Book Bunnies

Caramel reviews Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey and Tom Lichtenheld

Like many other little bunnies, Caramel loves machines used for building and construction. He also loves a good night story. Today he is reviewing a book that brings these two together: Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. As always, Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.

Caramel reviews Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. — Caramel reviews *Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site*, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, tell us about this book.

Caramel: This is a good book if you want to go to sleep. I bet all bunnies would like it.

S: What happens in the book?

C: There are five construction machines going to bed.

S: What do you mean? Do construction machines really ever go to bed?

C: Probably not. But in this book they do.

S: Hmm, so who are these five machines?

C: There is an Excavator, there is a Crane Truck, a Cement Mixer, a Bulldozer, and a Dump Truck. And they are all working all day long on a construction site. They do “construction play” apparently.

S: So they are like little kids playing in a sandbox and they are having a lot of fun all day, right?

C: Yes and no. They are in a sandbox, but they are not little kids.

S: But in the book they end up all going to sleep, right?

C: Yep.

S: Like tired little kids or bunnies who have played all day long…

C: Yeah. Exactly.

Caramel is reading Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. — Caramel is reading *Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site*, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.

S: So tell me more about the book.

C: The words all rhyme. Let me read you some. Here is how the book starts:

“Down in the big construction site,
The tough trucks work with all their might
To build a building, make a road
To get the job done–load by load!”

S: So do you read this book out loud?

C: Sometimes. But I also like it when you read it out loud to me.

S: Yes, it kind of feels like I am putting my little construction machine to bed when I am reading. So if you were a construction machine, which one would you be?

C: None of them. I don’t want to be a construction machine.

S: Then why do you like reading books about them going to bed?

C: I don’t know. I just like machines.

S: Yes, I do know that. You even reviewed a whole book on engineering for this blog. But it is a bit more than that I think. You like books and movies and such that have machines that think, feel, and play with friends. I remember how much you used to enjoy watching the Cars movies.

C: I do like technology. And I like playing with friends.

S: I guess that makes sense! Alright, did you recognize the drawing in the book? You reviewed another book illustrated by the same person; can you tell?

C: Not really. I do like the illustrations in this book a lot. I liked the ones in the other book, too. But I can’t tell they were done by the same person.

S: But you are right, the illustrator makes the construction machines cute and lovable, and you can somehow calm down and get ready to sleep by seeing them slowly go to sleep.

C: Yes. Let us read this book tonight!

S: Good idea!

C: And this is a good place to wrap up our review. Stay tuned for more book bunny adventures!

Caramel loves reading Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, before going to sleep. — Caramel loves reading *Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site*, written by Sherri Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, before going to sleep.

Marshmallow reviews Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age by Jeffrey Brown

Marshmallow reviews the second book in Jeffrey Brown’s Lucy and Andy Neanderthal series: Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age.

Last week Marshmallow reviewed They Called Us Enemy, written by the Star Trek veteran George Takei together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker. Today she wanted to review a more light-hearted graphic novel and she chose the second book of Jeffrey Brown’s Lucy & Andy Neanderthal series: Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age. For her review of the first book, Lucy and Andy Neanderthal, see here. (Caramel reviewed a book by Jeffrey Brown too; you might enjoy his review of My Teacher is a Robot.)

Marshmallow reviews Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age by Jeffrey Brown. — Marshmallow reviews *Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age* by Jeffrey Brown.

Marshmallow’s Overview: If you like graphic novels and movies or books about the ice age, then this might be the book for you. You can enjoy it even if you have not read the first book (or my review of it).

Marshmallow’s Summary: Lucy and Andy Neanderthal are living in the Ice Age and now are friends with a clan of humans. Some of the Neanderthals like Lucy are best friends with some of the humans (Sasha), but her brother, Andy, is not enjoying the humans that are living in his cave with him. One human child, named Richard, especially annoys him by making fun of him. But he does make friends with a boy named Tommy who is scared of cave bears.

Lucy and Andy have fun with their new friends. They go to the beach and collect shells. They also face a cave bear. In the end, Sasha’s mom has a new child and so Sasha becomes an older sister.

Marshmallow is reading Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age by Jeffrey Brown. — Marshmallow is reading *Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age* by Jeffrey Brown.

Marshmallow’s Review: I enjoyed this book very much. Like the last book I reviewed this is a graphic novel. It has funny drawing and will make readers read it in one sitting. This book has excellent characters that are amusing, relatable, and interesting. It also has facts that intertwine fiction and nonfiction.

“Fact and fiction cleverly collide in this prehistoric romp.“
Shelf Awareness

The above quote describes this excellent book well. It is fun and entertaining to think about how humans and neanderthals must have interacted. The book is full of facts but is also completely hilarious. If you enjoyed the first book, you will certainly enjoy this one too.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading and rereading this terrific book about Neanderthals and the Ice Age. The author, Jeffrey Brown, draws hilarious drawings that describe that characters personalities. This is a very good book that can be read and reread over and over again. I would recommend it to any and all bunnies who like books and want to laugh out loud while reading.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age by Jeffrey Brown 100%. — Marshmallow rates *Lucy and Andy Neanderthal: Stone Cold Age* by Jeffrey Brown 100%.

Caramel reviews 5-Minute Star Wars Stories by LucasFilm Press

Caramel reviews 5-Minute Star Wars Stories by LucasFilm Press.

Caramel is a little Star Wars fan even though he has only watched four of the movies (Episodes I and IV-VI) so far. He is very curious about the upcoming ninth installment of the franchise and so he was excited to get his paws on this book of stories from the movies. Below he shares his enthusiasm about this book as well as his excitement about the whole series. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, what do you want to tell us about this book?

Caramel: This book has a lot of stories from the Star Wars movies.

S: How many stories are there?

C: There are eleven stories.

S: Are they related to the Star Wars movies?

C: Yes. Each of the eleven stories is from one of the movies. So for example the first story is “Race to the Finish Line” and it is from The Phantom Menace.

S: And then the rest of it goes from there, right? The stories seem to be following the movies in chronological order. That means the stories follow the timeline of the movies. Is that correct?

C: No. Not quite. The book starts from Episode I and the movies started started with Episode IV.

S: Yes in that sense the book is not following the order of the movies, but if you ordered the movies in terms of the timeline of the events happening, then you would have Episode I first.

C: I guess that is true.

Caramel is reading The Last Adventure" from The Revenge of the Sith (Episode III). — Caramel is reading The Last Adventure” from *The Revenge of the Sith* (Episode III).

S: Ok, so tell me about one of the stories you like.

C: The first story is about Anakin Skywalker. He is trying to win a pod race.

S: What is a pod race?

C: It’s hard to explain, it’s kind of like a car race, except they are flying in the air. They are in pods connected to two jet engines. And they go really fast.

S: Anakin is a kid in this story, right? So are all the other racers kids like Anakin?

C: Nope. But he is a good pilot and he wins!

S: Oh, that is what happens in the movie The Phantom Menace, too. So it seems like the stories are from the movies. Is that correct?

C: Yes. But actually I don’t know. I haven’t watched all the movies yet.

S: That is true! We have so far only watched Episodes I, IV, V, and VI. And I bet you don’t remember Episodes IV, V, and VI too well, either. You were a very much younger bunny then.

C: Yes that is true. But maybe we will watch them all in order now that we have watched Episode I.

S: Yes, I think that will be neat. And then if we can finish all eight by December, then we might even catch the ninth episode in the theaters. Would you like that?

C: Yeah! That sounds awesome!

S: So till then we get to read the stories here. Can you tell me a bit more about the stories? Which movies are the stories from?

C: The first story is called “Race to the Finish Line” and is from The Phantom Menace. The second one is from Attack of the Clones and is called “Yoda and the Count”. The third story is “The Last Adventure” and is from Revenge of the Sith. The next story is “Escape From Darth Vader” and is from A New Hope.

S: That’s the fourth movie, the very first Star Wars movie ever made.

