Along A Long Road

Written and illustrated by Frank Viva

Little, Brown, 2011

$16.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages

One read through Frank Viva's debut and you'll feel as if you've sailed the coast in a bicycle.

The New Yorker illustrator celebrates the exhilaration of riding a bicycle and going as fast as your feet will pedal in his first picture book.

A rider flies down a seaside road through woods, between electrical towers, up a hill, around a town, into a tunnel, over a bridge and through a city, only to want to do it all over again.

The images are fluid and freeing and give you the sense of being let loose on a journey that could be endless, like a boat gliding out to sea, even as you keep to the road.

The Fabled Fifth Graders of Aesop Elementary School

By Candace Fleming

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2010

$15.99, ages 7-11, 176 pages

Only one adult is willing to take on the crazy fifth-grade kids at Aesop Elementary: their teacher from last year, Mr. Jupiter, a wry fellow who appreciates what it means to be different.

But how will Mr. Jupiter get through to kids who've driven every other teacher at Aesop up the wall? Will one man's pain truly be another man's pleasure, as the moral goes?

In this hilarious followup to the 2007 hit The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School, Mr. Jupiter's class returns a year later, but with as many quirks as ever.

Through 12 laugh-out-loud fables, Fleming follows the crazy adventures of these unique yet relatable 10-year-olds as they learn to do weird body tricks, conjure up a rain storm and care for a pet Burmese guinea pig with a melodious "eek."

Fleming's fast-paced sequel celebrates the adventure of learning, or as Mr. Jupiter would say, "doing boldly what you do at all."