(3) PS Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. Half-Pint Pete the Pirate has half of a treasure map; Half-Baked Belle has the other. After they join forces, he intends to steal her share of treasure but steals her heart instead. With its simple plotting, dialogue-filled rhymes, and anything-but-menacing coed crew, this book is perfect for kids who are curious about pirates but too young for the hard stuff.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. Rhyming text presents dogs that played important roles in the lives of historical figures (e.g., Meriwether Lewis, Annie Oakley, Billie Holiday). Each canine is described in a few pithy sentences; endpapers give slightly more information. Young readers may be inspired to create similar odes to their own four-legged friends. Acrylic illustrations with broad-textured brush strokes add life to the slight premise.

Reviewer: Cindy Lombardo

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. A series of rhymes, seemingly in no particular order, pay homage to cat lovers throughout history, from Cleopatra and Florence Nightingale to Calvin Coolidge and Henri Matisse, among others; each short sketch ends with the query, "Do YOU have a cat?" Acrylic illustrations with broad-textured brushstrokes add life to the slight premise. Very brief biographical information appears on the endpapers.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. Lester recounts a ghost story so full of lyrical jollity that the tale will delight (not frighten) almost any young reader. Valério's soothing blue, curving acrylic-paint brush strokes capture the fun as young Malcolm David learns that the eerie-sounding ghosts in his room aren't scary--they're hungry. Readers will be first surprised to learn what these ghosts eat, then satisfied with the story's ending.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(4) PS Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. "Clickety-clackety, / yickety-yackety, / yuckety-yuckety / yack!" Nonsense-word rhymes drive a train that takes its young riders through Groggy Grove, Snuggle Cove, and the town of Yawwwwwn before they finally reach their destination: Dreamland. The rhymes are hyper and the illustrations bright and exuberant; readers will enjoy the journey even if it takes them to the land of Wide Awake.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. Woodland tenants move in and out of the same burrow throughout the seasons. Woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, snakes, and others each take turns, using the burrow for a cool home in the summer, a winter's hibernation, or a safe haven for spring babies. The straightforward, somewhat flat text is enhanced by bright paintings. Facts about each animal are appended.

Reviewer: Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan

(3) PS Illustrated by Geraldo Valério. "Some things you just have to put up with," we learn from this Balinese explication of interspecies connectedness. Gecko complains that the fireflies' lights are keeping him awake, but they're necessary to illuminate Buffalo's poop in the road and that poop fills potholes left by Rain, etc. MacDonald's energetic telling is prime story-hour material, illuminated by Valério's dreamlike, humorous art.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Geraldo Valerio. "Abe Lincoln wore it round the town / with documents inside the crown." This paean to the hat and to the famously behatted (Igor Stravinsky, Carmen Miranda, etc.) is accompanied by celebratory, whimsical spreads in which an often-outsize derby takes center stage. It's unfortunate that each salute begins with an intrusive non-rhyming sentence ("Walt Whitman had a hat") that's only there to establish the subject.

Reviewer: Nell Beram