In The Magic School Bus and the Science Fair Expedition, written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen, the Science Fair is days away and some of the kids in Ms. Frizzle’s class can’t think of a subject for the Fair. One of the students (Arnold, if you’re familiar with the series) suggests a trip to the new science museum. Since it’s an easy walk away, no crazy school bus is needed (if you haven’t read any of the other Magic School bus books, you’ll need to know that Ms. Frizzle and her old yellow school bus often take the class on unusual adventures).

But there’s no escaping the wiles of Ms. Frizzle and her bus. The kids are off through time to visit famous scientists, including Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Pasteur, Madame Curie and Einstein. Along the way they learn about the scientific method, how scientists build upon each others’ work and the hard work and commitment that goes into scientific discovery.

This is one of our favorite Magic School Bus books. By showing the process of discovery, young children see that the scientific knowledge that we have to today is because of the work of scientists of the past. For the child interested in science, it can be inspirational as they see adults who share their curiosity applying that interest and working to answer fundamental questions about our world.

For the skeptics in the audience, each Magic School Bus book ends with notes about the fantastical nature of the books. These explanations are always funny and set just the right tone for a the logician-child.

Like all the Magic School Bus books, this story has a lot of staying power. Both your 4-year-old and your 7-year-old will enjoy this book.

Be warned that these are not short reads, but can be broken into several sittings. It takes us about 30 minutes to read each book cover-to-cover.

Ages: 4+ (as noted in the other Magic School Bus reviews, Scholastic recommends these books for 7-10 year olds, but we know younger children who adore them)

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It’s the Bear! is the second book, and my favorite, in Jez Alborough’s series of Eddie and Bear books. In this episode, Eddie and his mom head into the woods for a picnic. But, Eddie doesn’t want to go. He’s scared about the bear that lives in the woods. His mother scoffs, insisting that no bear lives in the woods.

They find a lovely spot in a clearing in the woods and layout their picnic blanket. But, uh oh! They’ve forgetten the pie. Eddie’s mom dashes back to get it, leaving Eddie behind in the woods with the picnic basket. Eddie hears a deep voice coming from the woods. It’s the Bear!

Eddie hides in the picnic basket while the giant bear (who holds his giant teddy bear while he munches) eats the picnic lunch. The bear opens the picnic basket. Eddie screams in terror. He wants his mom! The giant bear clutches his teddy. Eddie’s scared him. Along comes Eddie’s mom carrying the pie. She asks what’s wrong. Eddie answers that it’s the bear. His mom continues to scoff. Until she spots the bear and the pie goes flying. Eddie and his mom grab their picnic things and run, while the bear walks away, holding his giant teddy and eating pie.

Just like the first Eddie and Bear book, Where’s my Teddy?, It’s the Bear is beautifully illustrated. The colors are brilliant and the depth amazing. Jez Alborough, author and illustrator of It’s the Bear has a rare ability to convey emotion with simple illustrations. When Eddie is finally able to show his mother there is a bear in the woods and her smug expression changes to shock, while Eddies fearful expression changes to humor, the touch is just right. And, while at first the idea of the bear is scary, Eddie’s expressions and the bears surprising fear, love for his teddy and joy over eating blueberry pie take away any fear that young children may feel.

Unlike many books that are written by the illustrator, the story does not take second place to the illustations. It is fast moving and well paced, with rhyming text that perfectly compliments the images.

Ages: 2+ (I know 8-year-olds who love this book too)

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Want a simple silly book that young kids will love? Then head to your local book store or to the library and get a copy of Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Joe Mathieu.

It’s a collection of wacky combos (fish eating bagels, parrots in tutus, bulls flying airplanes) that the author and illustrator use to stretch the imagination of the reader and get everyone in the family laughing. For months after we first read this book, my daughter would call out new combos that she found hilarious. She loved it and so will your little ones.

While the writing keeps the narrative moving, it’s the illustrations that will engage your audience. Dogs running in sneakers, dancing cows, bowling moose and ducks on hikes make for wonderful illustrations that are full of life and detail. Your 2-year-old will enjoy Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers as much as your 5-year-old.

Ages: 2+

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It’s an unlikely premise: a pink pig (she’s slightly reckless and sentimental), a bluish elephant (who is cautious and just a little nervous), white backgrounds and minimal text (in thought bubbles). But it more than works. All of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems are laugh-out-loud funny (there are currently 11 in the series) and a joy to read. However, There is a Bird on Your Head! is my family’s favorite.

Piggie and Gerald the elephant are peacefully hanging out when a bird lands on Gerald’s head. Soon, a second bird shows up, then a nest and three eggs. Piggie is delighted. Gerald is less than thrilled. For those of you who haven’t read the book, I won’t spoil the end. But the expressions on Gerald and Piggie’s faces are, as my daughter says, very silly (I would say full of emotion and very very funny). With a simple line or two, Willems manages to convey love, frustration, joy, fear, disgust and more.

Get thee to the library or a bookstore and check out these books.

Ages: 2+ (publisher says 4+, but younger children will appreciate them, as will emergent readers)

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My daughter recently developed an obsession with electricity. Since I’m no techno wizard I had a hard time explaining to her the connection between big power transmission towers and the lights in our house. Knowing that science teacher Ms. Frizzle and her magic school bus had already taught us all about dinosaurs, hurricanes and the solar system, we turned to her to get more info on electricity. Once again, she didn’t fail us.

In The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, a storm hits and the power goes out at school. To find out what caused the outage, Ms. Frizzle takes her class on a trip in the magic school bus. The class visits the site of a downed power line (the kids learn that electricity and be dangerous). From there they visit a coal-fueled power plant where Ms. Frizzle and her students shrink and explore the parts of the plant, from furnace to generator.

They also learn about alternative energy, air pollution, nuclear power, molecules and magnetism. They shrink even more and follow the power out of the plant and into the high-voltage power lines (where they learn about electrons and power transmission). The trip continues with a visit inside a light bulb, a toaster (for a discussion on heating elements), a light switch (where we learn how power is turned off and on), a power saw (where we learn about electric motors), and then a vacuum cleaner (to learn how the vacuum cleaner sucks things up). The kids and Ms. Frizzle then follow the power lines back to school.

It’s a fast and furious and dense ride made humorous by the visit of Ms. Frizzle’s niece Dottie. The dialogue of the kids as they follow Ms. Frizzle on one more adventure is also very funny in places. Your young reader (and you) will learn everything and more that she ever wanted to know about why flipping a switch turns on a light or how the blender works.

For the skeptics in the audience, each Magic School Bus book ends with notes about the fantastical nature of the books. For example, in this episode, writer Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degan have created a game that says what’s fact and what’s not. Just the right tone for a the logician-child.

Be warned that these are not short reads, but can be broken into several sittings. It takes us about 30 minutes to read each book cover-to-cover (this one may take a little longer as you – yes you – and your child try to grasp the concepts).

Ages: 7+ (Unlike most of the other Magic School Bus books, we don’t recommend this one for very young readers. The concepts are a bit more difficult to grasp.)

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Little Bear, by Else Holmelund Minarik, is a compilation of four stories about Little Bear and his mother. The writing and language are simple, just right for reading aloud at bedtime and for beginning readers to pick up and enjoy on their own. The book is illustrated by Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. It sounds so simple in premise, but what Minarik and Sendak create together is a classic that your children’s children will love and so will you.

The book opens with “What Will Little Bear Wear?” It’s snowing outside and Little Bear asks his mother for something warm to put on. She patiently makes him a hat, then a coat, and then snow pants. Still he is cold. She asks him if he’d like a fur coat too. He answer yes, and she takes away his snow clothes to reveal his fur coat. Little Bear plays in the snow, while Mother Bear watches, her body language radiating love.

It’s Little Bear’s birthday in “Birthday Soup,” the second story in the compilation. Little Bear can’t find his mother and thinks she has forgotten his birthday. He decides to make birthday soup. As he cooks, his friends Hen, Duck and Cat arrive one by one with birthday gifts. He invites them to stay for birthday soup. As they sit down to eat, Mother Bear comes in with a birthday cake and tells him that she did not forget his birthday, and never will. Again, Sendak’s illustration of Little Bear as he hugs Mother Bear’s dress and looks up as she gazes down while holding a lighted birthday cake is full of the love.

My favorite is “Little Bear Goes to the Moon,” in which Little Bear dons a space helmet (a box with wires) and goes to the moon. The banter between Mother Bear and Little Bear is priceless. And, again, love is the central theme as Little Bear the space traveler returns home and gets lunch and a big hug from Mother Bear.

The book ends with “Little Bear’s Wish.” Little Bear and Mother Bear end the day with bedtime stories. The book ends with Little Bear snuggled warm in bed, looking lovingly at Mother Bear as she says goodnight.

Ages: 2+

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If your son or daughter loves teddy bears or has a beloved stuffed animal, then Where’s My Teddy, written and illustrated by Jez Alborough is a great choice.

I often find that when a book is written and illustrated by the same person the images are great, but the story suffers. Not the case with Where’s My Teddy. In this large format book Alborough has fluidly blended story and imagery. The green leafy forest pops from the pages and both the bear and Eddie’s expressions are full of life. The fast-paced rhyming text keeps the pages turning.

Eddie lost his teddy named Freddie and is off to the dark forest to find him. Eddie is scared and wants his teddy. But, instead of finding Freddie, he finds a giant stuffed bear who he thinks is Freddie all grown up. Then the forest is filled with the sound of a voice crying out, asking how did my teddy get so small. It’s a giant scary bear and he’s holding Freddie. The giant bear spots his giant stuffed bear, his face lights up with joy and he drops Freddie. Eddie grabs Freddie. The giant bear and Eddie, each clutching his very own teddy, run for home and the safety of bed where they snuggle with their teddies, same and warm.

While this book appears to be written for pre-schoolers, it also has staying power. Children in the early grades will catch the nuances of expression that they may have missed when they were younger and laugh along with their younger brothers and sisters as this story is read aloud.

Ages: 3+

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Want a fun and funny book about books? Then head to the bookstore and get Wild About Books, written by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Marc Brown. This is a whacky story about a librarian who sets up a bookmobile in the zoo. The animals in the zoo go wild, simply wild, about wonderful books, with giraffes wanting tall books and crickets craving small books, while geckos “could only read stick-to-the-wall books.” The books bring big changes to the lives of the zoo animals and some must be taught to treat books with respect, but all come to love books — so much so that they build their own “zoobrary.”

The rhyming is hilarious and fluid, with a rich vocabulary that doesn’t condescend to children, making this a great read-aloud book. And, there’s lots of fun for adults too, with puns and book references designed for the older set. The illustrations are bright, colorful and full of life. They are also very silly. Children who aren’t yet able to read will enjoy looking at the detailed pictures on their own.

My daughter walked into my office as I was writing this and laughed out loud as she saw the termites eating The Wizard of Oz and the baby bunnies mucking up Goodnight Moon. This book is a winner.

Ages: 3-8

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The wait is almost over. New Skivvydoodles for babies, toddlers and kids (12M-7 years) coming at the end of next week!

You are at the beach walking with your daughter and she finds a sand dollar on the sand and then spots a crab tangled in a long rope of kelp. She asks where they came from. You tell her that they came from the ocean. That the kelp grows in forests on the ocean floor and the sea is full of life, from tiny microscopic creatures to giant whales. She looks skeptically at the expanse of water, unable to believe that a rich world of forests, canyons and mountains, of life of every kind could possibly be under that blanket of water. You need The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen.

In this wonderful book science teacher Ms. Frizzle promises to take her class to the ocean. Eagerly anticipating a day at the beach, the kids pack up their beach gear and hop aboard the trusty old yellow school bus. But when Ms. Frizzle says they are going to the ocean, she means in the ocean and before the kids can jump off, they are driving into the surf and on another of Ms. Frizzle’s wild adventures.

The kids visit the inter-tidal zone, the continental shelf, the continental slope, the deep ocean , and coral reefs. The bus transforms into a submarine. The kids scuba dive and learn that the ocean is teeming with life, including sharks. Then, as the bus descends into the deepest ocean, it turns into a submersible that allows them to see the bizarre world that exists miles below the ocean.

Like all the Magic School Bus books, this one has funny dialogue, rich facts and colorful illustrations that open up the beauty and wonder of a mysterious world that exists under the sea. And, just like all the Magic School Bus books, this story has a lot of staying power. Both your 4-year-old and your 7-year-old will love these books.

For the skeptics in the audience, each Magic School Bus book ends with notes about the fantastical nature of the books. For example, in this episode, the writer uses multiple choice questions to show which parts of the book are impossible. It’s the perfect tone to take with a logical littler person who delights in pointing out that certain things aren’t possible.

Be warned that these are not short reads, but can be broken into several sittings. It takes us about 30 minutes to read each book cover-to-cover.

Ages: 4+ (as noted in the other Magic School Bus reviews, Scholastic recommends these books for 7-10 year olds, but we know younger children who adore them)

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