Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Brigette Barrager
Random House Kids

Rating: 4 stars

Uni the Unicorn looks exactly like little girls want unicorns to look like: silky white with sparkles in her coat, impossibly pink mane and tail, dainty golden hooves, dazzling gems for eyes, swirly white horn that can mend any hurt. Uni the Unicorn also acts like little girls want unicorns to act: noble, regal, happy, and steadfast in her belief in the impossible.

This time, the impossible is a clever twist on little girls believing in unicorns: unlike all the other unicorns in the field, Uni the Unicorn believes in little girls. Her parents shake their horny heads at her, and encourage her to rethink her beliefs and spend her time more wisely. But Uni believes that somewhere there is a strong, smart, wonderful girl waiting to play with her.

Uni imagines all the wonderful things she’ll do with this little girl once she finds her: run fast through the meadow, spin and twirl in the sunlight, explore their world, and help forest creatures in need, and sometimes they’d sit quietly and talk about important things. And of course they would slide down rainbows together (of course!).

Uni believes. In a way only little kids really can.

What Uni doesn’t know—but readers soon do know—is that she is right. There is a little girl who is also teased by her friends for believing in something magical. This little girl believes in unicorns. She believes there is a strong, smart, wonderful unicorn waiting to play with her.

Each is waiting and hoping for the other, waiting for the chance to be friends.

Should your child get swept away by the magic in this tale, there are activities about Uni. These items and more are available at http://www.randomhousekids.com/brand/uni-unicorn/. And even a song:

Anything by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is clever and funny, sweet and smart—she writes the types of books that you want in your child’s lap. The humor in them is so very intelligent: her clever lines make the reader think just a bit more, work just a bit more to understand and smile at the humor. We are fans of her in our house. There’s not a lot of Rosenthal’s wittiness in this book (besides the obvious and clever twist of unicorns believing in little girls), but there is a wonderful lesson in believing in that which you believe in, and maybe just maybe you’ll meet someone who holds the same belief as you. And maybe just maybe you’ll get to call that person Friend. Fingers crossed!

This review originally appeared in the Washington Family Magazine (right about HERE).

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up by Kate DiCamillo

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up (Tales from Deckawoo Drive #1) by Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press

Rating: 4 stars

Yippie-i-oh! We've lassoed an early reader for you!

(Define "early reader?" A book that has more pages than an easy reader, five to ten short chapters, illustrations to keep kids interested and give them clues about the text, appropriate language and content for young readers, and serves as a bridge between easy readers and middle grade novels. Generally, the age range is 5 to 8.)

Leroy Ninker is a little man with big dreams of being a cowboy. He has a lasso and boots and cowboy hat, but he lacks a horse. Which is kind of important. So he goes and finds a horse, and that horse is Maybelline. She is not the gallant steed named "Tornado" he imagined; rather, she's a big ol' nag with only four teeth. But it is love at first sight for Leroy Ninker.

Maybelline is funny in different ways than Leroy is funny--she requires certain care that made Ben laugh out loud. For example, to get Maybelline to run, Leroy must compliment her. He must whisper sweet nothings into her ear. "You are the sweetest, most beautiful horse I have ever had the fortune to lay eyes on," he says to her. And off she goes!

Despite Leroy Ninker's goal of becoming a cowboy, and despite the procurement of one fine steed, he doesn't know how to take care of a horse. But he's got such a big heart and doesn't let his cluelessness get in the way. He tries his very best! I love the image of little Leroy trying to get oversized Maybelline into his apartment, and the fact that he cooks her spaghetti for dinner. 

The climax of the book comes when Leroy Ninker doesn't follow the instructions he was given for Maybelline, and she runs away because of an oversight (of his). He goes to "make it right" and is determined to find her. Which he does--I love how in these early readers and middle grade, too, that you can depend on a happy ending. In fact, the happy ending in this book involves Mercy Watson, the pig in Kate DiCamillo's other series, and I realize that Leroy Ninker is another resident on Deckawoo Drive and this book is a spin-off from the successful and great, you-should-read-it-too Mercy Watson series.

This book is proof that Kate Dicamillo still has her finger firmly on the pulse of what kids think is funny. And she has a knack for producing wonderful tales. Leroy Ninker, a story of a simple man fulfilling his dream, is another one of her great stories. I can't forget to mention that the fantastic Chris Van Dusen illustrates this book. (He writes and illustrates picture books--they are THE BEST!) He fills most of the pages with the bright-eyed, needle-nosed cowboy and a goofy but sweet-looking horse. They are quite the pair. They're in love, but I'm pretty sure most readers will fall in love with them.

There you go. An early reader book to give your early reader kid as they ride off into the sunset.

Yippie-i-oh!

An Otis Christmas by Loren Long

An Otis Christmas by Loren Long

Rating: 5 stars

We are fans of Otis.  We first met him in 2010 in Otis, then continued to fall in love with him in Otis and the Tornado and Otis and the Puppy.  There is even a board book and a stuffed animal available now!  He is a fantastic character; in fact, he's a character with character: a hard worker on his beloved farm, an enthusiastic player of all types of games, and the type of friend who looks out for the little guy, tries to include everyone, and genuinely cares.

