This is a lovely book. Very well written, with delightful illustrations. My daughter begs for me to read it to her over & over again. It taught me new things about several animals, and it's fun to read aloud. We love it.

April Pulley Sayre's The Hungry Hummingbird is a factual account which reads like fiction, providing the story of a hungry, confused young hummingbird and her search for the right flow to eat from. Beautiful drawings by Gay Holland capture the magic of the hummingbird.

This light hearted and fun story is a great read for children ages 5-8. Al Dente, the young hero of the story, lives in family that owns a pasta making business. Unfortunately, business is very slow- it seems that people only want pizza these days. But when trouble strikes, Al uses his pasta machine to conjure up zany ways to help people out and save his town.

What I really liked about this book was its educational value. Although it treats its subject in a silly manner, it actually teaches kids (and adults!) about the many, many different types and varieties of pasta. An attractive glossary is presented inside the front and back covers containing labelled illustrations of different kinds of pasta. In addition, a page after the conclusion of the story details exactly how pasta is made and even the best way to cook it. The internal illustrations are wonderful; they give the story an "other worldly" quality that match the text in a terrific manner. See if you and your child can read this and then NOT have a hunger for pasta!

It was great! It really help me understand the forest.

I thought that this book was a great read. It really help me under stand nature. THe most important part of this book was how the forest got its name.

With the repetition of sounds -- the thump, thump, thump of galloping giraffes; the tromp, tromp, tromp of trotting warthogs; the croak, croak, croak of calling frogs; and the adorable beeeeyo, beeeeyo, beeeeyo calls of the baby crocodiles -- this book begs to be read aloud. For a good storyteller, there is a lot to work with. It's truly fun to read with the frequent animal noises happening on every page.

Sadly, I can't say the same for the story itself. It's rather bland. The suspense is contrived. Development of the plot gets lost in the author's attempt to slide in bits of information about the crocodile. The main point, the reason the Crocodile Listens, that she is listening for her babies to hatch, takes a minor role.

Even with all the fun noises, neither of my crocodile-interested boys (4 & 2.5), ask for this book much. They *do* enjoy the noises and, oddly enough, remark every time on the croc being a Nile crocodile. Beyond that, their interest wanes.