Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton

In a recent yoga training, the teacher talked about unicorns and narwhals as a way to think about posture, to hold your horn high, so to speak. So when this book crossed my NetGalley queue a few days later, I requested it, thinking it a nice coincidence.
And I'm glad I pulled this book. It's a just a nice, fun story about a Narwhal who is maybe a little overenthusiastic but very imaginative and read to play. The illustrations were great and went well with the story.
Book comes out October 4
Four Stars
Followed by Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt

Baba Jaga by An Leysen

Overall a very nice story. A play on some very familiar storybook themes (one version of Hansel and Gretel has them escaping with a comb and mirror; Cinderella/Snow White with the evil stepmother; Little Red Riding Hood with going to visit a relative; Baba Yaga, the Russian witch who lives in a house with chicken legs). This book has Olga, an orphan whose father has remarried, being sent to her stepmother's sister to ostensibly borrow some needle and thread. However, the real plan is for Baba Yaga to eat Olga. Luckily, because Olga is kind, she has some help in escaping.
Though translated from the original Dutch, this is, in the main, a very nice book.
The illustrations are are absolutely fabulous and the book is worth reading just for those alone.

Four stars
This book comes out September 13

Do NOT Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman

I've grabbed quite a few children's books from NetGalley and Edelweiss lately. Almost all of them (including this one) have had double-page illustrations that would make infinitely more sense if we could see both pages at once. An almost every page, the dragon is split between two pages that means that we have to knit them together.
The rhymes in this book mostly flow very nicely and this is definitely a very fun (and incredibly inclusive) story.

I highly recommend this book with the caveat that it should be read in a hard copy.

This book comes out August 1
Four stars

Who Broke the Teapot by Bill Slavin

A nice, rhyming story with a lovely rhythm. A little difficult to follow the flow of the dialogue sometimes because the pictures are so bright. Another thing about the pictures, some of them are dual-paged, which makes reading this as an ebook odd.
Overall, a nice story and one that I think will make younger readers chuckle as they get the joke.
This book came out April 26.

Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye by Tania del Rio and Will Staehle

Warren is an unusual little boy with crooked teeth and a face like a toad, but long luxurious blond locks. He lives in a hotel but it is nothing like Eloise. It used to be a rather grand hotel but all that changed when his father died five years ago. Then Uncle Rupert took over. But Uncle Rupert is lazy so eventually all of the guests stopped coming. The only staff member left is Chef Bunion. Even worse, Uncle Rupert married Aunt Annaconda four months ago and she is certain there is treasure hidden somewhere in the hotel, The All-Seeing Eye. 
All of the action starts on a day that an automobile finally comes to the hotel. Who is this mysterious visitor, all wrapped in bandages and only communicating through picture cards? Is he just a guest? Or is he after the treasure? Is he even a he? 
All of this is just the beginning of a rather fun little story with some fantastic illustrations. I had some frustrations related to pages not coming up on my ereader. Since mine was an ARC, that may not happen on other devices but I suspect this books would be more fun as a hard copy anyway.
Comes out November 24, 2015