So I was pretty psyched to see An Otis Christmas!

I'll warn you, I'm a little biased because Loren Long is one of my favorite illustrators AND...well...see that little foal on the cover?  I'm a sucker for all things horses.  When I was a horse-obsessed, riding-hours-every-afternoon girl, my cure for the uncurable giggles (in Church or in class) was to think of my horse, sick.  It would sober me up immediately.

Loren Long's beautiful illustrations swept me in immediately.  Otis is excited about his favorite time of year: Christmas!  This year, the excitement is bigger than ever because the mare is going to have a baby foal soon.  And this year, he gets something he's not ever received before...a gift!  It's a brand new horn.

"A special tractor needs a special horn," says his beloved farmer.

On Christmas Eve, a painful cry and troubled voices wake up Otis' putt puff puttedy chuff.  The mare is giving birth, but she's in trouble.  (As I saw the mare lying on her side painfully with the farmer and his son looking concerned over her, tears came to my eyes.  At a book!  Geez.  Yes, I cry at Hallmark commercials, too.)

Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.

"We need Doc Baker out here tonight or we'll lose them both!" whispers the farmer.

But there's a blizzard outside.  One of the farmer's helpers already failed to make it down the hill from the farm because of the snow.  Yet, Otis does what he needs to do.  He goes out in the cold, chugs through the snowdrifts, calms himself when he gets lost, and finds the vet's house.  He uses his new horn to wake up the vet, who knows immediately that something is wrong.  They zoom back through the drifts and the night.

"The farmer prayed for a miracle.  All was quiet, until..."

Otis' horn cracks through the stillness and the sadness, and he brings Doc Baker to the horse and her unborn baby.  As that baby is born, with a star on its forehead, the whole farm stands around in wonder and appreciation.  Of a miracle.

This is a great Christmas book--one of the best from 2013 I think.

I love how Otis doesn't just stand by.  He does something.  This resonates clearly with me, an action-based person.  And he does something courageous, dangerous, and necessary--not because someone tells him to, but because he knows in his heart that it's the right thing to do.

See?  I told you he was a good character.

Bravo, Loren Long!  This is another great one.

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman, illustrated by Betsy Lewin

Rating: 4 stars

How could I not love a book with Cowgirl Kate in it?!

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa are best friends.  In this I Can Read chapter series of six books (so far), the two friends have always cute, sometimes funny lesson-filled adventures.  It won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book in 2006--an honor that has also been awarded to books written by wonderful authors such as Mo Willems, Eric Litwin, and Tedd Arnold.

The chapters are loosely connected and longish...this series is better for an intermediate reader or an advanced reader that is about reading to jump into the Magic Treehouse and Cam Jansen series.

Let me give you a few more details about one of the books in the series; I'll take Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Rain or Shine.  In the first chapter, despite a looming thundercloud and gutsy winds, Kate and Cocoa need to get to work counting bales and checking fences.  When thunder cracks and they race back to the barn, Cocoa pretends to have been just racing the wind for fun, not for fear.

In the second chapter, they've got to go work, rain or shine.  Cocoa isn't excited so he fakes a cold, until realizing that the "cows need us!"  And they have to walk through some fields that have some tasty timothy grass.

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa are realistic characters (except for that whole horses-can-talk thing) who are hard workers, fun havers, look-at-the-bright-side types.  What's not to love?

Wonder Horse by Emily Arnold McCully

 Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World's Smartest Horse by Emily Arnold McCully

Rating: 4 stars

I recently reviewed a really wonderful book for a local magazine.  Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird was a book that landed in my lap but really opened my eyes to a bunch of great nonfiction books on animal intelligence that are fantastic for young, advanced readers.  Lorelei is reading chapter books, and she's worked her way through The Magic Treehouse, Cam Jansen, and Magic Schoolbus series.  But she's just 5 1/2, so I'm careful about the content of the books she reads.  And she still loves picture books, so I'm happy to keep supplying them to her.  Therefore, I was delighted to find a handful of books that were long and challenging and interesting...picture books.  And nonfiction!  Even better.

"I wonder what else you can learn," Doc said.

Wonder Horse is a long book about the true story of a horse owned by Bill Key, nicknamed "Doc."  Doc was born a slave but freed as an adult, and his natural way with animals remained with him.  He made a fortune selling Keystone Liniment for humans and animals, and spent some of that fortune on an Arabian mare.  He bred the extraordinary mare, who bore an ordinary colt named Jim.  Jim looked ordinary, but within months of his birth Doc realized he was incredibly smart.  He taught him all sorts of things--the alphabet, simple math, colors, shapes.  He quieted naysayers by having experts quiz Jim without Doc to help him out, and the two of them toured the country to show off and help promote kindness towards animals.

Of the books we've found and read on animal intelligence, Lorelei and Ben liked this one the best.  (Alex the Parrot gets my vote.)  Maybe they are just being nice, as they know that horses are my favorite animal...  Regardless, I love how interested they are at the fairly wild notion that animals have significant brain power like we do.  I appreciate how this book introduces scientific methods, but I like even more that their perspectives have been rocked a little, that their assumptions have been challenged a little.

Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee

Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee

Rating: 5 galloping stars

Talk about a book that hooks little ones onto books!

"Who wants a ride?" asks Mr. Horse.  One by one, Cat, Dog, Pig and Duck hop aboard, and go for a ride.  Of course they ask if Mr. Horse can go faster, so faster they go...until... "Whoa, stop, we're falling off!"  Mr. Horse skids to a halt and the animals fly through they air and land in a haystack.  Mr. Horse is worried; the animals all shout, "Again!!"



"Whoa! Stop! We're falling off!"

 This is such a fun book to read, and one of the best 0-12 month books that exist out there in my oh-so-humble opinion.  The pictures are big and clear and cute, the words are simple, and it's great fun to put your little baby on your lap and go for a "ride," making your lap bouncier and bouncier as Mr. Horse goes faster and faster in the book. 

This was one of the first books we bought Lorelei after she was born, and we bought it for our nieces around the same time.  Both my sister and I have had to purchase and re-purchase replacements for our girls and the boys that followed them because it was such a favorite.  Ben is still happy with it...I think it's in his bed (or behind his bed, as his habit is now to slide all his books behind his bed before he falls asleep) right now. 

You can't go wrong with this book!  I've not read the sequal, the holiday version Jingle-Jingle.  Have you?

Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse by Meghan McCarthy

Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse by Meghan McCarthy

Rating: 4 stars

I'm trying my best to create a horse-crazy daughter...because I want to ride horses again myself!  I am not completely self-motivated here.  Horses saved me from those middle school years where a lot of girls crumble in the face of mean girls, changes in their body, hormone swings, and their first "boyfriends."  I poured myself into whatever horse I was leasing at the moment, practicing my braids and Dressage tests and making sure their stall was spic-and-span (though my room sure never was).

This book is a surprisingly exciting children's book, one based on the wonderful little wonder horse, Seabiscuit.  (If you've not read Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend you really should!)  She sets the pace quickly by explaining, in wonderfully simple and appropriate words, how the country was at a depressed spot.  "In the 1930s, times were tough.  There were long lines to get food.  People didn't have much and needed an escape."  In comes horse racing in general, and Seabiscuit in particular.  Seabiscuit was a big, ungraceful horse that was pretty unsuccessful until the right team assembled around him.  Then, as Seabiscuit gained confidence, calmness, and speed, he gained a huge following of fans who had "Seabiscuit-itis." 

"A hush fell over the crowd.  The horses twitched. 
The riders sat perfectly still."

Of course, no good story exists without a good villain.  In this book, it's the graceful, well-bred, and gorgeous War Admiral, whose success came easily.  Seabiscuit's owner challenged War Admiral to a race, and the two horses met.  Thousands came by train, by car, by boat.  "They were squished--crammed in like sardines--but that didn't matter."  The two horses walked out on the track and...then...they're off!  The horses race side-by-side briefly, and then Seabiscuit takes off and never looks back, leaving War Admiral four lengths behind him as he gallops across the finish line.

It's a great American story, and it is super fun to read aloud, especially if you don't have any adults listening to you and you pour yourself into the excitement of the words and the feelings.  Which you definitely should do, because then your kids will enjoy it all the more.  Lorelei and Ben now have races (around the dining room table, accompanied by our crazy weimaraner Guidry) where they pretend to be jockeys on Seabiscuit and War Admiral.  Of course, as the big sister, Lorelei is always the winner on Seabiscuit. 

I don't love the illustrations.  I think they are a bit goofy, and the plate-like eyes on the horses and people throw me off a bit.  But the story is what counts--and that is a winner.

Cowpokes by Caroline Stutson

Cowpokes by Caroline Stutson, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Rating: 3.5

A new baby was born into our extended family; his name is Wyatt. So I was in a bit of a cowboy-mood when we strolled into the library last week. This book was standing out from the stacks, on display on the top of the shelves. I had to have it, in honor of baby cowboy Wyatt. We live nowhere near the range, but I sure wish we lived a bit closer, so that a good horse was a required purchase. Sadly, in our area of the country it is not necessary, it's decadent, and not for us. I grew up riding, and the love of horses is still strong!

Of course, I'm trying to pass the interest down to Lorelei, not only so that I can be around horses again and have an excuse to ride and possibly own a horse one day. (When we found out we were having a girl, one of my first thoughts was: Great! I'll ride again!) So I'm always on the prowl for books that will get her excited about riding and horses and all that stuff.

Cowpokes is pretty good. For me, this book does too much; it should focus on one thing--they rhyme of the text or details of the riders in the cattle drive (a la Lili at Ballet) or the characters themselves. But the illustrations save the book itself, as the pictures of the rodeo events and the cattle drive are neat, regardless of how old you are. We probably won't check it out again, but it was fun watching Lorelei pretend that her jump rope was a lasso. I'm glad she wasn't successful in roping one of our weimaraners...that could have been too fun for her, and not so fun for the dogs!