The Last Hurrah! (But never the last book)

This is it--the last official day of summer. Of course I've spent most of the last few days at work, trying to re-organize the library for huge class sizes this year. Now don't think I'm taking any sort of break from reading! I've got four things going right now: Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of America, a book of letters by famous children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom Dear Genius, the latest Science and Children Magazine, and School Library Monthly. Plus I read three other new Mo Willems books I didn't list. So there. On to the reviews...

Hide and Seek by Katy Grant (ISBN: 978-1-56145-542-3)
Chase lives with his mom, stepfather, and two sisters in the White Mountains of Arizona. Since his parents run a store and tourist cabins, he has a lot of unpaid work to do every day, but although he sometimes feels put-upon his life is really pretty great. He can leap on his bike whenever his chores are done and ride out into the mountains to go exploring. Exploring is even more fun with his new GPS, because he can use it to find geocaches--hidden treasure boxes that other people have hidden. The game is to find the box using only GPS coordinates. Chase finds his first geocache, which is exciting enough, but what does the mysterious message in the cache's logbook mean? It sounds like someone needs help...This is one of those stories where, as a mom, it's a little hard to read because I just want to yell at the kid "Don't you see you're in over your head? Go tell an adult what's going on already!!" But they never do! Chase wants to do the right thing, and he makes choices that are realistic for someone his age. His emotions when things aren't going so well are realistic too. If you like adventure stories, you'll like this book. 
The Goffstown News (a local newspaper. OK, so I ran out of quick books that day.) 
The Horn Book, Sept/Oct
Have I said this is my absolute favorite source for reviews? So many good books--It kills me that I don't have a budget (at all!!!) to buy any.
Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems (ISBN: 978-142314343-7)
Oh Mo, you are so brilliant. This is another classic Elephant and Piggie book. Gerald the elephant's expressions are so readable, sooooooo funny. I don't know if kids get the subtlety when they read them independently, but it's easy to punch it up with voices when you're reading aloud. Even though I don't have little kids at home anymore, I buy every new one of the easy readers that comes out because I love them so much--and then donate them to the library, of course!