(3) K-3 Illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine. "Hello, little seed...Do you really know everything about sunflowers?" A girl communes with a sunflower seed as she plants and tends it; come autumn, she says goodbye to the flower. The poetic observations are often lovely ("a sunflower seed / is smaller than a word"), and the handsome, blocky illustrations, which employ printmaking techniques, are themselves a wonder.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Beth Krommes. "Here is the key to the house. In the house burns a light." So begins a soothing bedtime verse that ends with a child tucked in bed, bathed by the light of the moon. The quiet patterned text is accompanied by dramatic black-and-white scratchboard illustrations with just enough gold touches to fill the pages with gentle light.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) PS Illustrated by Christine Davenier. Seven-year-old Lucy recounts childhood memories that all center on the importance of her name: her uncle building her a stool and painting her name on it, eating alphabet pancakes that spell her name, stomping her name in the snow. The impressionistic paintings suit the poetic writing style in this book that is more a mood piece than a story.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 Lake lovers will understand young Rosie's wintertime longing for summer at the lake. The illustrations move from gray, purple, and blue winter scenes to full-color, carefree summertime ones, and interestingly combine the two settings--though some compositions work better than others. The story itself, which features a reflective, introspective young girl, also alternates between summer and winter.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.