Favorite September Reads Part 2

The Beauty of the Beast by Jack Prelutsky and Meilo So (Juvenile Nonfiction)

My heart! Prelutsky's combination of obscure and familiar poems written by a wide variety of poets married with So's illustrations are the perfect match. I enjoyed this book of poetry as much as their other collaboration, The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury, and am sad there isn't another. It's tough to choose a favorite poem so I'll pick my favorite short poem, written by Moritake: 

"Fallen petals rise back to the branch - I watch: oh...butterflies!" 

One-Handed Catch by  Mary Jane Auch (Juvenile Fiction)

I admired Norm's determination and attitude following an accident at this family's store that takes his left hand. He doesn't give up on his baseball dreams and re-learns how to play his favorite sport again. His mother makes sure nobody gives Norm preferential treatment and puts Norm to work doing chores and helping out at his family's store the day after he returns home from the hospital. Norm's classmates and friends have mixed reactions, but Norm takes any positivity and encouragement they give and tosses the negativity away. Norm also discovers a passion for art in the year following his accident, which I thought was a nice touch. At the end of this book Auch writes a little note about how this story is based loosely on a childhood accident that left her husband with one hand.

Tuck Me In! by Dean Hacohen & Sherry Scharschmidt (Picture Book)

This book has blankie flaps! The reader gets to tuck in all the animals with their beautiful blankies. There is one animal that doesn't have a bellybutton. Who is it?

Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton (Board Book)

With a title like this, it's hard not to fall in love with this board book before the cover is even flipped open. The expressions on the hippos' faces are dynamite and sure to make anyone smile. It begins with one lonely hippo, who decides to have a party. Hippos began arriving in unusual ways - some dressed as wait staff, one wearing fur. Seven even arrive in a sack, which is definitely a sack I would want to be around when it was opened. The party goes on all night, and when it's over the countdown begins. So there's counting forwards and backwards, which is always a heart-melting moment for me if it's done right. This is definitely done the right way. The hippos leave in groups again, but in different kinds of groups, so it's apparent that friendships were formed (with the exception of the pioneer hippos, who leave behind six distressed hippos), and you can have exciting discussions with whoever you're reading this with about adding these new groups of numbers. For example, if the seven pioneer hippos had found room in their wagon for the six hippos they left behind, how many hippos would be moving west? At the end, there's that sad, lonely hippo missing all his friends (sounds like an extrovert problem), but more importantly, clever Boynton not only executes a brilliant rhyme, but also demonstrates her mad math skills and knows exactly how many friends the lonely hippo is missing. It's pretty much everything a person could ever hope for in a book.