Tonatiuh, the sun god who lives in Third Heaven, had a son named Ixcocauqui whom he loved very much. His son was told that he could explore all that there was to see, but whatever he did he was not go beyond the garden wall. Curiosity got the best of him. An exciting retelling of the legend of how the Valley of Mexico came to be. Beautiful and brightly colored illustrations do a fine job depicting the events in the story and express the emotions of the characters involved. A pronunciation guide is included for assistance in pronouncing the Aztec names.

Jessica's mother is worried about her daughter's obsession with violent video games. So she forces Jess to visit Granny Goose's Fun Farm, an online game for kids. Jess is repulsed by the idea of playing such a disgustingly cheerful game, so she invites her best friend Matt over to show him just how bad Granny Goose's Fun Farm is. They decide to play the game together and get it over with, and find themselves it yet another twisted virtual world. They encounter rapper wannabes with TVs for heads, ride in a car made out of a giant taco, meet some fairy tale characters who have decided to come up with their own happy endings, and learn that Granny Goose is an evil villain controlling this virtual reality. Can Matt and Jess defeat Granny Goose, or will they be trapped in her world forever? Anyone looking for a good laugh would enjoy this book, especially if you are a fan of the first book about Jess and Matt.

Jessica loves computer games. Especially violent ones. For a while now, she's been trying to beat Gopher, a game where the player has to defeat mutant gophers with an arsenal of various deadly weapons. She's so sick of Gopher that when her friend Matt offers to meet her on a cool new game site, Go4, she readily agrees. But Jess and Matt are in for the shock of their lives. Because when they play Go4, they find themselves transported to a virtual reality world. In this wacky world, anything goes, including using a credit card without paying and riding on a centaur with the attitude of a surfer dude. But it's not just all fun and games. Because an evil villain wants to take over the world, and only Jess and Matt can stop him. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who's looking for a good laugh.

The book I Took My Frog to the Library is a wonderful story. It is intresting because little children love to read about animals and edventures and this book has all. It explains how a little girl named Bridgett takes all different sorts of her pets to the library every day. Her pets make such a disturbance or mess they are asked to leave. She was to come by her self and leave all the animals there. But luckily her pet elephant knows how to read so he reads to the other animals while she is away. If children read this book they will probally be excited about going to the library. It is enjoyable

What a fun book! I am the library aide in a K-2 elementary school and this book was recommeded to me by a friend. I brought beanbag babies of the different animals in the book into school and read the story to each class. As we encountered each animal in the book, I looked for a good listening helper to hold that particular animal. When the book was done. We all walked around the library looking for each item, and placed the appropriate animal on the item. Then to reinforce it, I asked for volunteers to find the animal that was on each item ex. card catalog, picture books and place it back in my bag for the next class. What a big hit!

I Took My Frog To The Library was an enjoyable book for my second graders last year. So much so, I am ordering my own copy to keep in my class this year and another to raffle off. It's a wonderful book to springboard ideas of what type of pet or animal a child would take on his/her own to the library. It's a great introduction to focus on animal facts and habits because the animals' actions in the libray have to be true to what these animals can really do in their own habitats. I think children of any elementary age would enjoy the thought of being able to bring an animal into the library. What a great book to even start a chat about what the library is like to begin with!

All of Jacob's family is getting ready for Hanukkah. But Jacob is not. When his family asks him to go and get some water from the well, he brought his dreidel and he lost it. He forgot to get the water. He got magic dreidels but he was tricked and somebody else ended up with them. But then he got a magic dreidel and the person who stole them gave them back because the magic dreidel had bad stuff in it. Then when he got the magic dreidels, they spun gelt and latkes. The family had to share with other families. It is a good book.

Jacob refused to help prepare for Hanukkah, preferring instead to play with his new brass dreidel. He was sent for water and by accident, droped his dreidel into the well. Like the boy in Freya Littledale's Peter and the North Wind, another rendition of "The Tablecloth, the Donkey, and the Stick," Jacob met a magician, in this case a mischievous goblin who lived in the well and gave him a magic dreidel that spun out potato latkes.

Like Peter, Jacob also met a jealous old thief--here, the archetypal Fruma Sarah--who tricked him into giving her the dreidel. When he got home and told his mother the wonderful tale, his dreidel naturally no longer spun magic. Jacob returned to the well three times, each time receiving magic gifts from the friendly goblin. How he finally dealt with Fruma Sarah I cannot tell. But readers large and small will finish this book as joyfully as all the characters in it, including Fruma Sarah.

The illustrations, including a goat and various other floating creatures and objects, spin magic evocative of Chagall's eastern European blue. Alyssa A. Lappen

Eric Kimmel has done it again! The author of the now-classic "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins" adds another feather to his multi-plumed hat with this delightful adaptation of the old folktale "The Table, the Donkey, and the Stick." Marvelous for storytelling--the jewel-like illustrations are worth the price of admission--, this lovely tale is pure delight for children of all backgrounds and traditions

A great book. Fairy tale that children will love combined with Chinese zodiac info. I recommend this book to teachers who are teaching their students about China and parents who want to give their bookwormy child a treat.

While this story is a little different than most about some details of the zodiac's origins, it holds true to the basic story [with the emperor choosing the animals]. My daughter really enjoyed this story. The illustrations are bold and bright, based on Chinese paper cuts. This is a book that can be read year-round and should not be relgated to only the "new year" period. It can also be read during the celebrations to a class without them all turning into barking/crying/braying representations of their own animals which some of the other books seem to inspire more.

tHIS WAS A GREAT GOOD BOOK. I personaly like the part where they eat him. poor guy though. It teaches you not to boast or be big headed about yourself

The Gingerbread Man

Have you ever chased a gingerbread man after it jumped out of the oven? A lot of people, a cow, and a fox run after just one gingerbread man in this story. Will anyone eat the Gingerbread man? This book is funny and good. I like how they all chase after the Gingerbread man.

I recall this book and bought it because it was the exact one I read when I was a child. I love how it repeats and how the photos are just so colorful. I read this one every night to my daughter and my favorite part is the ending when the Gingerbreadman gets eaten but it's not sad because they remind us how they come back again when we bake more gingerbread men. It's a must for anyone who loves the classics.

Sword of the Samurai is a great book. It is a series of several stories about samurais. Even though this book is fantasy it brings in life lessons that you can relate to in real life. Like when 3 samurai trick someone into a ride in their oxcart because they don't want to walk to a festival their journey ends up to be a misrable one. That is why you should not trick people into doing something for you because the samurai almost lost face. You'll have to read this book to find out why. This book brings out many journeys with weak and brave samurais but I think you will love every one. Each and every one has a different moral to it and it makes you think about real life situations. If you like action adventure and fictional books I think you should read Sword of the Samurai by Eric A. Kimmel.

This collection of Samurai stories is written for a child to read themselves. The stories are short and entertaining - a head severed and reattached, a tea master frightening a swordsman, an unluckly samurai accidently finding the secret to destroy a dragon, a no-sword samurai master outwitting a braggart samurai, a female samurai ... all in all good fun for the right child.

The author has provided a very short introduction to each story to place the story culturally - this keeps the "Japanese" aspect from provided a cultural barrier to the reader's understanding. The author has used a few Japanese words and provide a glossary of them ... just enough to remind the reader these are samurai not knights.

Im not even Jewish but man, this book really taught me how to become a man and if I hypothetically was jewish, I would know exactly how to go about my bar mitzvah

The illustrations really bring these stories to life! We especially enjoyed the busy bee illustrations by artist Beatrice Baldwin (Proctor). There is so much detail in her illustrations - they really are worth a thousand words.