Kitten Delivery: Just Like Home Series (Erin Soderburg Downing)

 

This was one I grabbed at the Scholastic Book Fair. We loved The Quirks....same author! Now that we're finished it and I'm seeing more of her books on Goodreads, I'm surprised at how much she has written!

...but we almost abandoned this one. It was not very exciting....we were glad we stuck with it though because it was wonderful to see all the kittens get good homes.....even Grumpy.

Just Like Home is a series. I also got Love Rolls In, but I'm not sure it'll make a good read aloud. I better read it ahead of time.

They're super cute kittens though! There are some good sections about being comfortable with who you are:

Goodreads says:

The Babysitters Club meets Puppy Place in this heartwarming and fun middle grade series about a unique animal sanctuary, the full-time family (of both human and animal variety) who live there, and the rotating stable of animal guests who will come to the farm with an injury or challenge but will leave knowing what it really feels like to be loved and cared for.

Siblings Ruby and Henry have an unusual kind of home life compared to their friends. Their family operates an animal sanctuary with a unique collection of full-time pet a pig, a dog, the world's bossiest cat, two silly goats, and a llama who thinks he's a human. Not to mention, Ruby and Henry's mom is also a vet at the animal clinic in town. Let's just say, when it comes to animals, it's hard for Ruby and Henry's family to say no... especially when they stumble upon a litter of abandoned kittens on the side of the road.



With seven new house guests with seven very different personalities, it's only fitting to name them after the seven dwarfs. The hard part is going to be finding good homes for each unique kitten. If anyone can do it, it's Ruby and Henry.



But first, they're going to need to keep their new campers feeling safe and well taken care of while they grow big and strong enough to be adopted. And as it turns out, this will be harder than it seems...

Circus Ship (Chris Van Dusen)

 

I first got to love Chris Van Dusen's work from the Mercy Watson series. The more I read his books, the more I think I could do an author study with them! His illustrations are awesome. 

The back of the book says the idea for this story came from a real life incident when a ship sailing from St Johnson New Brunswick to Portland, Maine that had been carrying some circus animals sank. What could have happened to those animals? In this book, he presents one idea! 

Goodreads says:

With stunning artwork and a rhyming text, the illustrator of the Mercy Watson books tells a tale of human-animal connection full of humor and heart.

When a circus ship runs aground off the coast of Maine, the poor animals are left on their own to swim the chilly waters. Staggering onto a nearby island, they soon win over the wary townspeople with their kind, courageous ways. So well do the critters blend in that when the greedy circus owner returns to claim them, villagers of all species conspire to outsmart the bloated blowhard. With buoyant rhymes and brilliantly caricatured illustrations evoking the early nineteenth century, Chris Van Dusen presents a hugely entertaining tale about the bonds of community — and a rare hidden-pictures spread for eagle-eyed readers of all ages.