(4) K-3 Illustrated by Barry Root. Little Buddie Earl travels to the Peach-Pickin' Festival in the back of his father's old jalopy, yodeling along the way. The family wonders, "What’s the use of that?" until his talent eventually makes them all proud. The warm hues aptly portray the heat of the South, while the playful use of language and repetition makes for a genial read-out-loud. No source note is included for this adaptation of a Russian folktale.

Reviewer: Sophie Williamson

(4) PS Illustrated by Carin Berger. "Old King Coal," "Little Boy Green"--thirty nursery rhymes have been rewritten with an environmentalist message. The more successful rhymes are humorous; others, some of which invoke a doomsday scenario ("Hickory, dickory, dock, / Our world is on the clock"), make one want to cry out Enough already! Naturally, the vibrant art was created with newsprint, ticket stubs, and other recyclables.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Herb Leonhard. A curious girl in a pink cowboy hat imagines riding west on her pony and encountering animal life along the way--a buffalo, prairie dog, armadillo, roadrunner, and the like--before trotting back home to Grandpa. The repetitive, singsong text never finds its rhythm, but the art creates a sense of mood and place.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Adrian Tans. Captain Dare invites landlubbers to join his pirate crew. The text, modeled on the interactive "Going on a Bear Hunt" chant, includes bold-type lines for readers to repeat ("If ye wanna go, say 'Aye, aye, Captain'"). The pirates' discovery--a "treasure load of books"--will blindside readers with its reading-is-fun message, but the bouncy rhythm and humorous illustrations maintain a lively mood.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) PS Illustrated by Valeria Petrone. In a pleasingly bouncy and repetitive chant, a boy goes looking for deep-sea treasure. First he spies a sea horse. "Hello, sea horse. / Giddy-up, sea horse. / See you later, sea horse. / Swim away." Then he sees a crab, a starfish, and numerous other sea animals. After finding treasure, he surfaces, and the bright, digital illustrations show he's really in his bathtub.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 In this humorous adaptation of the Russian folktale "The Turnip," sweet little Isabelle helps her family by singing and dancing around a carrot, which grows to be enormous. Down-home dialect and an old T-Bird give the tale a 1950s-rural-America feel. The illustrations, full of curving jubilant lines and lots of carrot orange, are appropriately wacky.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.