each other

Peter the Pelican is having a great day. The weather is nice. The flying is good. The friends are… Wait.

Has anybody seen Kevin the Crab? Sammy the Sea Bass is wondering. So is Willie the Whale. So is Magnolia the Mermaid, Sherri the Shrimp, Octavius the Octopus, and a whole lot of other alliterative sea creatures.

In the last book, Sherri the Shrimp was the hero. A tiny friend on a brave adventure to start believing in herself. This time, it takes the whole gang to travel the ocean and save Kevin from the (kinda) scary situation. Kevin is stuck in a net, far off at the shipwreck in Pirate’s Cove. Sherri’s muscles aren’t enough this time, but lucky for all of them, they come together.

This series, just two books long, is already looking like a great addition to bedtime storytelling. The characters are fleshed out and funny to say and remember, and they carry this uplifting tone that guide the narrative. The alliterative characters all look out for each other, creating a real sense of community and friendship. Magnolia and the Gang Save the Day is a meaningful story that teaches you to work together with your friends to accomplish huge feats. It’s not Magnolia’s story exactly—it’s everyone’s.

Octavius the Octopus steals the show more than anyone in this story. He’s long and strong and wiggly and able to squeeze into tight spaces. If your kid doesn’t already love octopuses, they’re about to start. Willie the Whale is another standout. The ocean is a big place, but large creatures like whales can move across it quick enough to save the day. He’s a pretty sturdy anchor for their rescue operation too.

The illustrations of Magnolia the Mermaid… are light and buoyant and, despite the apparent danger Kevin is in, never set too scary a tone. Where book one used a purposefully scratchy, messy look, this one fits more uniformly into the illustrations on your Disney+ home screen. Nemo lovers will have a lot more friends after finding this series.

The language is smooth and playful, always easy to read. It sounds fun and playful without rhyming, acting as a good in-between pick for your kid who’s just getting out of board books. It’s a story you’ve probably heard before in multiple variations, so it’s helpful that the language is fun and the characters are easy to remember for your own storytelling.

Magnolia the Mermaid and the Gang Save the Day give you more of what you loved in the first book in the series while teaching a new lesson: work together with your friends to make the dream work. This is a great, ocean-exploring read-aloud pick for both librarians and parents.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of Magnolia and the Gang Save the Day by George J. Linsenmeyer, III! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Erin Britton

A heartfelt story about the need for empathy and understanding

Salty Tears, written by Jaime Testaiuti and illustrated by Nadia Ronquillo, is a meaningful story about recognizing the similarities among people rather than focusing solely on the differences.

Siblings Ari and Mo are looking forward to going on holiday with their parents. However, Ari is “feeling nervous because she would be sitting next to the new boy joining her class when they returned.” Despite the excitement, her nervousness seems to permeate the family’s trip, with both Ari and Mo being beset with concerns and fears about the new people they meet.

For example, when they decide to visit a museum, after having fun playing in a treehouse and making ice cream sundaes, Mo exclaims “Look at those scary people in sheets!” And Ari shares his fear: “You can only see their eyes!” Fortunately, their mother quells their fear by explaining that the women are wearing hijabs for religious and cultural reasons.

Yet later, when the family go to a pizzeria, Ari and Mo notice “a man next to them who looked very old but was as short as they were!” They wonder aloud what has caused the man to shrink and feel sad that he can barely reach the counter. This time, their mother explains that the man was born that way.

Ari and Mo have many such encounters during their holiday, including meeting a young girl with no legs, a boy who wears a medical device to monitor his diabetes, a woman with no hair, and a family wearing another kind of religious garb. Each time they question a person’s visible difference, their parents stress that the person is “just like us and cries salty tears.”

Salty Tears uses Ari and Mo’s experiences during their trip to educate young readers about the importance of acceptance and realizing that all people have differences and similarities. It would have been helpful if their parents had pointed out that it is rude to comment on a person’s appearance, but the message of the story is still thoughtful.

Ari and Mo have lived a rather sheltered life prior to their holiday—most young children will have met people with disabilities, differences, and religious affiliations before—but Jaime Testaiuti does a good job of explaining that their fears come from newness, not necessarily because they are scary. This is a useful lesson for youngsters in a story like this.

As their parents explain the likely reasons for their new friends’ visible differences, Ari and Mo gain a better understanding of the wide variety of people in the world, and Ari is able to apply this when she returns to school. Testaiuti highlights how everyone has fears and how it is important to learn and show kindness in order to overcome them.

Some of the explanations that the parents provide, particularly concerning chemotherapy and the treatment for diabetes, cause some pages of Salty Tears to feature a fair bit of text and more complex vocabulary than picture books generally do.

The accompanying illustrations help to ensure that youngsters’ attention does not wander, however, with Nadia Ronquillo’s bright and appealing art showing what Ari and Mo initially perceive and then how their perspective changes as they learn more about people. The vibrant pictures really capture the imagination and will likely prompt interesting discussions.

Salty Tears is a sincere and charmingly illustrated story about the dangers of pre-judgement and allowing fear to take hold before knowing the truth about a situation. As Ari and Mo learn more about the importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion, young readers will also learn the same valuable lessons.

Thank you for reading Erin Britton’s book review of Salty Tears by Jaime Testaiuti! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

Science meets whimsy in this enchanting, adventurous children’s picture book.

Maddy loves science. Clouds, planets, stars. More than anything, she loves the moon. She knows all of its phases. How it waxes and wanes, rises with the night and falls with the day. The fingernail moon catches her imagination most of all. A mere sliver of a moon, hanging in the night-time sky, seeming close enough to ride on.

Maddy knows that it isn’t. She knows that it is thousands of miles away. Unreachable. Until one day, the fingernail moon appears outside her window, larger than life and close enough to touch. It has heard all the things Maddy has said about it, and it wants to meet the little girl who loves it so much. Even better, the fingernail moon wants to go on an adventure!

The FingerNail Moon is a picture book with in-depth, whimsical ideas that would suit children three and older with more developed attention spans. It’s a wonderful introduction for children into the magic of science. Curious kids will love to learn about the phases of the moon, the different types of clouds, and the planets in our solar system as they explore with Maddy. This is the perfect book to encourage aspiring little scientists to explore and question the world around them in a fun, engaging way.

As with all picture books, the writing only makes up a fraction of the whole. The illustrations are something that the tale hangs on. Luckily, in The FingerNail Moon they fit perfectly with the story. At the start, the writing holds its own space, but as the book progresses, the illustrations begin washing over the writing as though, like Maddy, the book itself cannot contain its enchantment with the Universe, stars, galaxies, and planets. The Universe is rendered in watercolor-like pastels, less stark and solid than the characters in the story. It’s a lovely way to show the deep contrast between the magic of the galaxy and the solidity of Maddy and her friends.

Rather than treating science as a clinical, abstract subject, this book leans into the irresistible charm of seeing the world through the eyes of someone with boundless curiosity and excitement. Making science an adventure rather than a chore. For the kids who have outgrown the Baby University series, this is a great book to move on to.

Thank you for reading Joelene Pynnonen’s book review of The FingerNail Moon by Darrell Spencer and Greg McKenzie! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

Move over, Brave Little Toaster! There’s a Roomba coming through.

Robbie is a Roomba. He’s got a great house and great people, and he feels appreciated for the cleaning he does. It doesn’t hurt that he absolutely loves doing it either.

But there’s a whole world out there. Not to clean—but to explore.

Robbie the Robot Vacuum and His Big Adventure follows Robbie as he ventures out of his front door. And what does he see there? A collection of kids’ favorite things: playgrounds, ducks, and even a great big excavator. It’s a story about adventure, seeing new things, and meeting new people, but it also makes sure that kids know that it’s easy to get distracted when you’re out there and that you’ve got to “pay more attention when doing things [you’ve] never tried.”

