Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended

What does this mean? Is it just pointing out that Americans don't get takeout for lunch on July 4th? What does the normal customer flow at the restaurant look like? I have no frame of reference here. Is the girl wrong? Right?

It's okay. It's not bad, but it's not the best book ever. If you're trying to aggressively multicultural-ize your young child, this might help. It's certainly not offensive. The characters perform tasks that are pretty much broken down by traditional gender roles, though (father fixing car, mother cleaning, grandmother cooking, etc.).

It's a good example of a story where cleverness wins the day versus cleverness rather than versus fools. She's not particularly clever, though, she's just observant and surrounded by oblivious mice.

She says that her neighbor is like a grandma to her, and took care of her mother when her mother was little, and then took care of her when she was little, and all this girl does is hula hoop. How did her neighbor not know that she hula hoops? And how did her neighbor not tell her that she also hula hooped as a kid? And now I have semantic satiation with the phrase "hula hoop" which is like the goofiest phrase in the world.

There's no real story, just a series of events that happen when she visits her grandparents. It's kind of boring. I'm really not sure how something this banal came from the same author as The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, both fascinatingly weird stories.

It's using a very roundabout way to teach children that caterpillars turn into moths. It's cute that the bear keeps coming by to keep him company, but the caterpillar doesn't really seem to care, need company, or be thankful. It's kind of minimalist, but it could do with a little more character development, otherwise I don't really care about these characters.

It's cute how the parents eventually accept that the baby doesn't want to go to sleep and decide to enjoy the time together. As a book, though, it's pretty repetitive and would get old quickly. But it is short, so it's got that going for it.

It's kind of unusual to be fascinated by spirals, or any shape for that matter. Spirals don't really do anything by themselves, as it's more what is spiraling and why that is the important thing. But getting kids to recognize the pattern of their existence is the first step.

I can really identify with this. As the mother of two little boys, one of whom is not yet talking, and the other of whom doesn't use complete sentences, I'm still waiting for some of this. For conversations. For him to ask, "Why?" It's happening. It's happening slowly. And every step along the way is precious, but still frustrating occasionally.

It's fun because it's interactive, but the only problem is, if you have a contrarian kid who decides to say yes, it doesn't work. Other than that, it's fun, and as the book says, it allows the little kid to say "no" and be more or less rewarded for it, which is kind of good because toddlers like to say "no" to many things despite not being in control.