(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Rothman. A rhyming, celebratory look at the animals and plants prevalent in the Great North Woods. The rich acrylic paintings highlight the vibrant ecosystem's teeming life throughout the day: aspens quiver in the breeze and the bobcat stirs in its lair at dawn; the star-nosed mole breaks ground and a barn owl plummets toward its prey come nightfall. A beautiful pairing of language and visual imagery.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Randall Enos. Heinz traces the story of Mocha Dick, the whale that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, from the first whaling ship he attacked to his ultimate demise. Enos's colorful, textured art, in the style of traditional scrimshaw, grows darker as Mocha Dick approaches his end. A visually appealing package, but the subject matter may not hold most picture-book readers' interest.

Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Sheban. Ingeniously composed (if slightly cutesy) crayon-textured illustrations depict an abortive hen-house raid. The fox's tense anticipation as he regards the hen house, the chickens' addle-brained panic, and the farmer's bumbling rescue are vividly drawn. Though the verse narration maintains a sense of late-night dreaminess, the final payoff is a letdown, sidestepping potentially delicious chaos and avoiding true resolution.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Joanne Friar. Detailed pictures and informational text highlight changes in the United States from the late-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Michael, the great-great-grandson of Nathan, lives in the same house with a similar dog, but the family relationship isn't explored; it's just a frame for the past/present contrast of eight topics: energy, construction, light, communication, transportation, school, entertainment, and dinnertime.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Bob Marstall. Heinz describes the course of the day from dawn to night in a pond. The food chain, and the many close escapes involved in animals' attempts to eat one another, provide narrative momentum and some suspense. The warm, detailed illustrations encourage the reader to sympathize with the animals and their quest for survival, while the matter-of-fact tone of the text eschews sentimentality.

Reviewer: Jim St. Claire

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Gregory Manchess. Heinz follows a polar bear as he hunts seals and is in turn hunted by an inuk, a human. The heavily brush-stroked oil paintings are far more successful than the labored text; drawing on a palette of blues, browns, and whites, Manchess captures the violent majesty of both the bear and its icy surroundings.

Reviewer: Jackie C. Horne