C: And the first one we watched. Ok, let me continue. The next story is “Destroy the Death Star!” and it is also from Episode IV. The next story is “The Battle of Hoth” and is from The Empire Strikes Back. The next two are from Return of the Jedi. And the last two are from The Force Awakens.

S: That is Episode VII. And we have not watched it yet. But there are no stories from Episode VIII then, right?

C: That’s correct.

S: So I guess the book was published before then and so we will just have to watch The Last Jedi ourselves… But tell me, do you like this book?

C: Yep. The stories are cool, they also have really good illustrations.

S: So they are not screenshots from the movies, are they?

C: No, they are drawn by some really good artists.

S: That’s neat Caramel. So I think this is a good place to end our review so you can continue flipping through the pages and reading these stories for the umpteenth time. Right?

C: This is only my fifth time I think, but yes, it is time to finish the review. And I can now say: Stay tuned for more book bunnies adventures! Oh and I will add: May the Force be with you!

Caramel loved 5-Minute Star Wars Stories by LucasFilm Press and wants to say: May the Force be with you! — Caramel loved *5-Minute Star Wars Stories* by LucasFilm Press and wants to say: May the Force be with you!

Marshmallow reviews They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Marshmallow enjoys graphic novels just like many other bunnies, but she has been especially taken by a 2019 book, the memoir They Called Us Enemy, written by the Star Trek veteran George Takei together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker. Below she shares her thoughts on this striking book.

Marshmallow reviews They Called Us Enemy, written by the Star Trek veteran George Takei together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker. — Marshmallow reviews *They Called Us Enemy*, written by the Star Trek veteran George Takei together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker.

Marshmallow’s Overview: In the book They Called Us Enemy, George Takei writes about what it was like to live in a Japanese internment camp. The internment camps were places where the USA put Japanese Americans and people who had come from Japan to find better opportunities in the USA during the second world war.

This was a dark time in American history that is not always emphasized. According to Wikipedia:

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government … The legislation admitted that government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

George Takei was put in an internment camp when he was a little boy. He stayed there for four years. The time that he spent in the camps was very important and affected his whole life. This book tells his story.

Marshmallow’s Summary: One day, George wakes up and he and his family are ordered to leave their home. As a reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US government gathered most Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans and put them in the camps because many Americans thought that they might betray the United States of America. George does not realize any of this because he is a little boy at the time that he is put in the camp.

George’s family has to board a train to get to the camp and they can only bring what they can carry and that is not much. To add on to that, the government makes them sell everything else that they own.

When they get to the camp, they see that it is in the middle of nowhere and that they are surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers that have men with guns watching then. George and his family, which includes his brother, Henry, his sister, Nancy Reiko, his father, Takekuma Norman Takei, and his mother, Fumiko Emily Nakamura, have to sleep in a tiny house split by walls that are not sound-proof and their neighbors are able to hear everything that they say. So, in the end the parents decide that they will speak Japanese to each other when talking about private stuff.

They Called Us Enemy is a graphic novel with very realistic drawings. Marshmallow is pointing to the page where George’s parents are frustrated and outraged by the way they are treated.

When they come to the house it is very hot. The book compares it to a furnace. When they were in the camp, many people lose loved ones. For example, Mrs. Takahashi loses her husband because he is a Buddhist minister. She has four children. Those four children lose their father. Mr. Yasuda is taken by federal agents because he is teaching children how to speak Japanese.

“Their husbands’ only crimes were that they occupied highly visible positions…”

Not only are they being taken from their homes, but they are also losing family and friends.

Marshmallow’s Review: This was a very bad time for many people and this book shows how devastating it was. It is a very good book that captures the essence of how important this event is in American history. The internment of Japanese Americans was a big event especially for people who suffered though it and lost members of their family and friends. It is also important for us today. We need to know our past so we don’t make similar mistakes in the future.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, written together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker, 100%. — Marshmallow rates *They Called Us Enemy*, by George Takei, written together with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker, 100%.