It’s a learning lesson, sure, but it never loses track of its sole purpose: showing kids through lovable characters and illustrations that there’s a world out there that can be truly wonderful. The lesson about paying attention is only one page, and yet it covers so much ground. It tells little people that adventures are great and you should take them (when your parents tell you that you can of course), but that you should always be aware of your surroundings.

The Brave Little Toaster was one of my favorite children’s stories when I was growing up, and so much of it was due to personification of the character. I mean, a toaster? A metal appliance brought to life? This time, it’s a robot vacuum! An acting, reacting, moving, regularly present object in so many kids’ living rooms. It may already be fun for them to talk or play with theirs at home, and this book gives him such a fun, brave personality that it could bring even more liveliness and creativity into their lives. If there’s a Roomba and a toddler in your house, this is an awesome book for you.

The rhymes are smooth and easy to read aloud, so it’s a good fit for your littlest ones. Some of the rhymes might be a little oversimplified, but that also adds to the simplicity with which parents can read it. The illustrations are vibrant and alive and match the tone of the book precisely. There are things to giggle at on the page, like the duck getting scared at the pond, and details for kids to pay attention to, like the color change in the sky at sunset.

And of course, Robbie must return home at the end of it. He can’t wait to get back to cleaning and helping out his appreciative family. This book would be a stellar addition to both libraries and your bookshelf at home, especially if you’ve got a Roomba zooming around your kids’ mountain of blocks at home.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of Robbie the Robot Vacuum and His Big Adventure by Sara Biggs! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

A heartfelt children’s story that sings

“‘Howdy mate and how do you do? I’m from Australia and my name’s Magpoo.”

Magpoo the magpie doesn’t quite fit in with the other magpies. Not only are they frustrated that he’s always singing at the top of his lungs, but they won’t even acknowledge his name of Magpoo. They tell him he’s got no sense and that he should quiet down. But Magpoo is loud and proud. He doesn’t care: he’ll sing as he swings, sing as he flies, and sing with his mouth full no matter what they say.

Magpoo is like the kid who doesn’t feel seen but wants to be heard. He wants to be loud and play, and it doesn’t matter how many times you tell him to be quiet, his song is begging to be sung—and he’ll sing it.

The message behind this loud, sing-song kids’ book is its best feature. Kids are not always accepted for being their true, loud selves, and they’re always the ones getting in trouble in school or by parents. But who are we to silence the impact of their voice? I have met enough loud kids in my day—and have even been one at a few points in my life—so it’s such a treasure to find an inviting, unapologetic story like this one. We don’t try to teach Magpoo a lesson. We tell him that he’s unique and special, even if everyone else can’t see it yet. It can be difficult to capture bullying in a kid’s book without introducing cruel behaviors, but this bullying doesn’t take center stage: we focus on the main character more than on the meanness of his peers, and it works.

Magpoo the Magpie is a blast to read aloud too. Not only are the rhymes always smooth and effortless, but each page comes with its own silly singing sounds. I’d have a hard time imagining a single kid who doesn’t like hearing their parents chanting as Magpoo does. It says: If your parent can be silly and loud, maybe you can be too.

The illustrations pair well with this simple story. There are only a handful of words on each page, and there are only ever magpies in the picture. But each illustration comes with its own flair so that it doesn’t feel repetitive and always offers your little one something new to look at. The birds appear emotive and filled with personality, especially my dear old Magpoo.

Sure, Magpoo might be the obnoxious one of the bunch, but the book reminds us that this doesn’t mean he’s simple-minded or oblivious. It acknowledges that he’s smart and has a big heart, offering a reminder to the kids always getting in trouble for being themselves that it doesn’t mean they’re not smart but that they are just uniquely them.

Magpoo the Magpie is a fun book—a quick read that your child will be happy to revisit, especially if they like making fun, loud sounds like the lovable Magpoo.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of Magpoo the Magpie by Soni Laugesen! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Jaylynn Korrell

A charming story about sisterhood, friendship, and two very determined dogs

Even the bravest of dogs can be scared sometimes. Just ask Sydney, a Labrador Retriever who, despite the comfort of her home and her loving human family, struggles with being left alone—especially during storms and bad weather. 

