Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead

This book was a very cute feel good book. I did not see much of a lesson, and I think that it is just a book for entertainment. I thought that it was funny when Bear forgot his story after all of the waiting he did to tell it. I also liked how he then began to tell the story of how he forgot his original story. I thought that was also humorous. The medium seams to be watercolor which I think created the perfect feeling for the book; it matched the energy of the story quite well. One part that I was confused about was when Bear tucked Frog in for the winter. I did not know that frogs sleep in the winter, and if they don't I wonder what Frog was doing in a hole in the ground. The page where Bear is talking to Mole while Mole is underground is an interesting page because the reader needs to turn the book sideways to be able to read the words and see what is going on. This is different from the rest of the pages and I liked it, but I wonder why the author did that?

A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza

A Mother for Choco is amazing in many ways. First of all it talks about different things that Choco has, like wings and striped feet, big cheeks, and yellow feathers. I liked this because it pointed things out to me about Choco that I probably would not have noticed other wise. Another thing that I really liked is that it emphasized that being a mother is not about what one looks like its about what one does. In my mind this related to adoption, which is an fantastic thing to elude to in a children's book, in my opinion. On the second to last page, there is a miniature giraffe in a train, I wonder if that has any connection to the giraffe at the beginning of the book. It brings the story back full circle which I think was very clever, but maybe there was another reason that that giraffe was put there.

Draw by Raul Colon

This book has no words in it, but it the illustrations are absolutely beautiful! Every page is a full illustration, with many different colors in them. The colors in this book are very neutral and natural, but they are intensified and look almost artificial. I really like this effect, it is what interests me most about this book. This book reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are when the boy goes from drawing in his room to being in Africa. With this transition, the illustrator also changes the medium from light water colors to the darker, more pigmented, brighter, neutral colors I explained before. I liked this because it created an excitement in the adventures he has that are contradictory to what we, the readers, know he is actually doing. My favorite part in the story is when the monkey starts to draw a picture of the boy. It is very humorous to me and adds a lot to the story.

Locomotive by Brian Floca

To be honest this was not one of my favorite books that I have read so far. I was not very interested in the topic and it was a lot of description about trains. The pictures however, I thought were very cool. The ones that took up most of the page were the ones that I liked the most. They were very descriptive and colorful. There was also a lot of repetition when the sound of a train was being described. For example it would say "chug-chug chug-chug". There were a lot of pages with these sound words on it. I liked this because it brought the book to life a little bit. It made all of the descriptions a little bit easier to read. I could not figure out if we were following one family on their journey across America, or if it was the train we were following without a story of any people. That I couldn't figure out, but the rest of it was pretty straight forward and informative.

Hope was Here by Joan

The story was a very good one. Throughout this book they made a play on the word “hope”. It was used both as the characters name and as the noun. I thought it was very clever the way the author did that and it definitely added to the story for me. I always enjoy when books make me laugh and this one did at times. There were a few scenes that were very humorous which I think is very important in a book. Hope was Here addressed many different things all in one book as well. It illustrated pain and loneliness, love, determination, hate, failure, success, death, and many other things that are aspects of every ones life at some point or another. I really appreciated how the author was able to create a fun to read story that talked about all of these different things and was able to show it in a way that was understandable and personal, but also entertaining. One thing that was a little bit strange to me was that Hope, age 15, was dating a boy that was 18 or 19. It was not weird in the book, but when I think about it, that is a very big age difference. That really was the only thing in the book that seamed out of place however. One thing about the writing that I thought was unique but that I enjoyed was that when Hope was thinking, the author would write parts of her thoughts in fragmented sentences. He would write a short passing thought, but only use a few words to say it, as one would actually think something like that. To me it made Hope much more personal and helped me to see her as a person instead of a character in a book. 

Azzi in between by Sarah Garland

I found it especially interesting that the narration was third person, but it was as though Azzi was speaking in first person. The narrator would say “father” as though its Azzi talking, but then it says “they” when referring to Azzi’s parents. I am not sure how to classify that but I found it interesting. The color of the pictures tends to react well with what the words say. One place in particular that I noticed was when Sabeen was telling Azzi about how she came to America and the pictured are black white and green. I wonder why the illustrator chose to use green in those panels. I really like that, it helps make the story come to life. I like that the book explains what it would be like to be in the head of a child coming to a new country and not understanding what her classmates are saying. I think its explained in way that is easy to understand.