(3) K-3 Illustrated by Lee White. "It was a quiet morning at the Critter Café. / The cook was dozing in his cheese soufflé." The day's idyll is shattered when a busload of poorly behaved creatures invade the restaurant ("Raccoons crawled atop their chairs. / Cow skateboarded down the stairs"). Finally, the fed-up waiter kicks them all out--or so he thinks. Mixed-media illustrations depict the delicious pandemonium.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) PS Illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. Two young pigs eagerly awaken one morning to the sounds of the garbage truck outside their bedroom window. Lively descriptive language--"Gooey, gloppy. / Slimy, sloppy. / Truck's a rolling bug buffet"--and a bright green bottomless pit of a garbage truck with red headlights for eyes and a gaping "mouth" add to the thrill as the pigs watch the garbage collectors at work.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(3) K-3 Illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi. The narrator receives a skateboard for his eighth birthday, but his mother makes off with it: according to the embarrassed boy's dad, she's reliving her pre-mom days as a skateboarding champ. Odanaka defies our expectations of this mom without ridiculing her, and Adinolfi employs childlike art featuring unusual perspectives and vibrant color combos.

Reviewer: Nell Beram