I really didn't expect to get much out of a children's picture book on rocks. Rocks are, well, rocks! I was wrong. Mrs. Kittinger has done a fine job in presenting various types of rock, how they are formed in nature (with a significant emphasis on volcanoes) and the various fascinating and often beautiful varieties of rocks. There are many stunning photos and fascinating statistics on rock-related items from Mount Rushmore (and it's lesser known "sister-sculpture" – Stone Mountain – of some "monumental" figures of the Confederacy) to the Grand Canyon to amazing volcano formations. The book also includes a glossary, an index, suggestions for further reading and internet resources for rock collectors.

There are indeed a million dots in the book, although the book states it would take over eleven days for the reader to actually count them! On each page one of the dot numbers is highlighted and a large illustration depicts what that number represents. For instance, dot number 265,000 represents the number of different kinds of moths and butterflies on earth, and dot number 615,100 represents the number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Kids and adults alike will like this book. Interesting, fun facts aided by the colorful illustrations over the dots provide a way to better understand how much a million really is!

Another fun book we found at our library on Abe Lincoln! A good way to help celebrate President's Day!

Little is known about Lincoln's playmate and the event told in this darling book. I liked the perspective the author and illustrator take to retell the tall, thin tale...!

Addition by Suchi, Feb 2024: Lincoln's friend, Austin Gollaher, told the tale of the 1816 event as follows.

I once saved Lincoln's life. We had been going to school together one year; but the next year we had no school, because there were so few scholars to attend, there being only about 20 in the school the year before.

Consequently Abe and I had not much to do; but as we did not go to school and our mothers were strict with us, we did not get to see each other very often. One Sunday morning my mother waked me up early, saying she was going to see Mrs. Lincoln, and that I could go along. Glad of the chance, I was soon dressed and ready to go. After my mother and I got there Abe and I played all through the day.

While we were wandering up and down the little stream called Knob Creek Abe said: 'Right up there' - pointing to the east - 'we saw a covey of partridges yesterday. Let's go over and get some of them.' The stream was swollen and was too wide for us to jump across. Finally, we saw a narrow foot-log, and we concluded to try it. It was narrow, but Abe said, 'Let's coon it.'

I went first and reached the other side all right. Abe went about half-way across, when he got scared and began trembling. I hollered to him, 'Don't look down nor up nor sideways, but look right at me and hold on tight!' But he fell off into the creek, and, as the water was about seven or eight feet deep, and I could not swim, and neither could Abe, I knew it would do no good for me to go in after him.

So I got a stick - a long water sprout - and held it out to him. He came up, grabbed with both hands, and I put the stick into his hands. He clung to it, and I pulled him out on the bank, almost dead. I got him by the arms and shook him well, and then rolled him on the ground, when the water poured out of his mouth.

He was all right very soon. We promised each other that we would never tell anybody about it, and never did for years. I never told any one of it until after Lincoln was killed.

This series for young readers, written by my favorite contemporary author, has all Husband and I look for in a children's book:

• excellent writing
• interesting story
• active, forward pace
• realistic character development and a setting that is foreign and fascinating
• and finally a virtuous protagonist

During a recent illness my ten-year-old and I spent a fair amount of time on the couch, and we took turns reading aloud three volumes of this series. I just requested the two others from our Inter Library Loan. A children's book is a winner when the teens and adults in the house stop to listen to the story. No juvenile fluff here, but interesting plots that appeal to anyone. Akimbo is the sweet, but courageous and clever young son of an African park ranger. Helping his dad, and armed with his noble soul and courage and determination, he is able to find adventure and ways to help others in each of the stories.

The illustrations are wonderful! We stopped at each illustrated page and made comments about how good they were. I am including one here that shows the amount of expression on young Akimbo's face as he tells the head ranger of what he just discovered...

Alexander McCall Smith, the author, grew up in Africa and returns there each year. He knows what he is writing about, and you can sense from his writing that in his heart there lives a deep love and admiration for Africa. I highly recommend this series for anyone looking for a good children's series!

Also see our review of Akimbo and the Lions, here.