(2) PS "Emma was a large dog with many small dreams." She dreams about her favorite things, such as rolling in the grass and splashing in water. In Cooper's (most recently Yes & No, rev. 5/21) cheerful black-outlined watercolors, Emma's dreams are pictured as small bluish-gray dogs frolicking vision-like above her. When not dreaming, Emma sometimes worries or feels all alone, and sometimes "her whole body [feels] strange." Readers may wonder if our protagonist is sick or elderly, but -- surprise! -- one day, out from Emma's body emerges a tiny puppy, arriving headfirst into the world. Big Emma (literally "full of wonders") hasn't been thinking back to her frisky puppyhood, but rather ahead to her future, very-active puppies. Re-reading is a treat: audiences will now see that lumpy Emma is obviously pregnant, her "favorite things" are her soon-to-be-born pups, and her growing dreams are her seven growing babies. Once again, small dogs cavort around Emma, this time, brown-and-tan like mom and solid as can be. Cooper's small line drawings of a plump Emma adorn the book's opening endpapers while chubby puppies romp about on the closing ones. There's much to appreciate in this story about a gentle giant of a dog whose "dreams came true."

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(1) PS Cooper brings readers the sweet tale of a cat and a dog, different as can be, illustrated in the same unfussy, ­minimalistic style as his Caldecott Honor–­winning Big Cat, Little Cat (rev. 3/17). The story kicks off in the morning, during which an unseen narrator talks to the pets, who are yin and yang opposites. Their short responses are printed next to each pet (italic type for the cat, roman type for the dog), the jaded cat responding with countless nos and the enthusiastic dog answering with every kind of yes. The question "Are you both excited for the day?" is met with an eager ­affirmative from the dog, while the cat responds, "Hmpff." Cooper's ­variations on the responses and the creative ways he ­captures the pets' personalities with loose-lined, gestural illustrations in warm watercolors propel the story. After they are shooed out of the house and told to "look out for each other," we are treated to four expansive and eloquent wordless spreads in which the two climb a nearby hill and, side by side, take in the exhilarating view of a lake and mountains. Dog lovers everywhere will recognize the sad "Nooooo" howled when it's time for the pets to come inside at day's end. Yes, indeed.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(1) K-3 A woman embarks on a three-hundred-mile canoe journey down a river. She paddles alone through rapids, portages around waterfalls, and sleeps outside every night. Cooper's watercolor and pencil sketches illuminate the details with a rhythmic mix of vignettes and landscapes. The present-tense text focuses on the journey rather than the destination; we become so absorbed in the experience that we notice every detail by the end. An author's note and more about the Hudson River are appended. Reading list.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2019

(1) K-3 This unsentimental picture book about the cycle of life rivets our attention on a housecat and its kitten companion--and then, after the death of the first, the now-grown second cat's new companion. Cooper's thick black lines produce figures full of kinetic energy and personality. The circular story is beautifully reinforced by repetition in the spare art and text; it's at once realistic and comforting.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2017

(4) PS Featuring each letter of the alphabet, twenty-six broad white pages are dotted with illustrations of representative animals. Each letter page features one animal that appears eight times, and readers are charged with finding the eight--a mildly diverting if random exercise. An appended lengthy catalog of facts about all the animals enriches this ephemeral volume with the look of an artist's sketchbook.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(2) K-3 As five trains (commuter, freight, etc.) overtake each other, we travel with them across the country. Cooper varies his composition throughout, showing close-up interiors, long landscapes, or several vignettes on one spread. He makes sure we hear the trains, too (the passenger train leaving: "like the da dum da dum of a beating heart"). Ideal for poring over. Glos.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2014

(3) PS Homer is an old dog who is content to lie on the porch and watch his family race around, play on the beach, and swim in the waves. After all, they'll come back to him with joyful reports of their adventures. The quiet story is accompanied by simple watercolors mostly from the same vantage point but varied by family activities and time of day.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) PS Beaver's log is loaded onto a truck bound for the big city. How will he get home? The placid tones of Cooper's watercolors never leave a happy ending in doubt, but Beaver's journey, attentively captured in wordless horizontal panels, has its small dangers (dogs, mainly). This neat, circular adventure is well paced and easy to follow.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2010

(1) K-3 Cooper provides a through-the-year look at a farm. Constantly varying spreads, including neat collections of spot art, keep things lively, capturing the essentials of farm life, big and small. In language both poetic and straightforward, Cooper conveys sights and sounds, with illustrations offering evidence to back up the text. As thorough and pleasing an introduction to a farm as one could ask.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2010

(3) YA Notebook in hand, Cooper spent a year hanging around the halls of Chicago's Walter Payton High School, primarily documenting the lives of eight seniors. There's no story here, but Cooper's accounts of conversations, classes, crushes, and more--the small and large dramas of high school--are precisely observed, affecting, and often funny. Loose-lined spot-art sketches decorate many of the pages.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) PS A bear decides to play with his friends rather than hibernate, until, exhausted from play, he is carried to bed by his parents. Young children will recognize in the bear cub their own wish to delay bedtime for as long as possible, and Cooper's expansive watercolors (echoing his style in Magic Thinks Big) are invitingly cozy--much like the story itself.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) PS Magic, an enormous cat, sits in the middle of a doorway and ponders his options. For the first half of the book, Magic thinks what we humans might imagine cats think, but then he considers a more unusual possibility. Cooper's pictures fill each page with spacious washes of color. Magic may not get the feast he dreams of, but readers who enjoy his reverie will get a treat.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: April, 2004

(2) K-3 With the leisurely pace of a herd of cows ambling to the barn at sundown, Cooper begins his detailed account of how ice cream is made. From the milking machine to the truck that "drives through the country, stopping at other farms until its belly is full of six thousand gallons of milk," Cooper balances the relevant facts with his folksy, child-centered descriptions of minutiae. Relaxed pencil and watercolor drawings imply as much as they show. Glos.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2002

(2) K-3 Cooper describes the sequence of events leading up to a dance performance. The sketchy pencil and watercolor drawings rely mostly on human figures, but the dancers' forms create an energy and rhythm that more than make up for the lack of props. The text has been manipulated into curves and around corners. With an economy of line and color, Cooper conjures up pain and grace, hard work and camaraderie, stillness and velocity.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2001

(2) K-3 Using the same measured pace and detail-oriented approach as in his Country Fair and Ballpark, Cooper brings us to an empty lot to watch the emergence of a building. Loose watercolor and pencil sketches offset the minutiae of the text, and, as before, the focus is on small pieces of information observed through the eyes of a child and explained in a spare, poetic style.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 1999

(2) K-3 In his second picture book, Cooper depicts the minutiae of an outing in the same style as his 'Country Fair'. Once again, the text is compact, child-centered free verse, and the loose watercolor and pencil sketches convey character and emotion gesturally and with remarkable economy. The payback with this small, quiet book will come for those who keep looking, as each reading will reveal previously overlooked details.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.