(4) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. Guitar-strumming farmer MacDonald adapts his song to include a dragon, who materializes and swallows the farm animals--and ultimately MacDonald. The book's promising idea (Old MacDonald has a dragon?!) doesn't get enough play (the escape from the dragon's belly is uninspired), but kids will enjoy the humor. The droll digitally rendered art is synthetic-looking.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) PS Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. Dinosaurs, construction, a rhyme spotlighting each letter of the alphabet--this offering includes some of the most kid-pleasing story elements in a single picture book. The alpha-centric rhymes aren't half-bad ("Forklifts beeping, shifting freight. / For fitting crates, this fleet's first-rate") but disappointingly have very little to do with dinosaurs. The high-gloss art features realistic-looking machinery and cartoonish dinos.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. By snapping his suspenders, Grandpappy frees cows from mud, moves a sheriff's car from atop bales of hay, and rights a derailed train. When the suspenders lose their snap, Grandpappy saves Grandmammy from marauding crows with his supercharged underwear. The rhyming, alliterative text and retro mixed-media illustrations are lively, but both verge on overwhelming the simple nonsense tale.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) PS Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. Jolly, brightly colored dinosaurs hide behind trees from the baby dino who is "it." Each durable page features a banal rhyme about dinosaurs, an unfinished rhyme, and a flap to unfold, revealing the rhyme's conclusion and a hiding place. The pictures are humorously exaggerated (e.g., maiasaur hides her eggs in a tree), resulting in a painless if somewhat hokey introduction to basic dinosaur facts.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. A new pet door gives mutt Max entry into a world in which pets reign supreme. Max catches "Ratzilla," enjoys liver pizza, and visits the Petropolitan Museum of Art before making his way back home. Humorous details in the art, which moves from sepia tones to full color and back again, will occupy readers, but the rhyming text is stilted.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro & Christopher Santoro. This fast-paced book describes the events of October 30, 1938, when an Orson Welles radio production of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds caused a nationwide panic. Featuring humorous black-and-white images, the entertaining narrative offers explanations--e.g., the era's breakneck technological developments--for why some listeners believed that an alien invasion was plausible. Reading list, websites.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. This account of the supposed UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, glosses over the 1947 event, omitting most of the colorful details that surround the original incident. The simply written text, which is accompanied by often humorous illustrations, does a better job explaining the subsequent rumors, legends, and government reports that have made the "Roswell Incident" a cult phenomenon. Bib.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) K-3 MathStart series. Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. All the insects are learning the bug dance in gym: "Two steps to the left. Two steps to the right. One hop forward. One hop backward. Turn right!" But Centipede has too many feet to dance gracefully. Illustrated with dynamic cartoon artwork, the story unobtrusively demonstrates directional concepts, while Centipede finally succeeds through practice. Related activities are appended.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) K-3 Step into Reading series. Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. Drawing together information about elephants, zoos, and circuses in the nineteenth century, this is a true story packaged in an easy-reader format. There is no documentation, but the author provides facts about Jumbo, bought by P. T. Barnum and exhibited as the largest-known elephant. The illustrations are pedestrian, but the story will keep the reader's interest.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. On his way to propose to Queen Bea, King Bing meets animals who look longingly at the pie he's carrying on his head. When Queen Bea refuses him, the animals stand up for the king and are rewarded with the pie. The zaniness of the animals' cumulative rhyming dialogue joins the unusual perspectives of the stylized watercolor and gouache illustrations for read-aloud fun. A cherry pie recipe is included.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley