(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Sasquatch-like narrator Sensei rhymes its commentary for this year's high-five contest and provides occasional tips: "I teach young fivers what to do... / my next apprentice could be you." The story is amusingly meta (the animal judges keep voting for "Kid," a.k.a. the reader), and the art, which resembles an elementary schooler's colored-pencil drawings, is perfect for the as-if-from-a-child's-mind premise.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. When a "sudden exhaustion of taco supplies" leaves the dragons bereft, the narrator tries (and repeatedly fails) to set a time machine back to the last taco party (Dragons Love Tacos). Mishaps involve cavemen, diapers, and (of course) spicy salsa. As in this book's predecessor, the tongue-in-cheek, conversational narrative's humor wears thin by book's end, but kids will devour Salmieri's slapstick illustrations of the hangry chaos.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. The tradition of Allard's Stupids books lives on in the Dullards, a family of five engulfed in ennui. Horrified to catch their children reading, asking to go to school, and trying to play outdoors, the Dullard parents try to nip this revolt in the bud. The children finally escape out a window and make their own fun. The deadpan text is matched by hilarious illustrations.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. An omniscient narrator supplies a top-secret formula called "BOOM" to a robot-costumed boy, and lo! he becomes a robot. Unsurprisingly, things get out of hand ("We're turning everything into robots? What kind of a story is that?"). Clever visual details and neat paper engineering, which ultimately allows readers to transform the look of the book, don't expand this single-minded story very much.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. When bubbles appear in La La Land, the monsters that live there are terrified. With great patience (and humor) the narrator urges them to face the bubbles rather than running away--after all, they have sharp fangs and claws. Detailed illustrations on black backgrounds show panicked, silly-looking beasts ultimately conceding: bubbles might not be dangerous, but...what about butterflies? A clever, deadpan conquering-fears story.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Trying to avoid the pizza man's swatting broom, Raccoon plots a secret pizza party and successfully makes off with a fresh, hot pie. Once home, Raccoon discovers his neighbors having their own none-too-secret masked pizza party, which he promptly crashes. Despite the odd plot, readers will enjoy Raccoon's unbridled, desperate love of pizza humorously conveyed by the wacky art.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Those darn (yet clever) squirrels devise flying machines to follow Old Man Fookwire's beloved birds to warm southern climes. After the squirrels call collect from paradise, lonely Fookwire dusts off his 1957 roadster for a migration of his own. Both plot and illustrations in this third romp of Fookwire's squirrel saga live up to the charms and wit of its predecessors.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Dragons love tacos, but they don't like spicy salsa--it gives them "tummy troubles." At his dragon taco party, a boy inadvertently serves up mildly spicy salsa and his guests accidentally burn his house down. The one-note plot falls a little short, but an absurd premise, funny (if repetitive) text, and humor-laced watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil illustrations will draw kids in.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. This collection of animal poems opens with a map of the world; the fifty-plus poems, in a variety of forms, are arranged geographically by region. Funny wordplay matches up with amusing illustrations in watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil that depict each animal accurately but with a twinkle of personality. A selection of further interesting animal facts is appended.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2011

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Bird-loving Old Man Fookwire (Those Darn Squirrels!) continues to be exasperated by the creatures that terrorize his feathered friends. When a new neighbor with a bully of a cat moves in, Fookwire ends up being grateful to his former enemies. Humorous watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil drawings (see: squirrels with wedgies), along with silly text, play up the goofiness.

Reviewer: Cindy Lombardo

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. Grouchy Old Man Fookwire, who dislikes everything but birds, wages a battle of wits with the crafty squirrels that raid his birdfeeders. After the birds fly south, the squirrels attempt to make amends. The angular illustrations, showing contraptions created by Fookwire and the squirrels, are a good match for the tongue-in-cheek narrative.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert