What a Team!

February 15, 2011
Grades K-2 The engaging Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox graphic-novel series, about a blended forest family and four stepsiblings efforts to get along, continues to provide both age-appropriate complexity and sweet watercolor artwork. Although the lesson in this episode is the importance of working together over going it alone, the involving plot is not overshadowed by its moral: Bristle and his stepsister Ginger cant agree on the best boat to build, so they competewhile Grub joins with friends in a group effort. Be sure to pick up the earlier volumes (The Meeting and A Hubbub, both 2010), as all will be popular.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2011
Fox cub Ginger wants to build a boat. She enlists her new step-siblings, badger cubs Bristle and Grub. Bristle complains that Ginger doesn't like his ideas, while Ginger thinks he's too bossy. In the cartoon-panel illustrations, the animals are cute, but they all look similar, making it hard to tell them apart and the message-y story difficult to follow.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)