(3) K-3 Illustrated by Joan Paley. Informative, engaging, and immediate-feeling, a third-person narrative follows Bella, a banded woolly bear caterpillar, as she grows, molts, avoids dangers, hibernates, weaves a cocoon, and emerges as an Isabella Tiger Moth. Paley's sunny cut-paper and mixed-media art sets the furry critter in colorful landscapes of wild flowers and crunchy leaves. More information and an anatomical diagram conclude the book. Glos.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Joan Paley. Simple, elegant text allows readers to follow a female ochre sea star as she comes ashore during high tide, finds and eats mussels, and is herself seized by a gull, escaping with only one ray lost. Accurate information is nicely embedded in the lyrical narration, while rich-hued watercolor collages, appropriate for the evening setting, give both large-scale and close-up views. Reading list. Glos.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Joan Paley. "Meet our flag, Old Glory. / She's red and blue and white. / Her stripes are like a peppermint's; / Her stars are big and bright." So begins this slim, elementary look at the American flag. The rhyming text goes on to mention places where children might notice the pride-inspiring flag. Paley's large, bold cut-paper collages are just right for sharing with a group.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) PS Illustrated by Joan Paley. Handsome collage illustrations picture four forest animals as they prepare for winter. The minimal text conveys simple images that capture each creature's behavior: "Squirrel stashing, / bat chewing, / beaver building. / Bear, big bear, digging deep." An informative glossary extends the narrative with details about the animals' diets, physical characteristics, and hibernation routines.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Joan Paley. Guiberson packs a great deal of information into this well-paced story of emperor penguins and their young, focusing on the remarkable ways in which the penguins tend their eggs through the harsh Antarctic winters. The hand-painted paper collages imagine Antarctica in rather broad strokes. This is an attractive choice for story hour if not a primary resource on the science shelf.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2002

(3) PS Illustrated by Joan Paley. A brown mouse sings the familiar cumulative song about the little white duck ("Quack! Quack! Quack!"), little green frog ("Glug! Glug! Glug!"), and little black bug ("Bzz! Buzz! Bzz!") who coexist peacefully "doing what they oughter" in a pond until the little red snake scares them all away. Large, vibrantly colored paper collage makes this a good group read-and-sing-aloud. Music with guitar chords appears at the beginning of the book.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Joan Paley. In sometimes forced rhyme, this text lists the various shapes beaks take and the uses birds have for them but never clearly correlates the shapes with the uses. Paint, crayon, and pencil accents add texture to the bold cut-paper collages, which offer striking, close-up portraits of the birds. A glossary briefly catalogs the beak shape, diet, and region of each of the thirty-nine birds depicted.

Reviewer: Emma Loy-Santelli