To remedy this situation, her family adopts a new puppy sister to keep Sydney company. But things go awry after her arrival, and it forces Sydney to be the bravest she’s ever been. 

In Sydney, Bean, and the Missing Gloves, Janice E. Collins delves into fear, sisterhood, and the power of friendship—a touching little story that dog-loving children are going to adore.

It feels like there are never children’s books about female dogs! Boys, boys, boys—I’m tired of it! This one isn’t just about one girl dog though—it’s about two!

A sisterhood story for my dog-loving daughters—an excellent match.

Sydney is a strong and independent dog, but she craves stable connection. Bean turns out to be just the dog for her; they balance each other exceptionally well. Bean is young and rambunctious, eager to form a sisterhood. I could have easily read a story that was just them getting to know each other in the backyard, but Collins ups the ante when their human loses an heirloom and suspects the dogs may have nabbed it. 

If I didn’t love Bean already, I fell in love with her even more after seeing how eager she is to find the missing glove. She genuinely wants to make others happy, especially her new family. Her innocence, however, makes her place her trust in an untrustworthy character’s hands and leads her on an adventure she isn’t equipped to succeed in. 

Collins uses this situation to showcase the power of friendship and the strength that comes when you team up with others and work toward a common goal. There are multiple lessons to be learned from this story, but my favorite is about being there for the people (or dogs) around you. Bean and Sydney embody this idea many times, but so do their friends.

Sydney is written with such compassion and apparent love. So many dog owners are all-too familiar with their dog’s fear of intense weather and loud noises. This story will be helpful to kids who have pets with similar issues, as it shows that dogs have feelings similar to those of humans and they deserve to be comforted. 

These heartwarming messages are paired with delightful images of Sydney, Bean, and their friends from around the neighborhood. Their expressive faces really bring the story to life and show how much they care for each other and their family. 

Sydney, Bean, and the Missing Gloves will be a favorite for dog-loving children. 

Thank you for reading Jaylynn Korrell’s book review of Sydney, Bean and the Missing Gloves by Janice E. Collins! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

A creative adventure about your favorite plucky punctuation marks

Exclamation point is fed up! Period is over it. Comma is, you guessed it, misused and under-appreciated. And how is question mark feeling? Does anyone even care?

After falling out of a book in the lighthouse library, this punctuation team decides that they need a vacation. So exclamation point places his finger on a random spot on the map—and lucky for them, it’s the Island of Fun. 

But unlucky for them, sailing comes with about as many problems as you could imagine for a small group of grammar heroes. On their paper sailboat, the team sets across the sea only to lose one of their own in a giant wave. They even get knocked around by a giant shark. But eventually, the team washes ashore. 

They’re glad to be here, but when they meet Pilcrow, an outdated punctuation mark from the time period when we needed to show a paragraph break, they learn that they’ve arrived at the Island of Chaos, a place where animal-like creatures are spouting sentences and questions without any punctuation. It’s chaotic to say the least.

They might be on vacation, but it’s time to get to work.

Punctuation to the Rescue is a wonderfully cute educational story with sparkling illustrations. Illustrator Sara Not really brings these characters to life with visible personalities, but it’s author Cheryl Olsten who capitalizes on the little things, like the way the punctuation marks always use their own punctuation in their dialogue. When Exclamation Point talks, he shouts! When Comma says something, he takes an extra pause. This small detail is among my favorites of the execution of this story.

The sailing adventure is also a blast. With the help of Sara Not’s colorful illustrations, the waves on the sea provide an eye-full of entertaining things to look at. The waves are ginormous and swirling. Even when they get to the Island of Chaos, the characters are drawn with such personality that you can’t help but love their plucky selves.

The story has a strong educational base where kids can definitely gain knowledge about the proper use of punctuation. I’m glad the punctuation marks get to put their powers to use and that the characters are rewarded with love and appreciation—it fits since the punctuation marks feel under-appreciated at the beginning of the story—but the message sometimes gets lost in the events that happen, like when Period spills overboard, when the shark attacks, and when the animals on the Island of Chaos ask for ice cream with sprinkles. 

Kids who are just starting to learn about punctuation marks will get the most out of this educational story. They’ll learn first-hand how important it is to un-jumble a series of words and use proper punctuation, and they’ll do it with some fun characters and lively illustrations by their side.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of Punctuation to the Rescue by Cheryl Olsten! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

A valuable, community-driven story about achieving calmness and sleep for kids

Leo might be in third grade, but he’s suffering from something so many people—old and young, you and me—struggle with: a lack of sleep due to an overactive mind. There are so many things to do tomorrow. How can we possibly stop thinking and sleep?

For Leo, many of his thoughts are related to school, sports, and his new favorite club: The Kids Can Club. Gathering in his backyard treehouse, he and a few of his friends eat snacks and plan missions to help those who need it in their community. Sometimes that means helping new kids at school feel welcome, and others they’re helping an adult tend to her garden. This is the kind of club you wish your kid would get into.

When Leo starts falling asleep in class and on the goalpost on the soccer field, he knows it’s time to enlist the help of his friends. It turns out—Iris, another girl in the club, has struggled with sleep too. But her mom had an excellent strategy for helping her calm down and get some rest. Would he like to try it? 

Soon, Leo and the gang gather at Iris’s house to learn from their mom and, hopefully, make a change for the better.

This is one of those rare kids’ books that’s infused with self-help tips while it tells an interesting story of a lovable kid. Iris’s solution is what some grown-ups might call “Progressive Muscle Relaxation,” but to Iris, it’s “Scrunch Up Five—Unscrunch.” 

At Iris’s house, the kids lie down and focus on tightening muscles in their body for five seconds, breathing, and then releasing. It’s a powerful strategy that is easy to replicate and see the benefits of. That much is clear the moment Leo falls asleep right there on Iris’s floor.

The Scrunch-Up exercise is outlined in detail and is given multiple pages of enactment. By mirroring the time and breathwork required to do it, the book teaches kids to slow down and give the practice its due time just while reading the book. Parents, guardians, and teachers will be encouraged to mimic the physical activities with their little ones, the ultimate teaching moment to practice what you preach. Parents are going to be glad to have a tool like this at their disposal. 

One potential downfall to this, too, is that the action gets a little repetitive on the page. We follow through on multiple scrunch & unscrunch exercises, which means we read a lot of the same stuff. Since it’s a reading experience that’s best combined with the physical activity itself, this makes sense, but it does result in a few extra pages than is needed to tell the story.

Sleep is such an incredibly important facet to our mental and physical health, and that goes double for kids. If your child is clearly having a hard time sleeping, this could be the answer you’re looking for. And since it’s got such a community-driven message, you’ll be doubling up on its usage—teaching sleep strategies and encouraging helping others.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of Leo Gets His Nighttime ZZZs by Christine Corrigan Mendez and Jen Monika McCurdy! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

A touching fable with lovable characters, good advice, and the power to endure

Wally isn’t invited to play with the others at the playground. Some call him a slow-poke; they don’t pick him for the soccer team. And on the way home from his new school, he sits alone on the bus.

“I wish I were special.”

Sitting under a tree outside of his house, he makes a wish that he could be special enough to be included. And special this story becomes.

There appears the Tailor, an elfish creature with a funny hat who provides the tails for all the animals on the planet. Would Wally want one? Is that the special he was looking for?

A snake, coiling down from a tree branch, wouldn’t recommend getting help from The Tailor. “Look what he did to me. I’m nothing but tail.” But with the way Wally’s life has been going, he’s at least willing to try. A monkey tail is great, fun, but the other kids will think it’s unfair. A lion’s tail is impressive, sweeping, but you can’t use your hands or your tail in soccer. Last but not least, maybe a scary alligator tail is best, so no kids pull it. 

In the end, no tail seems right. Snake knows the feeling, starting to weep about his tail-like existence. But maybe it’ll be all right for all of them. Maybe Wally has found his tail after all, a slithery little best friend to show off at school.

A Tail Tale by Christine Kessides reads like your favorite childhood fable growing up. Sure it’s about a mythical creature and a talking snake, but it’s a story about making do with what you have, being creative, sticking together, and overcoming bullying and exclusion. 

This is a story with a big heart and a big mind. It’s enjoyable on the story-level—I’d be surprised if your kid doesn’t remember the lovable elfish Tailor for a long time—but it also has Wally transforming from bullied to confident helper for the down-and-out snake, providing real life advice that he’s had to learn the hard way. 

What should you do when you’re getting bullied? This book teaches the art of looking your bullies in the eye, telling them that you don’t like it, and, if needed, getting an adult involved. I love that we flip the script on Wally without him even knowing it. He doesn’t know he’s learned from the situation until he has the snake to help and take care of. We leave proud of Wally and feeling like it’d be a blessing if our kid acted like Wally recommends in the book.

I couldn’t get out of here without talking about the fun addition of The Tailor. Welcome to the lexicon of forever-memorable fable characters like leprechauns or Rumplestiltskin, Tailor! This friendly elfish character pops up in a funny outfit and feathers peaking out of his pockets, ready to provide Wally a humorous solution that will teach him a lesson in the end. I kept waiting for The Tailor to turn out tricky in some way, but he really is here to help—even if helping doesn’t look as magical as it first appears.

A Tail Tale is a welcome addition to fable canon. Your kids are going to love it, and you are too if you’ve been looking for a good excuse to talk about bullying and inclusion on the playground.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of A Tail Tale by Christine Kessides! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

The Bunch is back! And more wholesome than ever!

Sipho, Monica, Jabu, and Jacob get to write their names in book one. It’s a sweet story about sad circumstances: a group of orphans in the countryside are bullied but claim their identity with the simple, powerful act of writing their names in the dirt. That book is wholesome, and this one, the third in the series, comes with the same soft heart.

In book two, the Bunch does something empowering, something to fight back against injustice and gain strength. And now, in The Bundu Bunch Get a Surprise, they’re discovering something to have of their own: an empty field, suitable for a makeshift, private classroom. This turns out to be another meaningful story about appreciating something as simple as an open field.

The orphans’ guardian, Aiyasha, is a wonderful teacher. She’s already taught them how to write using sticks and dirt, but now she’s stepping her game up even more. First, they are learning letters from an ABC book day after day. Then, despite not having any money, she starts coming with supplies: different books, pencils, and paper. The feeling of elation coming from these kids is real the moment they find out they can have their own pencil. This is a wonderful book to read to children to help them see what appreciation looks like first-hand.

The Bundu Bunch series has always featured the topic of bullying, especially from a boy their age named Samu. He calls them hurtful names in both books, and they constantly plan to evade him since he’s so relentless. He is even the victim of the bunch’s triumph in book 2; the kids frame him for stealing sticky buns. 

This is his story too. Something clicks for Samu when the goodhearted Bundu Bunch save him from cobras. The full series then becomes a story of redemption, where Samu is flipping the script on us. It’s great to see his character come full-circle like this, and readers of the full series will be rewarded with that.

Some new readers to the series could stumble over things like transitions and characters. Recollection of the previous books’ storylines (like the cave pool and Samu’s revenge plot) would be helpful. It would be a smart move to refresh your child on the previous books prior to cracking open book three. Luckily, those books are still very good. This series has done so many things well.

More than anything, I love that The Bundu Bunch Get a Surprise allows us to spend more time in this heartwarming feeling. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of reading about these resilient kids finding happiness and resources in small places.

Thank you for reading Toni Woodruff’s book review of The Bundu Bunch Get a Surprise by Allan Low! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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