(4) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Little Elva desperately wants a violin, but her parents won't buy her one. She improvises with a badminton racket and a leafy branch. Elva's preoccupation with music never goes away, but it's not until she's old that she buys herself a violin. Though the particulars don't have much child appeal, Elva's passion comes through with tenderness and humor in both text and pictures.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Monday is laundry day, Tuesday is for gardening, and so on through the week. Mrs. Jolly Bones tackles each job with gusto, her animal retinue eagerly pitching in. And who wouldn't want to do housework with this cheerful crew? Tusa's joyful watercolor and ink illustrations help set the pace and bring the infectious silliness of Hanson's cheeky rhyming text to a whole new level.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Arranged vertically, one word per line, these fifteen poems are meant to be read from bottom to top, or vice versa. Readers clamber up the verse to muse on subjects such as rockets and stars, and down to observe earthbound dandelions and a waterfall splashing on rocks. Tusa's fanciful watercolor and ink illustrations give Jensen's appealing verse an imaginative boost.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. With Kelly DiPucchio. One day PB & J enthusiast Lily, tired of keeping mum, confronts her best friend, habitual hummus-eater Salma, about her exotic lunch, and the whole school gets involved in the (food) fight. Happily, humor leavens Queen Rania's timely if predictable message about cultural sensitivity. Meanwhile, Tusa demonstrates how comical and tender illustrations can amiably coexist.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Second-grade writing whiz Lizzie's baby brother annoyingly interrupts her storytelling time and again. But when Mom takes him to visit Gramma, Lizzie find herself suffering from writer's block. The theme of coming to terms with a pesky new sibling is familiar; however, the details--from Lizzie's lucky Princess Merriweather pencil to her flat-on-her-back storytelling pose--are uniquely Sullivan and Tusa's.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. The always-arguing Puddles mistakenly leave their dogs (both named Sally) behind in the country. As the scenes flip back and forth between the Sallys and the Puddles, it becomes clear that the dogs have more sense than their human counterparts. Readers will delight in the story's quirky characters, entertaining wordplay, metafictive elements, and lighthearted black-and-white illustrations.

Reviewer: Aimee Chevrette Bear

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. "I can only sleep in a blue room," says Alice, awake past her bedtime. Using flowers, tea, an extra quilt, and gentle "lullaby bells," Mama eventually coaxes her to sleep. The moon bathes the cozy bedroom in blue, beautifully shown in the delicate and expressive watercolor, ink, and gouache images that illustrate the soothing text.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Avon the snail is an aspiring writer, but what to write, he doesn't know. He discusses his dilemma with Edward the ant, but their conversations move in philosophical circles and accomplish very little. In this brief text about writing and writer's block, the plot takes a back seat to persistent wordplay. Friendly black-and-white spot art gives personality to the pals.

Reviewer: Marika Jeffrey

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Divorce gets a kid-empowering treatment in this congenial story. The narrator is matter-of-fact about her living situation, and where she goes, so goes her roly-poly mutt, Fred. Soft red- and brown-hued illustrations, securely bordered by lots of white space, reinforce the self-possessed mood of the text and focus attention on the special relationship between the girl and her dog.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2007

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. After another hectic day in a cozily cluttered household, it's "time to bring the night around / so everyone can rest." A busy girl corrals the sun and dyes the sky black before enjoying dinner with her large, multiracial family then resting up for another big day. Fanciful illustrations combine drawings with photo collages to make for a giddily imaginative bedtime tale.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Setting out to seek adventure, Avon the snail and Edward the ant encounter other creatures and gently philosophize about life as they head toward the end of a tree branch--or is it the beginning of the sky? Though at times self-consciously clever, the two friends' repartee has engaging warmth, which is enhanced by Tusa's delicate black-and-white sketches.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(3) K-3 MathStart series. Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. In Mighty, a little girl compares the weights of her toys as she tidies. In Tally, siblings play a competitive counting game to kill time on a long drive. In Treasure, a map leads the Elm Street Kids' Club to a time capsule. The appeal of this popular series lies in its blend of unforced humor, real-kid scenarios, and the cheerful picture book format. Review covers these MathStart titles: Mighty Maddie, Tally O'Malley, and Treasure Map.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Art and text transform a mundane short walk down the block into a full-blown adventure. A little girl turns a cardboard box into a car, a boat, an airplane, and a subway car as she journeys to her grandmother's house next-door. The story is told in few words, but Tusa's quirky, angular illustrations do much to fill out the imaginative drama.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. After finding their "fairy houses" destroyed, Pru and her friends, who live on a small island off the Maine coast, search for the perpetrator. They discover that some of the townsfolk think that fairy houses clutter up the woods and want to abolish the tradition. Pru helps develop a compromise so that kids can keep building the houses. Although the plot is anticlimactic, the characters, dialogue, and loose line drawings are lively.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(4) PS Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. After a magic hat sets itself onto the heads of various unsuspecting townspeople, they are turned into animals, the names of which any young reader who knows how to rhyme can guess. Despite the slight premise, preschoolers will enjoy staying one step ahead of the text. The kinetic ink and watercolor images appropriately and effortlessly add to the mayhem.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Third-grader Pru Stanley will do anything to make Miss Sparling--the best teacher she's ever had--want to stay for more than one year at the tiny one-room school on Seal Island. With her friend Nicholas, Pru hatches a plan to win her teacher over to island life. The students' dialogue and behavior are right on target, but the story's pacing is choppy. The numerous illustrations will keep chapter book readers engaged.

Reviewer: Emma Loy-Santelli

(3) K-3 MathStart series. To raise money to rebuild their dilapidated clubhouse, the Elm Street Kids' Club opens a lemonade stand. Charting their daily sales on a vertical bar graph, the club members soon notice plummeting profits when a street juggler draws their customers away. Lively watercolors offer humorous details, such as the club members' whimsical lemon-shaped hats. Follow-up activities to learn more about graphing are appended.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.