What do you do when the person you're blood bound to protect is the person you fear the most?

Holy Moly! This story is creepy! This wonderfully written short story was perfect for a Halloween season read. It's only about an hour's read time, and in all honesty, I'm not sure I could've taken much more of the darkness held within these pages. It's rather like a train wreck - I wasn't sure I wanted to see, but couldn't look away. Considering the length of this tale, I won't go into details so as not to give spoilers, but I was amazed at how well the author conveys Katherine's terror, anguish, and utter helplessness as the story progresses. The creep factor always goes up when kids are involved and inside these pages, I found a nightmare to rival the likes of The Omen.

If you enjoy a good, scary tale, but are easily frightened, read this one is daylight! I'm glad I did. 

Plum is back with an all new adventure in Plenty of Love to go Around by Emma Chichester Clark!  Life is pretty great for Plum, also known as the Special One by her humans, Emma and Rupert.  She is even adored by the neighbor children, Sam and Gracie.  Until the day that Binky arrives....

Plum cannot believe her eyes!  Sam and Gracie are now the very proud owners of a CAT!  She is certain that no good can come out of this new addition.  Especially when Binky begins to follow her everywhere.

What is this poor pampered pooch to do?  Is it truly possible to be friends with a cat?  Is there really plenty of love to go around?

I was very excited to read the second installment in the Plum series and I was not disappointed.  Clark deals with the complicated emotion of jealousy from an animal's point of view.  I found this found this fresh perspective to be very entertaining as well as educational.

The illustrations are whimsical as well as adorable.  I love how Plum's eyes are so expressive!  I also love that the illustrations are hand drawn.  I feel that more and more drawing is becoming a lost art.

I greatly enjoyed following Plum on her journey through jealousy.  Children of all ages will fall in love with Plum and Binky.  This would be a great story to read before adopting a second pet or for parents who are expecting another child.

Prepare for adventures of the furry kind in Fuddles and Puddles by Frans Vischer.  Fuddles is a very fat  and spoiled cat.  He spends his days eating, sleeping and basking in the love of his family.  All of that changes when his family adopts a rambunctious puppy.

The family names the pup Puddles and he is completely enamored with Fuddles.  He follows Fuddles everywhere...including the litter box!  The poor stalked kitty can only get a break when the two are let outside to play.  

One day, Puddles takes things too far by eating Fuddles's food.  Fuddles decides to lay down the law.  Puddles soon learns to give Fuddles his space.  But what happens when the friend Fuddles didn't want becomes the friend that he desperately needs?

I simply adored this story from start to finish!  Being the proud fur mom to five dogs and two cats, I can definitely relate to the tensions that develop when a new pet is brought home.  The illustrations are gorgeously adorable.  I was quite surprised to see a two page spread illustration.  Vischer was able to beautifully convey an emotional scene through stunning illustrations.

I highly recommend this book to readers and animal lovers of all ages.  Anyone who has ever owned or fostered multiple pets will totally be able to relate to this fantastic tale.  The characters of Fuddles and Puddles are sure to enchant and delight both young and old. 

In the book, Molly gets jealous of her little brother, Ben. He is planning his birthday and Molly is not enjoying all the attention being on him. She has a very negative attitude towards her brother throughout the entire book. At the end Ben gets two baseball cards, Molly's old roller skates, a gum rapper chain, and a letter. The letter is sweet from Molly and Ben feels special. In the classroom we would read this book and then talk about if my students have ever felt jealous of someone else. I would have the students talk about why they felt this way and something they could have done to change the outcome.

I would then have a birthday chart and we would fill this out together. I would write students birthdays on my chart and begin a countdown for everyone's birthday. The students would then get a sheet of paper where I could tell them how many more days until their birthday. We would start a countdown with helps students to learn to count backwards.