The Junkyard Wonders

Polacco, Patricia. The Junkyard Wonders. Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. 2010. ISBN: 3780399250781

In The Junkyard Wonders, Patricia Polacco recounts her experiences of being put in a class for special needs as a child and meeting Mrs. Peterson, the class' teacher. In an incredibly touching tribute to both her former teacher and her fellow "tribe" members, Polacco combines text and colorful, pencil-lined drawings to indicate how bullies affected her life and how Mrs. Peterson and her classmates helped recognize Trisha's potential and inner-genius. The ending is incredibly heart-warming and will have many reaching for tissues.

The Junkyard Wonders is slightly text-heavy, but it would be a great read-and-discuss book for any child. The pictures are done roughly, but provide bright color and illustrate each scene incredibly well.

Kellie Tilton, BGSU Librarian

One Too Many : A Seek & Find Counting Book

Marino, Gianna. One Too Many: A Seek and Find Counting Book. Chronicle Books LLC. 2010. ISBN: 9780811869089

One Too Many is a beautifully illustrated book that encourages visual learning and counting techniques. We begin on page one with 1 flea and with every turn of the page another group of animals joins our flea in the barnyard. The illustrations of each animal are similar in coloring, forcing readers to hunt for each new animal as they join the gathering group of barnyard cronies. The ending also is surprising and funny, which is always great to see in education-based books.

There is little text on each page, usually just a number in the upper-right corner. The final spread does have a bit of text, however, as it provides the answer for the seek and find game and suggests more difficult seeking games to play throughout the book for fun re-reads.

Kellie Tilton, BGSU Librarian