Viking It and Liking It

Who said that there isn’t fact in fun? They haven’t met the heroes in this highly, hysterically illustrated space adventure. AlphaWolf, SmartHawk, LaserShark, and StinkBug explore the universe in their Thomas Jefferson Nose Rocket looking for a Goldilocks planet but find danger instead. Earth, the narrator, also provides information about climate change in this wild and witty adventure.

Human kids will understand where little green, freckle-faced Henry P. Baloney is coming from. He’s late again, and is sure to serve detention forever if he can’t come up with a good excuse for his teacher as to why he’s late again. Words Henry uses sound truly alien, but there’s enough context to figure out their meaning — and a funny surprise waiting at book’s end.

Boy genius, Frank Einstein, and friends explore energy and other science topics as they relate to their everyday interests. The latest in the series is filled will wordplay, science ideas and additional silliness to engage even the most reluctant readers. The heavily illustrated book will not disappoint Frank Einstein fans.

Frank Einstein must figure out an alternate source of power or succumb to his archenemy T. Edison’s exorbitant prices for electricity. In this latest of over-the-top funny Einstein series, actual science fact is couched in humorous fiction.

Young inventor, Frank Einstein and his friend Watson along with his walking, talking robots Klink and Klank, are back. This time, Frank has invented the ‘evoblaster’ which allows the user to evolve into other forms and then back again. Real science combines with laugh-out-loud humor in the latest installment.

Scieszka has collected short stories with special appeal to guys; after all, they were written by guys! In this collection, readers will learn about guys who write for guys who read &mdash and love to laugh (and occasionally get grossed out), including a Scieszka family story.

In this installment of friends known as the Time Warp Trio, Joe, Fred, and Sam meet key figures from ancient Greek mythology when they’re transported back to Mount Olympus. It all started during a school play about ancient Greece…

As a gift from his magician uncle, Joe receives The Book setting into motion a series of humorous time travel adventures. Joe and his friends, Fred and Sam, travel to King Arthur’s England where they meet dragons, knights, and more in this first Time Warp Trio trip. Smith’s black/white illustrations punctuate the action in this fast-paced tale.

The narrator’s curse begins when she is told by her math teacher that math is all around. And so it is — including every part of this very funny book as it examines math and its functions. Text and illustration are seamlessly one allowing the book to be appreciated on several levels.

This boy’s curse begins when his teacher suggests that the “poetry of science” can be heard everywhere. From Moore to Frost, familiar poems are parodied and turned into science verse. Again art and illustration are inseparable as are the laughs in this offbeat look at science.

Scieszka and Smith set sights on creating fresh fables — short traditional tales intended to teach a moral lesson. With humorous twists and take-offs, new, different and wacky fables are presented for readers’ edification and amusement.

The incomparable author and illustrator team retells traditional tales such as the “Gingerbread Man” and the “Little Red Hen” in inventive and hilarious ways, sure to make readers familiar with the originals laugh out loud. Even the traditional format of the book is changed to suit the absurdity of the new versions, for a memorable reading experience.

Move over Mother Goose! These cheerfully illustrated ditties not only take off from the earlier rhymes, but add a decidedly contemporary feel with likely appeal especially for truck and grit lovers. The rhymes can be shared aloud or even read aloud with more traditional offerings.