Title:  Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent

Author:  Bill Peet

Genre:  Animals / Children's / Sea / Adventure / Pirates / Traveling

Year Published: 1975

Year Read:  1994

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Company

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 7+  (Some Intense Scenes)

“Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent” is an adventurous book from Bill Peet about how a friendly sea serpent who at first wanted to wreck a ship to have fun, ends up trying to protect a ship full of passengers looking for a new land. “Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent” may be tough for smaller children to read but older children would most likely enjoy the adventurous scenes contained in this book. 

Bill Peet’s writing is extremely inventive and exciting as he writes the story about a sea serpent that is willing to risk his life to protect the people on a voyage for a new life. Bill Peet is extremely inventive whenever he uses various words such as “doldrums” and “bedraggled” to make the story more clever and dramatic. Also, the idea that Cyrus is more like a friendly sea serpent rather than a vicious one makes the story more creative as people usually believe that sea monsters are meant to be scary. Bill Peet’s illustrations are beautiful and colorful, especially of the scenes where he illustrates the sea as a calm ocean for the water is beautifully blue and during the storm scenes, he makes the sky dark and the ocean smashing viciously at the Primrose. 



Parents should know that there are many advanced words in this book and that this book may be a bit too long for younger children to handle. Some of the advanced words mentioned are “pilings,” “doldrums,” and “bedraggled” and young children may not understand what those words mean. Parents should write down the advanced words down on a piece of paper and define them so that the younger children would understand what the word means and therefore, it would make it easier for them to read this book. Also, the length of this book is a bit too long than any normal children’s book and that may be a bit too tiresome for some small children to handle, so parents should read at least a few pages a day so that children would not get too tired of this book. 

“Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent” is a wonderful story about the power of friendship and how it is better to help people rather than be cruel towards them and children would easily enjoy this book for ages. I would recommend this book to children ages seven and up since the advanced words and the length of the book may be a bit too challenging for smaller children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Comedy / Royalty / Dragons / Feminism / Fantasy

Year Published: 1980

Year Read:  1994

Publisher:  Annick Press

I have been reading most of Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko’s works ever since I was a child and I have enjoyed most of their works! I have recently re-read a book from the popular duo that I had enjoyed during my childhood called “The Paper Bag Princess” and it is about how a princess is stripped down to wearing a plain paper bag when a dragon attacks her castle and she has to go rescue Prince Ronald, who has been kidnapped by the dragon. “The Paper Bag Princess” is definitely one of Robert Munsch’s and Michael Martchenko’s most hilarious books ever written!

Elizabeth was a beautiful princess who was going to marry Prince Ronald. One day, however, a dragon comes by and burns her castle to the ground and kidnaps Prince Ronald. With nothing left to wear except for a paper bag, Elizabeth decides to go after the dragon and save Ronald.

If you think that “Stephanie’s Ponytail” was one hilarious and creative book, you should really check this book out! Robert Munsch has truly done an awesome job at writing this story about how a princess loses everything but still wanted to save the love of her life. Robert Munsch’s writing is simple yet sassy and hilarious at the same time and what I really loved about this book was that Robert Munsch made the heroine, Elizabeth into a clever and brave girl and I loved the way that she tries to go and rescue the prince by herself even though she lost everything that she owned and the way that she beats the dragon at its own game is just truly hilarious! Michael Martchenko’s illustrations are creative and hilarious in this book, especially of the images of Elizabeth being in a paper bag throughout the book. The images in this book are a bit more simplistic in this book than in Robert Munsch’s and Michael Martchenko’s later books as the black outlines of the characters make the characters stand out much more. I also loved the images of the dragon itself as it is green, have red spikes down its back and always look more suave than terrifying to the readers.



All in all, “The Paper Bag Princess” is a brilliant book from the famous Munsch/Martchenko duo as it shows that true courage will always win the day. Although I would have preferred the ending to be a little longer so that way it would be more satisfying just knowing what happened to each character after the adventure is over, this was not a major con for me, so I would still recommend this book to children ages four and up, but because of the dragon scenes, I think children ages five and older might stand those scenes better and the children ages four and up will like the simplistic writing of this book.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Trickery / Manners / School / Mystery / Humor

Year Published: 1977

Year Read:  1994

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

Series: Miss Nelson #1

“Miss Nelson is Missing!” is a children’s book written by Harry Allard along with illustrations by James Marshall and is about how the school’s sweetest teacher suddenly disappears and is replaced by a vicious teacher who tortures the students in room 207. This book is surely a joy to read for children who love good humor and a good mystery to solve.

The book begins with the kids in room 207 misbehaving, especially since they got the reputation of being the worst-behaved class in the entire school. Miss Nelson, their teacher, tried everything to calm them down, but nothing worked, so Miss Nelson decides that something has to be done to keep the kids under control. The next day, Miss Nelson did not show up at school and the kids took this opportunity to misbehave even more. Suddenly, a scary looking woman in an ugly black dress came into the classroom and yelled at the kids to be quiet and do their homework. It turns out that the new and cruel teacher is none other than Miss Viola Swamp and the longer Miss Swamp stayed at the school, the more miserable the kids got as Miss Swamp forced the students to do so much hard work. The kids then wondered what happened to Miss Nelson and whether she will come back or not.

Will Miss Nelson return back to school?

Read this book to find out!

Harry Allard has written a clever story about how the kids of room 207 learned the hard way about behaving when they are nearly stuck with a cruel teacher when their sweet teacher suddenly disappears from school. I think it was clever about the way that the children suddenly started behaving towards the end of the book when they realized that Miss Nelson was a better teacher than Miss Swamp after they started taking advantage of her good nature. James Marshall’s illustrations are cute as the characters have black dotted eyes and pudgy cheeks. The illustration that truly stood out was the illustration of Miss Viola Swamp herself as she looked like a real witch with her long chin, her black dress and her striped stockings and she always had a scowl on her face everytime she looks at the children.



“Miss Nelson is Missing!” is a great and clever children’s book about what could happen if one does not behave properly and the importance of trying to obey authority at all times. I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since I do not find anything unsuitable for the smaller children in this book.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Fairy Tale / Denmark / Audiobook / Family / Romance

Year Published: 1989

Year Read:  1994

Publisher: Rabbit Ears Books

Series: Storybook Classics

Illustrated by David Johnson

“Thumbelina” is one of the most cherished stories in the Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics series and is surely a classic in its own right. Kelly McGillis’ tender narration, along with Mark Isham’s memorizing music and David Johnson’s exquisite drawings, combine to make “Thumbelina” one of the tenderest stories in Rabbit Ears history.

Kelly McGillis’ narration is extremely tender as she makes this story extremely touching and soothing to watch and she also greatly expresses Thumbelina’s sorrow of being married to the mole in a sorrowful tone which brought life to that scene. Another great aspect of Kelly McGillis’ narration is that she provides a wide variety of vocal talents like Robin Williams when she uses a high-pitched voice to voice the field mouse and a croaking voice when she voices the toad. Mark Isham’s music is extremely soothing and memorizing to listen to and the scene where Mark Isham’s music takes center stage is in the scene where Thumbelina finds the flower angels’ kingdom as Mark Isham accompanies this scene with soothing guitar sounds. David Johnson’s illustrations are extremely beautiful and light toned especially when he illustrates Thumbelina as an extremely beautiful girl with blond hair wrapped up in a braided ponytail and who wears a blue overall dress. Also, the scene where there is an image of the white marble palace by the lake is extremely breathtaking as you can see the reflection of the palace in the lake.

“Thumbelina” is probably Rabbit Ears’ most beloved story and it will surely be an instant treat to children young and old. I would recommend this story to children ages three and older since it has nothing inappropriate for the children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre: Animals / Classic / Mischief

Year Published: 1904

Year Read:  1994

Publisher: Warne

“The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is the fourth book made in Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit” books and it is about how Peter’s cousin Benjamin convinces Peter to come to Mr. McGregor’s garden to get Peter’s clothes back.  “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is a truly memorable follow up to the classic tale “Peter Rabbit.”

The book starts off with Benjamin Bunny watching Mr. and Mrs. McGregor going out for the day and he decided to get his cousin Peter to come along with him to Mr. McGregor’s garden to get Peter’s clothes back.

Oh my goodness!  Beatrix Potter has certainly outdone herself in this classic follow up to the ever popular children’s book “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.” Beatrix Potter’s writing is extremely cute and interesting as it details Peter and Benjamin’s adventures in Mr. McGregor’s garden.  I loved how the role of “mischievous little troublemaker” is switched to Benjamin Bunny instead of Peter Rabbit as Peter is constantly shown as being afraid in ever image.  Since I have read “ The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” I cannot really blame Peter for being so jumpy after the scare he had when he went to Mr. McGregor’s garden and I personally would have been scared too if I went back to a place that scared the daylights out of me.  It was interesting seeing another character who was as naughty as Peter was and what made Benjamin into such an endearing character was that he remained optimistic about the situation.  Beatrix Potter's illustrations are extremely cute as most of the main characters are animals.  My favorite illustrations were of the mice cracking cherry stones as they look extremely realistic yet cute at the same time as they huddled up next to each other and looked so adorable eating the cherry stones.

Overall, “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is a truly cute and wonderful classic tale from Beatrix Potter about the consequences of being naughty!  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog