A modern yet timeless fable in which a child's observation sparks a paradigm shift for a society that values individual production and ownership. Read full book review >

After finally succeeding in getting some privacy for reading, a little rabbit learns about balancing isolation and socialization. Read full book review >

So many choices in a seemingly simple day! Read full book review >

Close your eyes and dream yourself into whatever you'd like to be! Read full book review >

Little Nelly reads a book that leads her to conclude that she is a mouse, because she is gray and has big ears and a skinny tail. Read full book review >

Goodhart spins several stanzas from a snatch of nursery rhyme with this tale of three ghosties, "eating burnt toasties, / telling big boasties" and then setting out to scare some "girlsies! Yeah, and boyses too!" Cantone's googly-eyed, comical figures are sure to inspire plenty of giggles, and so will the extended wordplay: Ghostie Number Two, for instance, emits a "BOOOO!" that causes "some mean witches / sitting in dark ditches, / lipsticking their lipses, / plotting evil trickses" to jump with the "frighties" and fly off in their "nighties / to hide in the deep dark wood." The child they try to scare, though, turns out to be waiting for them, and after a helter-skelter flight back to their posties, "sucking on their thumbsies, / waiting for their momsies," it's off to bed. Fine fare altogether for young readers more comfortable with feigned fright than the real sort. (Picture book. 5-8)Read full book review >

Pudgy is a lovable pup in this simple tale. Pudgy and a little girl named Lucy are both shy characters who are left out of the group. This makes them sad, and as a result "then Pudgy is bad," getting into mischief with stolen snacks, spilled milk, and muddy paw prints on the sofa. Pudgy runs away and the two little lost souls find each other in the woods, become friends, and decide to stay together. In six sentences, spread through the pages in phrases, Goodhart addresses a range of universal emotions. Church provides appealing, uncluttered illustrations in muted shades and simple shapes, with a collage effect in the subtly shaded backgrounds. Pudgy and Lucy have huge eyes and large heads, and the illustrator's flat, simple style makes them look like toys who have come to life. Older toddlers making the transition from board books to real stories are a natural audience for this effort, but the satisfying story and the volume's large size will also work for preschool or kindergarten story hours about dogs or friendship. (Picture book. 1½-5)Read full book review >

A dragon, a damsel in distress, and a knight in shining armor—recipe for a typical fairy tale? Not quite, thanks to the intrusion of a fussbudget farmer with a monumental case of tunnel vision. With eyes only for his beloved tractor, Arthur interprets the damsel's squeaks, the knight's thunderous arrival, and his clamorous fall, as calls to do a bit of maintenance on the sprocket spring sprigget, the bundle weaver, or some other temperamental agricultural gadget. Ignoring the fracas around him, Arthur carefully oils, curls, and sharpens, then, when needs must, enlists the combatants' aid for a bit of dragon-fired spot welding, helped by an elegantly gowned new assistant whose name, as it turns out, is Edith. After she compliments Arthur on his "finely tuned and turned-out tractor," and he notes that she's rather well-tuned and turned out herself, the stage is set for a decidedly atypical Happily Ever After. With cheerfully effervescent pen and brushwork, Paine (Big George, 2001, etc.) places rumpled-looking figures into sunny rural scenes, through which scamper various small, recognizable folk-tale figures. This lighthearted spin-off chugs along as merrily as the shiny red tractor at the center of it all. (Picture book. 6-8)Read full book review >

Another attempt at the oft-told story of Noah's Ark. This handsomely designed lino-cut version, reminiscent of the early woodcuts of Blair Lent, sports a modern-day Grandfather Noah— sort of a cross between Santa and Father Time. Alongside Noah is someone new to the old story, his grandson, Little Noah. This version emphasizes the step-by-step process of building a boat; human ingenuity is emphasized for all God will say is for Noah to ``work it out'' without divine plans or intervention. Little Noah comes up with the boat's shape and makeup, Noah with the boat's structure, and Mrs. Noah gets in on the act with a bit of cross-cut sawing and raising of planks. God provides Noah with a bit of shut-eye, while Mrs. Noah and Little Noah play ``I Spy'' aboard the ark. The biblical wickedness and consequent destruction and purging of the earth is omitted in this nearly secular account, leaving the tale without a context, yet replacing it with a folksy fable filled with levity rather than a moral. Diverting. (Picture book. 3-7) Read full book review >