Jennifer Fosberry and her illustrator, Mike Litwin, echo in a book what a little boy in 1980 announced to his mother, “I love to read! You can go anywhere and be anything; all you have to do is read a book.” In Isabella Star of the Story, on a trip to the library, Isabella checks out classic children’s books, looking for the just the right ones. She imagines herself to be Peter Pan, Goldilocks, Captain Nemo, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy. After she follows the yellow brick road to the checkout desk she goes home to read one adventure before bed and a plan to read the rest tomorrow.
Adults will like (or maybe not) the puns sprinkled into the parents’ dialogue. There is an epilogue with with information about every book Isabella chooses, a bibliography and a list of source websites. 
Isabella Star of the Story is the fourth book in the Fosberry/Litwin series. An earlier book, My Name is Not Alexander, follows Alexander as he imagines himself as a few of the great men from US history. When he wakes up, he is Teddy Roosevelt, at breakfast Thomas Edison and loading up the car he is Chief Joseph. Later, while visiting his grandmother, he is Fred Astaire as he takes her for a turn around the room. After dinner he is Jackie Robinson and while getting ready for a campout he imagines himself as Daddy, “the greatest, coolest father who ever was”. As he drifts off to sleep under the stars, Alexander dreams about who he will be tomorrow.
Look for the puns in the father’s dialogue and biographies of the “men who changed the world” in the epilogue, as well as a bibliography and source websites.
A copy of My Name is not Alexander can be found at the Sonoma County Library. Isabella Star of the Story was published April 2, so there are no copies in the library yet. But they do have a copy of Isabella: Girl on the Go and My Name is not Isabella.
Jennifer Fosberry will be at Copperfield’s in Montgomery Village at 3:30 PM on April 16th. All month, the store has had a display of her books. Rest assured, they will have many copies available.
The AR levels of the books range from 2.5 to 2.8.
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