(4) PS Illustrated by Ovi Nedelcu. City-dwelling Little Car moves "Out West" to pursue his dream of becoming a cowboy, but there's a roadblock in his path: cars can't ride horses. Is there a workaround? This genial plug for not giving up on dreams traffics in groaner wordplay ("Little Car did a brake dance") and cartoonish art that makes the West look not unlike Hanna-Barbera country.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Axelson. After he goes up the hill, Jack famously falls...but is his crown lost or stolen? On the case is Joe Dumpty--Humpty's brother and the detective in this book's predecessor, What Really Happened to Humpty?. This rib-tickler abounds with punning dialogue-balloon commentary from the cartoonishly rendered Mother Gooseland suspects ("I don't know beans about this," says Jack of beanstalk fame).

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Axelsen. After Humpty falls off his famous perch, his trench coat–wearing detective brother, Joe Dumpty, sets out to prove that he was pushed. Miss Muffet (a.k.a. Muffy), Chicken Little, and the Big Bad Wolf are all suspects. The story, including loads of puns (Humpty: "I'm shell-shocked") and comic strip–style panels with dialogue balloon commentary, goes down over-easy.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cyd Moore. A boy imagines what his parents do (jump on the bed, play ball in the house) while he and his sister are spending the night with their grandparents. The clever premise is well executed: watercolor and pencil illustrations of Mom and Dad acting like kids are paired with smaller vignettes of the more decorous goings-on at Grandma and Granddad's house.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Lucy Corvino. Lousy cookie baker Molly is going to be a grandma, so she enrolls at Grandma U. She practices baby talk, etc., but her teacher withholds "the most important thing of all," which Molly learns as soon as she meets her newborn grandchild. The premise is original, and the detailed images depict Molly as dynamic. Unaccountably, her husband shows no like interest in becoming a grandfather.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley