(2) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. In this board book, yarmulke-wearing dad, pigtailed big sister, and strawberry-blond mother and son--plus cheerful dog--light candles, fry latkes, sing songs, spin dreidels, and pretend to be Maccabees, all shown in warm digital-looking illustrations. The "Hanukkah is coming" refrain, coupled with simple, child-friendly rhymes, is reassuring, and effectively builds anticipation for the Festival of Lights.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2015

(4) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. An offstage narrator asks a child questions about skin color: "What if your best friend were blue?" "What if a policewoman were green?" The child's answers ("Even if my best friend were blue, he'd still play soccer with me") sound canned; the text amounts to what well-meaning adults want children to hear. Hospitable acrylics provide a more kid-friendly vehicle for the message.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Step into Reading series. Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. Three energetic young ducks vroom and zoom their way through the story, leaving chaos in their wake while visiting Auntie Goose. The spare rhyming text includes lots of kid-friendly noises--slurp, burp, munch, crunch--upping the read-along factor. Yellow-bright, round-edged illustrations boisterously convey the ducks' busy day.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(4) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. "Police have dogs that / search and find. / German shepherds. / Steady. Kind." Hubbell's occasionally stumbling but generally satisfying rhymes take readers through a day in the life of several police officers. Garofoli, illustrator of Firefighters: Speeding! Spraying! Saving!, returns with her digital art resembling cut paper--a soothing counterpoint to the serious subject matter.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. A baby-to-be laments having nothing to do in utero: "I'm all in a heap here. My feet are asleep here. I'm flat out of space. I've got knees in my face." Readers may find this fetus's-eye-view a revelation, not to mention very funny, especially thanks to illustrations of a jumbo-headed, umbilical-corded babe whose fantasies include driving a truck.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. "Swing aboard! Hit the gas. / Ladder truck roars, heads out fast." Young readers witness four firefighters (three men, one woman) doing their thing, from suiting up to extinguishing a blaze to chilling out afterward. Some of the rhymes stumble, but most are as zippy and fleet as the book's heroes. The digitally rendered art has an eye-pleasing cut-paper look.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. Imagining what it would be like to drive a big rig across the country, a little boy takes readers on a geographical tour--crossing bridges, mountains, deserts, plains, and arriving at the harbor, "just in time, because I hear my father calling 'Time for dinner!'" The digitally rendered illustrations are simple and bright.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. This bilingual rhyming text smoothly incorporates Spanish words, defined both in context and in a preceding glossary, into its lively story. A toad feels inferior to her handsome, trophy-winning brother until she sings a solo in a talent contest and wins first prize. Brightly colored cartoon illustrations capture Sophie's shining moment.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann