(4) K-3 Illustrated by Carin Berger. Two dapper pear seeds perform a vaudeville comedy act. During the show, readers learn that the seed-to-fruit process requires patience, soil, rain, sun, and time. Illustrations that look like mixed-media and paper collage show seeds onstage conversing in short-sentence word balloons. Slight but amusing for young children and grownups with a love of wordplay and botany. "5 'Peary' Smart Facts" are appended. Bib.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Carin Berger. Ingenious book design pairs with inventive poetry to feature unusual critters such as Fountain Lions, Braindeer, and Slobsters. The fun comes in the perfect but unexpected matches Prelutsky makes, such as the Jollyfish, "radiant, / Ebullient blobs of mirth." Berger incorporates found objects, aged paper, and other miscellanea to tag and label the various beasts. The total effect is both whimsical and fascinating.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(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

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Carin Berger. The poetry in this purpose-driven yet entertaining (sometimes irreverently so) volume is ostensibly written in the voices of explorers and scientists. The works describe different places around the globe and urge readers to find their own ways of learning about the world. Biographical information about each explorer is included; an author's note provides some perspective on Western notions of "discovery." Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Carin Berger. Berger's sophisticated visual wit pairs with Prelutsky's verbal ingenuity to create unconventional animals--the Ocelock, the Clocktopus, and the Tubaboons, to name a few. In each of the seventeen poems, Prelutsky combines an animal with an inanimate object and then evokes the purpose of the object in the animal's behavior. The clever collage art uses reproductions of old-fashioned illustrations of objects.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2006