Ms. Bartlett's Picks of the Week - Jan. 22-26

You can't tell with the picture at this size, but Bob has sunglasses on.

Dinosaur Bob and his adventures with the family Lazardo by William Joyce

Young Scotty Lazardo finds a dinosaur in Africa, who is promptly named Bob. Bob returns to California with the Lazardos but manages to get into some trouble with the police who want to send him back. What trick does Bob have up his sleeve that might save him?

The pictures in this book (which I recently discovered) are clean, bright, and absolutely charming. The story is clever and subtle and Bob's facial expressions are fantastic. Besides all that, who wouldn't want a dinosaur as a pet?

Pinky & Stinky by James Kochalka

Pinky and Stinky are two piglets sent into space on a mission to Pluto. Stinky isn't treating things as seriously as Pinky would like, and disaster soon strikes when the piglets' spacecraft hits and asteroid and hurtles out of control towards the moon.

The piglets find themselves in a bit of a pickle when they land and it is up to Stinky to develop a plan to save them. During the course of their adventures the two piglets encounter Moon-Men, human astronauts, a talking rocket, and a princess who thinks they're "cuties."