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Mariam Gates, author of Good Morning Yoga, selected these five family favorites.

Cammie McGovern is the author of the adult novels Neighborhood Watch, Eye Contact and The Art of Seeing. She was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and received the Nelson Algren Award in short fiction. She is one of the founders of Whole Children, a resource center that runs after-school classes and programs for children with special needs. Say What You Will is her first book for young adults.

Porkenstein
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Illustrator: David Jarvis
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Blue Sky Press (September 1, 2002)
ISBN-10: 059062380X
ISBN-13: 978-0590623803

"Dr. Smart Pig was a famous inventor, but he didn't have any friends..."

This is a Halloween book that can be enjoyed all year long. Most kids are fascinated with The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf. So if you've read The Three Little Pigs a million times and need a bit of a change, then this is the book for you. You'll be happy to have a little variety in your life, and your young reader will be happy to still be hearing about the Big Bad Wolf.

The story begins with Dr. Pig who feels alone ever since the Big Bad Wolf ate his two brothers. Then he realizes, he's a famous inventor, so he can invent a friend. He sprints to his lab where he mixes up concoction after concoction. Kids will love the illustrations of his results--a pig fish, a pig bat. He just can't quite seem to get it right until finally, he thinks he's picked all the ingredients and out comes the biggest pig you've ever seen. And he's hungry. News of the giant pig spreads fast (I loved the illustration of the paparazzi snapping photos outside their house window) and the Big Bad Wolf catches a glimpse of the pig on TV. Thinking the pig would be a tasty meal, he heads off to Dr. Pig's house for a feast. In classic Big Bad Wolf style, he disguises himself in a Halloween costume and rings the bell to trick or treat. The giant pig answers the door and after they size each other up, it's the Big Bad Wolf who gets swallowed up by the pig. Nothing like a little payback!

This is a mad-scientist story that stresses the importance of friendship sure to bring laughs.

Dillon, Leo and Diane. 2007. Jazz on a Saturday Night. Blue Sky Press.

A picture book celebrating some of jazz's greatest legends: Miles Davis, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Stanley Clarke, and Ella Fitzgerald. The authors imagined these legends all performing together on stage on a Saturday night...and the crowd finding themselves 'in heaven' with the splendor of it all.

The book has a CD accompanying it. Not full of songs by the original artists, but containing an original song celebrating the book. It also contains a track--nearly thirteen minutes in length that is instructional in nature, meant to serve as an introduction to the genre. Specifically it seeks to introduce each instrument to the reader.

I don't know what it is about this book. I think it is probably me. But I wasn't particularly thrilled--excited--about the book or the CD. Both were okay. (Though I found the CD to be a bit dry and boring. I could see myself falling asleep listening to it if it was 'required' either in or out of class.) The book lacked some of the rhythm that would make it sizzle and pop off the page. For a book about jazz, it just lacked some of the emotions that I've come to expect. (Jazz can be many things--fast, slow, happy, sad, jumping, thumping, soulful, melodic--but it shouldn't be boring.)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews