Take Me Home: Forests of the World
by Pavla Hanackova, Linh Dao (Illustrator)
4 out of 5 stars
Charlie encounters animals that have been illegally smuggled away from their homes, and he determines to help them find their way back to their native forests. The panda goes back to the bamboo forest, the koala prefers a eucalyptus tree, the lemur finds a home in the spiny forest of Madagascar, and the sloth loves the heat of a tropical rainforest. There is even an otter who prefers the kelp forest underwater!

This book includes factoids about all types of forests. It has illustrations showing amazing animals and birds that live in each location. We learn about all the beautiful trees in each type of forest, and how the animals survive harsh climates.

Take Me Home: Waters of the World
by Pavla Hanackova, Linh Dao (Illustrator)
4 out of 5 stars
Annie discovers several animals washed up on a beach and determines to help them find their homes again. The penguin returns to the polar sea, and the alligator returns to the wetland swamp, a piranha find his home in the Amazon river, and a little frog goes hopping into a lake.

This book includes factoids about all the types of bodies of water from rivers to coral reefs. It has illustrations showing amazing animals and fish that live in each location. We learn about all the weird and wild fish in the sea, and how they use disguises to fool their predators. We learn about the deepest lakes, the coldest seas, and all the cool oceans in between.

Let’s Pretend Animal Hospital
by Nicola Edwards, Thomas Elliott (Illustrations)
4 out of 5 stars

In this board book, the veterinarians are busy in the animal hospital. They have to care for all kinds of animals from big horses to little bunnies. They need special tools like nail clippers, a stethoscope, and rubber gloves. They can set broken bones or just give a doggie a much-needed bath.

The children in the photos are caring for animals and dressed up like little vets. It’s so cute! Each page is full of bright pictures of different animals and the tools the vets use to heal them. And the pages all have different edges outlining the animals or background scenes, making it a lot of fun to turn the pages!

Bruno the Beekeeper: A Honey Primer
by Aneta Františka Holasová
3 out of 5 stars

This book gives detailed information about how to care for your own beehive. It includes the lifecycles of worker bees, drones, and the queens. We learn how to harvest honey, how to use the wax to make candles, and how to keep bees happy and healthy all year round.

The book is very text-heavy in some places. It does not read like a children’s picture book, but more like a textbook. It’s very interesting and thorough, and I enjoyed learning all about beekeeping. However, I don’t think you could really use this book to start beekeeping on your own. It doesn’t always explain the exact details of how to do things.

A Teeny-Tiny History of Philosophy: A Children’s Introduction to the Great Thinkers of the Philosophical Tradition (Philosophy Friends! Book 7)
by Francisco Mejia Uribe (Goodreads Author)
2 out of 5 stars

This book presents famous philosophers through history and gives an overview of their most popular ideas and beliefs. These include Aristotle, John Locke, Karl Marx, Nietzsche, and Descartes, with many others.

I certainly don’t agree with many of the philosophies presented in this book, but I think this would be a great way to introduce these ideas to young people and start a dialogue about why some of these philosophies don’t actually work in real life. Some of them have merit, but don’t align with reality. They are like dreams that sound nice, but lead to destruction. Other beliefs in this book are rooted in reality and have sound logic behind them.