"Sullivan's notes, on Melvin Wine and Jake Krack and the tunes, round out a lovely, resonant offering. (resources) (Picture book. 5-8)"
Sullivan reverently celebrates a musical apprenticeship that spans generations in this poetic narrative based on a real-life relationship and punctuated by the titular phrase.
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In her characteristic stripped-down verse, Kay fashions the attributes and enterprise of the Pony Express, which is celebrating its sesquicentennial.
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"Wonderful. (author's note about recycling plastic bags) (Picture book. 5-8)"
In his first children's title, former Poet Laureate Kooser follows a plastic grocery bag, "just the color of the skin of a yellow onion," on a skittering journey from landfill to thrift shop.
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"Root's illustrations often use a warm gold palette for interior scenes in Wilma's sunny kitchen and outdoors on her farm in summer; winter vistas show deep blue skies with speckles of falling snow, deep green trees and glowing lights from distant farmhouses. (Picture book. 4-7)"
Wilma is a successful gardener who lives happily by herself on a farm in New England.
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"This is addressed more to parents than children, but the tree's role adds a touch of magic that may appeal to younger listeners. (Picture book. 7-9, adult)"
A new illustrator gives both color and more variety in the visuals to Fleischman's 1979 tale of a child who leaves but then comes back.
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"While less imaginative kids will be left wondering why Granny didn't hop a plane or drive her car, most will find her modes of transportation delightful and inspirational. (Picture book. 4-8)"
When Owen's distant Granny hears that he's a baby who goes "wiggly, jiggly, all-around giggly, and tip over tumble for bluegrass music," she just has to pack up her banjo and go dance with him.
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"Lots of great football talk and Root's rich colors of amber, green and deep blue bring the field to life. (Picture book. 6-10)"
Kids who have played any sport in a vital but unsung capacity will identify with this second outing from the Barbers, twin professional football players.
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"A cheerful, Bunyanesque episode that, like Loredo's Boogie Bones (1997), begs to be read aloud. (Picture book. 7-9)"
A quintet of infectiously grinning behemoths, a well-delivered punch line, and an unexplained joke left for young readers or listeners to figure out on their own buoy this globe-spanning game of "Giant Steps."
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"Older readers especially will be pleased and amused by Farish's evocative language as well as the rich array of subtle verbal and visual nuances here. (Picture book. 6-9)"
Root's spare, warm-hued rural scenes perfectly capture the tone of this tender tale about two curmudgeons—a grizzled "ol' Texas boy, country-raised, don't you know," and a cat—sharing one roof.
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"Deadpan expressions and low-key reactions enhance the ambiguity of this veteran illustrator's faintly offbeat solo debut. (Picture book. 6-8)"
The tone is light, the pictures are bright—but there's a hint of Stephen King in this tale of a big sister who loves playing doctor to small injured creatures so much that she won't let them go when they're healed.
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"Children will accept and appreciate the rhythm of a life they glimpse every day. (Picture book. 4-7)"
In propulsive rhymed couplets, Burleigh (Hercules, 1999, etc.) tells a day in the life of a bicycle messenger in a city inspired by Chicago.
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"Any way you slice it, this tuberous triumph will have readers rolling in the aisles. (Picture book. 7-9)"
Speed and Root (Two Cool Cows, 1995) pit a platoon of feisty prize spuds against grimacing chef Hackemup in this gleeful culinary contretemps.
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"A recipe for carrot pudding tops off this frolicsome adaptation of an old tale. (Picture book. 3-8)"
``It grew and it grew and it grew'' is a familiar chant among readers who know the classic Russian folktale of the giant turnip.
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"Most readers will appreciate the romance of the lunar landing; adults will have a renewed feeling of affection for those exciting days. (Picture book. 4+)"
The narrator, a boy (or a short-haired girl), listens to his astronaut-grandfather's bedtime story about his trip to the moon and imagines himself along for the ride.
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"Accompanied by Root's lissome paintings, Speed reinvents words and manufactures frenzied couplets to introduce readers to a place where a predictably good time will be had by all. (Picture book. 4- 8)"
Two hip, sunglass-wearing Holsteins borrow some ``new black button-back boots'' and head for a party on the moon.
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"Brightly illustrated in watercolors, Ray's (A Rumbly Tumbly Glittery Gritty Place, not reviewed) tale is imaginative and humorous. (Fiction/Picture book. 5-8)"
For 31 years Arvilla has wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, but her husband Alvah, a practical, 19th-century New England farmer and man of few words, says, ``You can't have a farm and travel.'' So, for 31 years Arvilla and Alvah stay home, until one day Arvilla has an idea: to build a house on wheels, put all their animals in it, and bring the entire farm with them.
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"Root's dark, swirling paintings of the thoroughly haunted house, lit with a ghostly glow, are right in the proper spirit. (Picture book. 3-8)"
A nicely spooky cumulative Halloween tale that begins: ``One dark and stormy night Ghost floated out of the wall and he began to WAIL.
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"Root's sweeping brush strokes, affectionate caricatures, and sly humor are right in the spirit of the entertaining story. (Picture book. 4-9)"
A children's literature professor, reared in Alberta, makes a fine picture-book debut with some nicely understated tall tales about the warm, dry wind that sweeps down from the Rockies' eastern slopes.
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"Root captures this comically vertiginous balancing act with some flair; his designs are imaginative, though their execution is a bit sturdy for the frothy, entertaining story. (Picture book. 4-8)"
When a sparrow lands on one end of his pole, a tightrope walker pleads, ``Heaven help me!'' Bumbling Saint Tony happens to be on duty in Heaven's emergency room; he sends a second sparrow for the other end of the pole, but the first sparrow flies over to make friends with the second.
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