The Prince of Irleand and the Three Magic Stallions

Prince of Ireland and the Three Magic Stallions by Bryce Milligan, illustrated by Preston McDaniels.

This book is about an Irish prince whose mother dies and time passes and the king, his father, marries another woman who bears the king two more sons. Wanting her sons to claim the throne, the queen puts a geis (pronounced gaysh, meaning a kind of magic spell or curse) on him. The geis is that he
cannot "sleep two nights under the same roof nor eat two meals from the same fire until you have brought [the queen] the three magic stallions that the young giant Sean O'Donal keeps at the edge of the western world."

But before he goes, he puts a geis on her...

Can he fulfill his task, and foil the wicked queen?

I liked this book very much because it is a different kind of fairy tale--it's Irish and that makes a nice change. I liked the illustrations a lot.

Nini Here and There

Nini here and there by Anita Lobel (2007) is a very touching book.

It is about a cat whose owners are moving to a new home. She gets zipped up in a black bag, and then falls asleep in it. There she dreams that she is in a hot air balloon, a boat, and a few other things.

When she wakes up, she gets unzipped and let out of the bag. At her new home, there is a field with butterflies, a white dog, and more nice things.

It's a bit like the last book I reviewed, about dreaming and the power of the mind to take you places.

The very last sentence is the most touching of all. But I'm not going to tell you what it is, so you gotta read the book!

Here's a link to it on Amazon:Nini Here and There

Willy the Dreamer

Willy the Dreamer, written and illustrated by Anthony Browne is a very elegant book. It is a about a chimpanzee named Willy (but I don't really think he really is a chimpanzee. Browne has another book about Willy and at the very end of that book there is actually a picture of a chimpanzee mask, and a person walking away, so Willy could be anyone of us, disguised).

In this book, Willy dreams he's a movie star, or a singer, or a sumo wrestler, a ballet dancer, a painter and more. The pictures are funny, in part because of the bananas hidden in them, and in part because of jokes like making the hammerhead shark's head look like a real hammer, and the famous writer part is a chimpanzee/banana Alice in Wonderland.

This is one of my all-time favorites. It has this deep something...I can't put it into words.

Julius, the Baby of the World

Julius, the Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes, is about two opinions that do not meet. A little bit about Kevin Henkes--Kevin Henkes and his award winning books are famous throughout the United States. He's written many books about mice, like Chester's Way, and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? NO! Different author). I, and all my second grade classmates, had to write a book based on Chester's Way. Know what mine is called? Victor's Way! Now, on with the story.

Julius, the Baby of the World, is about Lily, her baby brother, and her parents. The parents think that Julius is the "baby of the world." Lily thinks the opposite. It takes a party for Julius where a cousin insults her brother (using the same words Lily had been using) to drive Lily to loving Julius. Because after all, he is her brother.

I recommend this book for ages four through seven, and the children's lucky parents. It is funny, smart, and sweet

Diary of a Worm.

Diary of a Worm. by Doreen Cronin, with pictures by Harry Bliss (2003), is an all time classic!
It will always be loved by kids and their lucky parents. It is written in the first person--in the words of an intelligent worm child--and it describes things that happen to him in his daily life as a worm. He plays with his friend, Spider, he describes some of the dangers of worm life, like hopscotch, and he goes to school. Once he forgot to bring his lunch, so he ate his homework! His teacher told him to write "I will not eat my homework" ten times, but when he was finished he ate that too.

You will never look at worms in the same way after reading this book. Worms are good for the earth, and worms (at least in this book) are funny!

In my book rating system, this rates an A+ ! I recommend this book for ages 3 to 8. There are two sequels--Diary of a Spider, and Diary of a Fly (but not Diary of a Wimpy Kid! That's another story...)

Luke on the Loose

Luke On The Loose
by Harry Bliss (a Toon Book, 2009)

This book is extraordinarily funny! It's about a boy called Luke who chases pigeons all the way New York into Brooklyn and up onto the top of a water tower! As he chases the pigeons, he scares people to heck, and almost kills himself in the street . His dad organizes a search, and the fire brigade find him asleep on top of the water tower, and return him to his parents.

This is a Toon Book, which is graphic easy reader--a comic book book for readers five to seven, but I enjoyed it at age eight.

City, by David Macaulay

City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
by David Macaulay (1974) is the story of how an imaginary Roman city goes from just a few tents to a metropolis with marvels of engineering like an aqueduct and a bridge 60 feet over a river. His trusty drawings build a picture in your mind as you watch the city growing.

I especially liked the description of the building of the forum, the heart of the city, because that was cool. There are fascinating details, like how Roman sidewalks were built, and how to build a good aqueduct. Fact--aqueducts were built about fifty feet off the ground, to keep the water from being poisoned or stolen.

This a bit hard for the average third grader to read to himself, and is more for fourth graders and up. But younger kids can enjoy having it read out loud to them, and studying the pictures. Definitely! You have to study the pictures to get what he's saying, and the pictures are awesome.

For more great non-fiction, visit the Non Fiction Monday posts at Picture Book of the Day.