The difference in this counting book is the difference—it's all about subtraction. Read full book review >

Schaefer starts with one sunflower growing tall in her garden and shows how just one makes many. Read full book review >

Crews (Shortcut, 1992, etc.) uses, to great effect, the contrast of the night sky and the gaudy lights of typical fair amusements in his picture book of very few words but very kinetic images. Read full book review >

Shannon (April Showers, 1995, etc.) has created an alphabet book that demands of readers imaginative, often arbitrary leaps, from what is to what will be. ``B is for eggs—tomorrow's BIRDS'' and ``R is for grapes—tomorrow's RAISINS.'' Wheat to flour, clay to pot, caterpillar to moth: Most of the letter play will spark recognition, but the associations of a few are fairly oblique for ABC readers. Read full book review >

A wooden box—an empty cube—makes a fine receptacle for items signifying, one by one, the months of the year, whose names accumulate in the left-hand margin as the objects—``a red foil heart, a robin's feather, a purple eggshell,'' etc., in hand- tinted b&w photos combined for a collage-like effect—are introduced and then mount up in the box. Read full book review >

In a return to Bigmama's (1991) small Florida community for a second story based on Crews's childhood memories, a group of children walking through a narrow railroad cut have to dive into the brambles when an unexpected train rockets past. Read full book review >