New Books in Favorite Series

Binky Under Pressure
by Ashley Spires
Kids Can Press, 2011
Review copy provided by the publisher

Maybe you have to have a fat cat who is set in his routines and ways, and who is totally committed to the art of napping, for the character of Binky to be hilariously funny. For the rest of you, he is just really funny.

Binky's pretty sure he lives in a space station. His adventures in the first two books have revolved around protecting the space station from aliens (bugs), and have been complicated by his love for his humans and for his stuffed mouse, Ted.

In this newest book in the series, his humans have the nerve to bring another cat into the space station...er, house. Except Gracie, the foster cat, turns out to be Binky's boss! She's a Captain, and she's there to give him a performance test and evaluation. Binky's under pressure.

The Busy Beaver
by Nicholas Oldland
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

This is Nicholas Oldland's third picture book featuring the beaver, moose and bear. These stories are a fun way to expand students' understanding of fables beyond the familiar Aesop's.

The book starts, "There once was a beaver who was so busy that he didn't always think things through." Beaver works up a huge mess and is felled by a tree he is busily felling. Beaver reflects on what he's done and mends his ways (and his friendships and the forest.)

Ninja Cowboy Bear Presents: The Call of the Cowboy
by David Bruins and Hilary Leung
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

In their first book, Ninja, Cowboy and Bear learned that they each have different strengths, so none of them can be "the best." In the second book, they realized that they each like to play in different ways. And in this third book in the series, Cowboy has to learn that his noisy rambunctiousness has a time and a place...but not when bear is birdwatching, or when Ninja is reading.

*   *   *

All three of these are going into the "New Favorite Series" tub in my classroom for the first day of school today!