(3) PS Illustrated by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson. A snowplow and its driver begin their work as snow starts falling. All through the night and through the town they continue their important work clearing the roads. Along the way, a car spins out and needs towing, a train goes by, and the driver must stay alert and awake. The mixed-media illustrations beautifully capture the snowy silence evoked in the rhyming text.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson. Twenty-six brief, mostly rhyming, first-person poems celebrate making things with all kinds of media: paint, clay, soap, glitter, socks, leaves, flour, yarn, and more. Every poem invites activity and underscores the pride and satisfaction that's frequently an outcome of creativity. Colorful mixed-media and paper-collage illustrations capture the joyful and often messy process of making "something new / with my hands / my head / my heart."

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 Step into Reading series. Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Emphasizing Seuss's lifelong passion for doodling and general playfulness, longtime Seuss publisher Klimo objectively highlights the author-illustrator's life-defining moments in this accessible easy-reader biography. Johnson and Fancher incorporate Seuss's original art into their soft-focus, nostalgic illustrations. This is a nice follow-up read to the illustrators' other, more childhood–focused Seuss biography, The Boy on Fairfield Street.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter

(3) PS Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. "Follow mama / Stop and eat / Chase fish / Splash feet." An inviting rhyming text follows an American black bear and two cubs through a year. Emerging from their den in spring, the bears forage and play until winter when they sleep. Engaging full-bleed paintings show the bears thriving in their forest habitat. A detailed two-page "Shh, Bear Facts" section is appended.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson. "Long before you arrived, / little brown-sugar child, he was born..." In evocative verse, Pinkney presents a picture book biography of Keats. It's also a love letter to Peter, Keats's Snowy Day protagonist. Pinkney highlights Keats's attunement to issues of discrimination, poverty, and social justice. Fancher and Johnson thoughtfully incorporate Snowy Day motifs and other images from Peter's world into their collage illustrations. Bib.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2017

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Angelou's poem (first read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony) is about the promise of peace that the Christmas season brings, urging listeners to "look beyond complexion and see community." The luminous oil, acrylic, and fabric illustrations on canvas, depicting a snow-covered town, add concreteness to Angelou's words. A CD of Angelou reading the poem is included.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(4) 4-6 Women Who Broke the Rules series. Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Using the theme of rule-breaking to introduce a variety of women, Krull crafts informative and readable biographies. While Krull strives to tell the whole story, certain elements feel out of place or casually thrown in. But the various illustration styles are well matched to their subjects, and for young readers looking for facts about fascinating women, this series fits the bill. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Women Who Broke the Rules titles: Dolley Madison, Judy Blume, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby

(3) 4-6 Scribner Illustrated Classics series. Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. This edition features Johnson and Fancher's illustrations from a 1999 "storybook adaptation" of Salten's classic story, which was first translated into English in 1928. The dark oil paintings match the tale's somber tone and respectfully portray the woodland setting and its inhabitants.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Bonwill presents a series of interconnected rhymes about sleep: one about mermaids lulled by waves leads to one about "those same waves" that carry ships sailed by pirates "abed in bunks, asleep on trunks," and so on. The rat-a-tat rhymes are the work of a pro, and illustrators Johnson and Fancher make every spread a gorgeous, fantastical sleepscape.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Hunter collects a pile of stones--a gift for Grammy. "What do I do with a pile of stones?" she wonders. Over the next few days, everyone who visits Grammy has a use for them: paperweight, directional signal, necklace, skipping stone. Warm acrylic, pencil, and collage illustrations reflect Hunter and Grammy's loving relationship and enhance this sweet story.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. From the moment we see the Holstein-spotted endpapers we're transported to life on a dairy farm with its unending cycle: "Every morning, every night, / it’s milking time." Readers unfamiliar with the routines depicted will be pleasantly enlightened. Both text and art are quietly soothing and filled with interesting details.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Grandpa and grandson go ice fishing in this pseudo counting book written in verse. The book's strong suit is the evocative collage-style paintings capturing the historical essence of this northern pastime--with faded lures, maps, and scraps of old newspaper peppering the background. Unfortunately, the unwieldy meter is crowded with too many syllables and the counting backbone lacks consistent organization.

Reviewer: Shara Hardeson

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Grandma Lupita tells Rose and a friend the story of Juan Diego, summoned in 1531 by the Lady of Guadalupe to build a church. Juan Diego struggles to attract support from his town, but he eventually succeeds by way of a miracle. The illustrations capture the tenderness of the story and accurately depict the time period, but the decorative borders are distracting.

Reviewer: Belinda Arrendondo

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Krull's straightforward text highlights key events and includes anecdotes to round out Henson's motivational life story. Johnson and Fancher's colorful paintings capture the vitality in their subject's life and work. This celebration of Henson and his love of puppetry is a timely way to mark the late artist's seventy-fifth birthday and introduce the man and his puppets to a whole new generation. Bib.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2011

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Krull imparts a strong sense of FDR's upright character (bordering on adulatory) and the times in which he lived in this readable narrative. Johnson and Fancher's illustrations stress the man's physical presence, from depicting infant Franklin as the center of his parents' world to portraying the jaunty politician campaigning for state senate. An author's note about Roosevelt's later years is appended. Timeline. Bib.

Reviewer: Betty Carter

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. This narrative poem relates the Nativity through its sounds: the flip, flap, flap of Joseph's sandals; the flut-flut-flutter of descending angels. Mackall's carefully constructed verse emphasizes that while the first Christmas may not have been a "silent night," it was a "miraculous" one. Peaceful illustrations eloquently capture the range of emotions from Mary's weariness to the joy of Jesus' birth.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2011

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Soo Min, a little girl from Korea, is joining her new parents in the states. The process is made easier with the help of the family cat (goyangi in Korean). When Goyangi slips out of the house, Soo Min fears that he's gone forever. Gentle collage illustrations contain patterns "selected to reflect the Eastern and Western worlds of Soo Min."

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2011

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. There was another Mozart prodigy: "At twelve, Maria was considered one of the best pianists in Europe." Not only did she tour with her soon-to-be-renowned little brother, she was his inspiration and playfellow. Rusch's text, echoing sonata form, is appropriately bittersweet. A two-page "encore" adds more about Maria. The illustrators evoke eighteenth-century Salzburg in collages of brocades overlaid with painted detail and musical notation. Bib.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2011

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. In a rather sophisticated rhymed story based on one of Keillor's witty "Cat Songs," a disgruntled feline leaves home, makes a killing doing cat-food commercials, and lives in luxury until her fortunes change. She comes back in a sorry state, and the narrator welcomes her joyfully. Johnson and Fancher use sly details and arresting perspectives in their rich paintings.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. A young boy describes how Sunday differs from other days of the week: he gets dressed up ("I guess that's what the Lord wants, but I wish He didn't"), listens to the pastor "preaching up a storm," and races home for a family dinner. The slice-of-life tale balances reverence and humor. Illustrations collage church and family scenes with scripture passages and hymns.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith