(1) K-3 Illustrated by Marla Frazee. As an introduction by the late Hoberman­ explains, for this collection she selected favorite poems of hers “about animals and insects” from past books no longer in print and also wrote eight new poems. Frazee’s delightfully energetic pencil and watercolor illustrations bring together the verses into a cohesive new whole -- she sets them at an animal hotel, complete with a spa, yoga classes, and a chocolate fountain. Characters recur (the squirrel bellhops are kept busy), and some subjects are creatively reinterpreted (the extinct brachiosaurus can’t be a guest, but it can provide the shape for the ­playground slide). The poems themselves are full of whimsical wildlife observations (“I often wonder whether / The rhinoceros’s leather / Is as bumpy on the inside / As it is upon the skinside”) and satisfyingly show off Hoberman’s facility with wordplay and with rhyme, meter, and inventive line breaks (“birds / need / bird / seed / bird / seed / feeds / birds / birds / sing / bird / songs / songs / with / bird /words”). A hotel worth checking into—and a collaboration worth checking out.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Patrice Barton. In rhyming verse, a little girl celebrates hand-me-down clothing, and imagines the past lives of "Clothes with a history. / Clothes with a mystery." This new edition features Hoberman's original text but offers brand-new illustrations; Barton is up to the challenge: her digitally assembled and painted pencil-sketch and mixed-media pictures are tender and have an ethereal glow.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: August, 1976

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Emberley. This reliable series gets a refreshing variation, with its signature phrase ("you read to me! / I'll read to you!") replaced by pithy rhyming morals. The thirteen fables are mostly familiar; their traditional structure makes them a canny choice for the color-coded poems for two voices. Hoberman is really the master of unforced rhyme, and Emberley's pencil-and-watercolor illustrations are consistently spry.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2011

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin. Hoberman's Depression-era story tells of Allie and her family's adjustment to their new life on Strawberry Hill. For Allie, who's Jewish, finding a new best friend in this more diverse neighborhood is a challenge; choosing between a popular girl and a social outcast proves harder than she'd expected. Well-shaded black-and-white illustrations evocative of the time period illustrate the story.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Marc Boutavant. Hoberman's jaunty, galloping rhyme explains how all kinds of objects--not just people and animals--can be organized into groups, or families: "Bottle caps, gingersnaps, buttons, or rings / You can make families from all sorts of things!" In the inventive illustrations, Boutavant puts amusing faces on inanimate objects; his detailed, digitally created pictures invite readers to spot families not mentioned in the rhyme.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) PS Illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. A little girl is very excited about her first overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's. She draws with Grandpa and cooks with Grandma, but while getting ready for bed, she begins to miss home. Grandma comforts her with the history of the old quilt she's sleeping under. Bright but cozy paintings complement the bouncy rhyme about a child conquering homesickness.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Emberley. As with the previous volumes, this book includes short rhyming stories to be read aloud by two voices, with the text color-coded for ease of use. The focus here is monsters and Halloween creatures. Despite the spooky title, Emberley's pencil, watercolor, and dry pastel illustrations play up the fun, not the frights, of the holiday.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Emberley. Like its predecessor, this lap-friendly volume includes a handful of rhyming short stories designed to be read aloud by two readers. The verse is sprightly and conversational; each story is a mild but clever takeoff on a familiar tale. Emberley's line is elegant as well as funny, the colors are fresh, and with a plenitude of vignettes for each story, still-new readers get plenty of clues.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2004

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. Westcott's comic watercolors enhance this somewhat awkward rendition of the silly song. Tied to a train track as punishment for eating three red shirts, a goat saves his skin by coughing up the clothes and using them to flag down a train. He offers the shirts to the animals on board but ends up eating the clothes anyway. A few bars of music are printed on one of the endpapers.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) PS Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith. After his cat, Pistachio, disappears, Ned begins hunting: "And so he started out to look / Straight through the pages of this book." Each busy collage illustration contains an oversize page number and graphic references to that number: for example, page four features four-leaf clovers and a golfer shouting "Four!" The illustrations occasionally don't include details mentioned in the clever rhyming text.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) PS Illustrated by Nicholas Wilton. "In spring the wind whips up a kite / Right outside my window. / Silver raindrops catch the light / Right outside my window." The rhymes about seasonal scenes witnessed outside the unseen narrator's window are somewhat trite, but the textured paintings on a concrete surface with visible brushstrokes create vital, almost iconic folk art scenes.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(2) PS Illustrated by Meilo So. This delectable collaboration reveals that some animals, like people, are easier to impress than others. A dog says to a boy, "I bet you can't growl." The boy can, though: "'It's simple,' said Simon." He then mimics the cat and horse he meets. When he meets a tiger, though, the challenge is tougher. The streamlined text is accompanied by nimble artwork that exhibits a pleasing symmetry.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2001

(3) PS Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. This small board book edition loses nothing in the new format. The story is an extended poem, adapted from the popular clapping game and song, which explains the further adventures of Mary Mack, her silver buttons, and the famous jumping elephant. Westcott's illustrations are as silly as the subject.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) PS Illustrated by Michael Emberley. Twelve "very short stories" are presented as poems for partners. Each poem bounces back and forth between readers beautifully, with the rhyming lines distributed democratically between the voices and the unison couplets and quatrains. While readers will probably be too intent upon keeping their places to look much at the illustrations, the art is nicely varied and thoughtfully designed to complement each of the selections.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2001

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. What does the eensy-weensy spider do after she climbs up the water spout? Hoberman has created new verses describing the rest of her day, from joining a parade, to buying six new shoes, to her mama's finally tucking her into bed at night. Joyful watercolor illustrations add whimsical details to the spider's adventures. Music and directions for hand motions are included.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Lynne Cravath. When Silly Lilly admires Sammy's cat and asks how to get one, he gives her step-by-step instructions that seem to make no sense at all: cut down some trees, build a shed, buy a cow, and milk the cow. Voilà! A cat! Sammy's fear of mice is handled by similar instructions from Lilly. Short sentences use monosyllabic words and rhyme to great effect. The brightly colored cartoon-style art adds just the right touch of exaggerated humor.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2000

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Inspired by And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, the rhyming narrative begins with a sibling fight and its happy resolution. The plot quickly widens to animosity in the neighborhood adroitly avoided, then the town, until finally worldwide friendship is achieved. Madcap illustrations, executed in acrylics, revel in absurdities while enhancing the colorful rhyme.

Reviewer: Joan Scanlon McMath

(2) K-3 Although perhaps best taken in small doses, this collection of some forty years of Hoberman verse is a charmer. The poems--peppy verses immediately identifiable as Hoberman's by their use of alliteration and repeated words and lines--seem to cover every subject under the sun; all are dependably child-centered. Further bonuses are Fraser's delicate yet merry watercolors and the varied, imaginative page design. Ind.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(3) PS In this expanded version of the popular hand-clapping rhyme, the elephant (who's "jumped so high... / He reached the sky... / And didn't come back... / Till the fourth of July...") lands in the middle of a picnic where Mary Mack promises him her silver buttons if he doesn't go back to the zoo. Westcott's loose and humorous illustrations add to the necessarily limited text. A melody line and instructions for hand-clapping are included on the front endpapers.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.