_I love seeing classic authors producing new material. I always feel like a kid again reading their new stuff as if I was reading them for the first time all over again. Reading this new collection from fame kids' poet Silverstein was familiar and fun.

I have always wondered where Shell gets his ideas or how he comes up with these weird and strange poems and reading this book was no different. His sketches throughout are the signature of his work. They were hilarious and made the poems comes to life even more as they did with the Where the Sidewalk Ends series and everything other book he's produced. I hope he keeps going.

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_A charming retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl and a beautiful Christmas story for this month's review.  What Maguire does is not only weave in the story of the little match girl, but surrounds it in a new story about a boy named Frederik.  Who is Frederik you might ask? Why he's the boy who steals the little match girl's shoe on that cold New Year's Eve in Andersen's version of the story.

I loved the idea of seeing the story from the little boy.  The book is split into three parts: Frederik, Little Match Girl and Frederik again.  The second part is true to the original tale with a few minor details changed.  You still see the little match girl lighting each match and seeing the visions.  You still see the little match girl's passing and her journey into heaven.  However, what Maguire's version gives you is what happens after the little match girl's death.  You see her father and sisters mourn and continue living without her.

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It was nice to reacquaint myself with Dr. Seuss again.  Of course, I have plenty of his other books.  However, at this stage in my life I have just about read them all multiple times.  It was great to read something new from him and feel like a kid again reading my first Dr. Seuss book for the very first time.  The rhythm of lines flowed off my tongue like I was speaking to an old friend.  It was familiar and fun.

These are meant to be some of his first works published in magazines and newsletters prior to him being published in book form.  I really couldn't tell the difference.  Sometimes, new writers have a different tone and voice as they grow older and gain more experience.  I didn't get that from these lost stories.  I was pleased.

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It’s not often you see kids reading books of poetry.  Except for Shell Silverstein, I know I never did as a kid.  I always found them to be bland and confusing.  Then my reading buddy, a kid a read to every Friday during lunch, picks up this book.  'The Swamps of Sleethe?' I thought. 'Alright, I already like the bold color in the cover.'  But when I opened the book, I found more than just a bold cover.

For starters, all the pages where just as bold and colorful as the cover.  The bright colors and pictures really draw you into the book.  No more bland poetry.  Each of the 19 poems are about weird and scary planets that no human should visit, but if you do beware the demon birds from Lonithor will get you.  For an added bonus, some of the planet names are anagrams and for us readers, Prelutsky provides clues on how to pronounce some of the weirder planet and creature names.

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Peter and the Starcatchers
Ever wonder how Peter Pan learned to fly or where Tinkerbell came from?  What about Neverland and Captain Hook?  Well in this retelling of a classic story, Barry and Ridley explore just that.  In this version, Peter is an ordinary orphan boy traveling to a new country with his friends (the "lost boys") on a ship called Neverland.  He meets a girl name Molly who introduces him to a world of star power.  In this world, how do people fly?  Not with fairy dust, but with starstuff, the remains of a shooting star.  With this starstuff, people not only fly, but creatures are created, like the loch ness monster.

As Molly explains the battle of the starstuff, two halves: one designed to protect it known as the Starcatchers, the other dying to use it, a pirate called Black Stache (aka Captain Hook before the hook) is after the trunk in which the starstuff is being held, a trunk leaking out this powerful dust.  A battle ensues and the group crashes onto a remote island, inhabited by a native tribe called the Mollusks.  So how does this story become the Peter Pan we know.
Here's a rundown:

• The trunk with the starstuff lands in the water turning ordinary fish into mermaids
• The crocodile already lives on the island
• Peter handles the trunk to hide it from Black Stache as such permanently altering himself as the boy who can fly and never ages
• Peter gets injured and is saved by the leader of the mermaid called Teacher thus giving him a connection with her that allows him to understand her thoughts
  
• Peter cuts off Black Stache's hand in a fight
• The orphan boys: James, Prentiss, Thomas and Tubby Ted, decide not to leave the island, thus forever becoming the Lost Boys
• The starstuff transforms a bird into a fairy that only Peter can hear and talk too.  He names this fairy Tinkerbell thus nicknaming her Tink.
• The ships sign "Neverland" crashed on the island, thus naming the island Neverland.
  

The best part, the story doesn't end there.  This is the first in a series involving the boy we know as Peter Pan.

Visit the official website at: http://www.peterandthestarcatchers.com/.  To purchase this book, visit Amazon.com by clicking here.

Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book
Now there's the middle grade companion of Peter and the Starcatchers.  As Barry and Pearson were in the middle of writing the first and second books of the series, they decided to write a younger version of their tale involving Peter's friends.

In this story, a Mollusk girl name Little Scallop decides to go on adventure with her two mermaid friends Aqua and Surf.  This is adventure go south when Surf is captured by a ship.  Little Scallop seeks the help of a lost boy, James and the leader of the mermaids, Teacher to rescue Surf.  Meanwhile, Black Stache, now known as Hook due to the recently attached hook in place of his left hand, is dying to get off the island when he sees the ship and decides to seize it as his own.

The simple tale unfolds, allowing young readers to follow the characters with ease.  Readers don't have to read the previous book to understand and follow this one as it successfully stands on its own, but being able to read both does make the story that much more enjoyable.

To purchase this book, visit Amazon.com by clicking here.