(3) K-3 Precocious pig Olivia can make at least as much noise as an entire marching band, which is why she decides to bring along instruments to provide accompaniment for the Fourth of July fireworks. Falconer's droll black-and-white illustrations, with red and blue tossed in for patriotic good measure, capture his ever-popular heroine's never-dull antics. This paper-over-board edition is notable for its bargain price.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(3) 1-3 Nine-year-old Lowji is sad to leave Bombay for small-town Illinois--until he realizes that he'll finally be able to get a pet. Unfortunately, his new place has the same no-pets rule as his old apartment. Likable Lowji finds a way around that rule in this humorous story told in short chapters that make this book accessible to readers new to novels. Glos.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) YA In the aftermath of his father's suicide attempt, fourteen-year-old Nate's mother retreats into herself, while the rest of their 1960s Montana community avoids the family. Despite the bleakness, Maynard's prose has a haunting lyricism, and there's just enough hope threading through the story to give Nate and his sister's perseverance a poetry of its own.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2005

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker. After Mama tells Precious to let "nothing and nobody" into the house, Brother warns her about the Boo Hag: "She's tricky and she's scary, and she tries to make you disobey yo' mama." Illustrations combining the realistic with the fantastic suit the down-to-earth yet magical tone in this lively tale that (despite an ominous ending) is a great storytelling choice.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2005

(2) 4-6 Oma decides her granddaughter is old enough to hear the whole story of the family's life in Germany during the Holocaust. In this autobiographical picture book, Russo's illustrations of family albums include photos, maps, identity cards, and a yellow star. An afterword provides historical background in honest but gentle language, and accents the miracle, or the luck, of this family's survival.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. In this comic, alarming tale of the ultimate odd couple, lonely Mrs. Lovewright decides that something is missing from her life. Unfortunately, from the moment her new kitten arrives, the two are at loggerheads. Their epic battles, cleverly illustrated by Zelinsky, can scarcely be contained in the pages of the book.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Tony Ross. A former caterpillar searches for her true love, a tadpole who has turned into a frog, only to be eaten by him: he doesn't recognize her as a butterfly. This isn't played for laughs, and the disjuncture between the art's whimsical anthropomorphism and the tragic plot twist may not sit right with some readers, although the storytelling is undeniably fleet.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Raul Colon. This attractive picture book chronicles the life and career of Latino baseball star Roberto Clemente, from his childhood in Puerto Rico to his tragic death in a plane crash. The impressionistic account conveys both his professional struggles and successes and his personal attributes; appropriately, the illustrations include both emotion-laden watercolor portraits and black-and-white action shots.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. This is the story of a lesser-known African-American athlete breaking down racial barriers. Major Taylor rose to the top of the cycling world in the early 1900s, starting out working in a bike store as a boy and ending up a world champion cyclist. The engaging narrative and rich oil paintings create an impressive portrait of an inspiring man.

Reviewer: Charlotte S. Huck

(2) PS Illustrated by Yumi Heo. When Baby Lily wakes up crying, the adults around her fuss and worry. The focus in the gently rhythmic text and the fanciful illustrations seems to be on the crying baby and the helpless adults, but preschoolers will zero in on Brother--on the sidelines for most of the story--who "knows JUST what to do."

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2004

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Ana Juan. Elena, a Mexican girl, wants to be a glass blower like her father, but he rebukes her: "Who ever heard of a girl glassblower?" Undeterred, she dresses like a boy and travels to become an apprentice, where her work is a success, until she's ready to face (well, sort of) her father. The story is as unique and endearing as Juan's commanding acrylic and crayon illustrations. Glos.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Dogged dad focuses on precious nursery stock, overlooking his own neglected children; nevertheless, they help get his trees though various emergencies en route from Iowa to Oregon. This deliberately exaggerated rendition of a true event falls between stools, its implausibilities stretching credibility without achieving tall tale humor. Still, both art and narration are perky enough to spark interest in the real story.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long

(2) K-3 Illustrated by AnnaLaura Cantone. From the opening spread, we know that "Alberta is a girl of particular tastes." What follows is an idiosyncratic rundown, depicted in humorously manic mixed-media cartoons, of Alberta's likes and dislikes. "So, wouldn't you like to know Alberta's favorite thing?" She loves herself best of all, of course, and getting to know her in such an entertaining fashion, it's easy to see why.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2004

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Valorie Fisher. "There was an old man of Dumbree, / Who taught little owls to drink tea." Fisher combines objects, etchings, and other media to create tableaux as nonsensical as those described in the fifteen Lear poems collected here. Fisher's blend of reality with fantasy produces surreal scenes that adult readers may find pleasantly reminiscent of Monty Python. The book concludes with a biographical note on Lear.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf. Seven-year-old Ruby Lu practices her magic tricks, attends Chinese school on Saturdays, and prepares for the arrival of relatives newly emigrating from China. Ruby is a spunky child--and Wilsdorf's angular sketches are as full of life as Ruby herself. The text is more difficult than the format suggests because the language is peppered with Chinese words and poetic expressions.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) K-3 Jealous older sibling Giselle helps shop for, then meanly hides, five-year-old Chloë's birthday present. Keenly evoking a child's mindset, Potter shows readers the sisterly affection that, in the end, seems just as genuine as--and stronger than--the rivalry. The French countryside is charmingly rendered in Potter's creamy paintings.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2004

(4) K-3 Children from the Ambrit International School in Rome describe what peace smells, looks, sounds, tastes, and feels like (e.g., it feels "like the fur of a baby mouse"). The concept is inspired and timely, and Radunsky's vivacious color art manages to be moving without being maudlin, but, with their myriad and occasionally domineering typefaces, the spreads can be more anxiety-provoking than pacific.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tony Ross. In mischievous rhyme reminiscent of Ogden Nash, young Honor Brown explains to the grownup who's trying to improve her attitude toward school that the place is really a torture chamber, with nightmarish teachers--they cut off the heads of in-class-talkers--and other horrors. The gleefully ghoulish art captures every gruesome detail, including the cafeteria's menu of worms, "rabbit poo, and coal."

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Leonid Gore. A marzipan child made by a French-Canadian baker becomes the real child of his and his wife's dreams. Beloved little Matine's sugarlike covering seems fragile, that is, until the day she risks it to comfort a sick friend, thus becoming fully human. Though obvious, this tale is sweet (maybe too much so for some) in both content and metaphor. Pale, soft acrylic and pastel illustrations suggest spun sugar.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(2) K-3 Illustrated by C. B. Mordan. Dressed appropriately in glossy black and white, this latest diversion from Avi is a tribute to the silent movie. Told only through images and title cards, the story is literal rags to riches, as young Gustave and his mother leave Sweden for the mean streets of 1909 New York and eventual movie stardom for the boy. The terse titles, lettered in an old-movie font, convey no more than necessary and work expertly with Mordan's sleek ink illustrations to keep the story moving.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2003