(4) K-3 Illustrated by Anne Kennedy. Christmas in the mouse hole brings a story from Grandma about the year young Posey's curiosity ran rampant. After enduring a night of guilt and remorse, Posey (a.k.a. Grandma as a girl) concludes it's better to wait for presents. The text is message-y but offers some surprises. Kennedy's light-filled watercolor and ink illustrations show human-size objects humorously converted for mouse use.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth & Bill Farnsworth. Anna, a small sled dog, learns how to lead the pack, and helps to rescue another member of the pack before she, in turn, falls through the ice and needs to be rescued herself. Based on Pam Flowers's sled dog expedition across the top of North America, the topic of the book is compelling, but the story, accompanied by realistic illustrations, is rendered in clichéd language.

Reviewer: Jim St. Claire

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mindy Dwyer. Each double-page spread features a boy and girl's rhyming assessment of the season ("Winter is cold, / sending shivers down deep. / In thick, furry coats / the wild animals sleep") set against a cool-color-rich backdrop. The rhymes aren't original, but Dwyer's watercolor images, especially of frost on the window and the northern lights against the night sky, are enticing.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Graham. In lyrical prose, a little girl's father tells of the preparations that led up to her Christmas birth. The lighting of the candles in the family's Advent wreath connects the story of the girl's birth to the joy surrounding the Nativity. The formal, poetic text seems oddly distanced from the father and child pictured in the sentimental paintings, which feature the rosy-cheeked family members awaiting the girl's birth.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Evon Zerbetz. When a family goes blueberry picking, "somewhere between the top of Ptarmigan Mountain and the bottom," Baby loses his shoe. A vole, a fox, and a bear all in turn find and lose the red Ked. During the following summer's blueberry picking, guess what Baby (now toddler) finds again? Appealing linocuts on delicate leaf impression backgrounds convey the animals and landscape of the northwest woods.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey