Simon is a book series about a 5 year-old polar bear who is always OK with life being OK. And that’s a good thing because a lot of the time, his life isn’t OK. Whether Simon is going fishing with his best friend Carp, the fish, or pinning the tail on the whale at his birthday party, preschool and primary children will laugh at all the outrageous situations he finds himself in. Let’s just say…there’s no fairy godmother in this series.

 Penelopop is a book series for primary kids about a young girl who’s precocious, clever and a musical prodigy who uses her instruments to express whatever she wants…the good, the bad and sometimes the bizarre. Whether she’s tooting her piccolo at the symphony, playing her trombone for the Queen, or strumming her ukulele at an art gallery, each book will flow similarly to a crescendo starting fairly slowly at first and then increasing in loudness to the point where the noise will eventually knock the socks off the reader.

And there’s a moment in every book where Penelopop thinks smugly to herself, “Look at the big mess I just created.” And we also bet that you’ll probably think, “What an obnoxious little brat she is.” And she’d be right and you’d be right. But, she’s the smartest and most interesting brat we’ve ever met.

Warning… 

if you’re sensitive to noise or frenetic sounds, cover your ears…Penelopop is here and it’s about to get a whole lot louder!

Clumsy little Ethel is always stumbling around. She hopes by dancing, playing soccer, swimming, and teaching a friend how to  fly will somehow help her move more gracefully.  Sadly, none of it works and she always ends up flat on her face or on her beak or worse still, on her bum.  But all the bangs and booms don't stop her for long.  Well...not that long 'cause Ethel is all about springing back into action.

Let's face it, grown-ups are strange when they talk about pee, stranger when they see a heaping pile of pooh and just weird when they fart and pretend they have no idea where it came from.  Really?!?!  Well...no longer 'cause The Stink Series celebrates peeing, poohing and letting loud, smelly farts fly! 

Cecil, the most beautiful bird at the zoo, is trapped in a cage.  When he finally breaks loose, he is free to do what he does best…wiggle his tail, kick up his feet and dance on his toes.  His awesome moves draw crowds wherever he goes.   Cecil’s life is perfect until one day…the zookeeper spots him.

Imagine a beaver having trouble building a dam.  Isn't that what beavers do?  Not Bedford…his dam looks awful…absolutely awful!  It's not until Bedford goes to see Dr. Better, the eye doctor, that he discovers that his eyeballs are shaped liked footballs.  Wearing his fabulous new glasses,  Bedford is able to go back to building dams…the way it should be done.  At least, close enough.

Every day, Shahad came to school with perfect hair.  It was perfectly combed and perfectly braided and the ribbons…they were perfectly tied. But Shahad’s perfect hair couldn’t hide the scar on her face. Until Ms. Truong convinced her that she was not only beautiful…she was spectacularly beautiful.

MISS PING is historical fiction based on the life of Thelma Thall, the American Ping Pong superstar who was partly responsible for opening up China to the US in 1970’s.  At the time, most people thought the game of Ping Pong was gentle.  All you needed was a paddle, a ball and a table.  It was a fun game that everyone could play.  The worst that could happen was a ball to the eye or a paddle chop.  

Those people were wrong.  When the American PING PONG team was invited to The People’s Republic of China in 1971, the government decided that the sport would be used as tool for international diplomacy.  With that came tremendous pressure on the team.  Most of the players were able to cope.  Some weren’t.

The Mayo Clinic defines Narcissistic Mental Disorder as a disease in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

In the movie, Simply Perfect, Tiff, the narcissistic mother, covers up the profound dysfunction she creates in her family.  She’s smart, good-looking and seductive which enables her to hide behind much of her sadistic behavior…but not forever.  As her own dark past surfaces, she systematically destroys every relationship in her inner circle.  Bree, her youngest daughter, who initially cracks under her mother’s tyranny, heroically finds her own identity.  Nicki, the eldest, numbs her pain with drugs and eventually ends up in prison.  Aidan, Tiff’s husband, finds comfort in the affection of a family friend…the same friend whose company makes the Simply Perfect cakes.  Although this family drama is tragic at its core, it’s juxtaposed with a beautiful rose garden, sexual desire and a Simply Perfect chocolate layered cake that makes it all weirdly delicious.    

To all you Middle Readers, how do you feel about rules?  If you’re the kind of kid that always follows them without ever questioning them or having the urge to break them, then you’ll probably want to read this. And…if you’re the kind of kid that constantly has an itch to break them, you also might NOT want to miss this.

But before you start reading, you should probably put on a hard hat, a good solid pair of steel toe boots and buy a few cans of air freshener.

Simon plays hockey for the Polars. He’s the goalie. When a puck flies at him, he drops to his knees, and spreads his arms out like a BIG, BOLD butterfly.  And no puck can get by that. His best friend, Bedford, plays centre. He uses his teeth to look fierce. And Simon’s mother is the coach.  She rings the bell when there’s a goal. Their team is the best in the league until Simon’s mother decides to servehot chocolate...ON THE ICE!

lisa-lucas@live.com