(2) PS Illustrated by Jarvis. In this upbeat picture book, a rhyming text and soft, evocative mixed-media illustrations follow a (seemingly interracial) family as they bring home pumpkins from a farm, clean and prepare them, design and carve them, and finally light the finished jack-o'-lanterns. The book has a pleasantly old-fashioned vibe, though with carefully incorporated modern-day safety precautions: adults cut the pumpkins' tops off; kids use plastic saws.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Lorian Tu-Dean. Common fashion maxims are spun into rhyming messages of empowerment emphasized by mixed-media illustrations of girls playing joyously while they explore different potential occupations. "You can be brave dressed in reds or in blues," reads the text while the pictured girls pretend to be a firefighter and a police officer. A clever and original take on the ubiquitous girls-can-be-anything picture book.

Reviewer: Erica Wetter

(2) PS Illustrated by Jarvis. "Pick a pine tree / from the lot-- / slim and tall / or short and squat." So begins this picture-book enumeration of the jolly steps involved in turning a tree into a Christmas tree. Toht's rhyming text is greatly illuminated by Jarvis's mixed-media illustrations, which imbue each step in the process with holiday warmth and capably capture that Christmas-decorations glow.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2017

(4) 4-6 Cities Through Time series. Illustrated by Bob Moulder. These books deliver what their titles promise by a combination of readable text, archival photos and drawings, boxed quotations, and static illustrations. The books consider lower classes as well as middle and upper. Background artwork often creates a problem for textual legibility, but generally these are accurate, brief surveys of the cities and the culture that has evolved in each. Time lines are appended. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian