(3) PS Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. When Mr. Bungles the teacher has a clumsy day, his class ends up chasing their runaway hamster through the town. This comical story invites readers to come up with a rhyming word before turning the page to discover the end of the verse. The lively, detailed illustrations are as entertaining as the text; readers can track the hamster's footprints across the pages.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. A poor flower-seller receives a gift from the Dragon King: a boy "who had the snottiest nose you ever did see!" After being fed, the boy blows his nose and gold covers the floor. The man then makes demand after demand. Bright, digitally enhanced watercolor collage sets the story in Japan, with traditional clothing contrasting nicely with the icky but funny details.

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

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. A girl who sounds twice as old as she's supposed to describes her last day of kindergarten, first in melancholy terms and then with post-graduation-ceremony excitement. The story may resonate with rising first graders; more likely it's really intended to help parents deal with the fact that their kids are growing up. Yoshikawa's digital mixed-media illustrations nail a classroom's multicolored paraphernalia.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Tess, in time-out for her "beastie behavior" at the library, accidentally shakes free a T. Rex from a book's pages. The mischievous dino rampages through the library while Tess tries to control him ("Take care!...The books..."). This lesson about regaining self-control isn't heavy-handed, and readers will enjoy the vibrant mixed-media illustrations that display Tess's vivid imagination.

Reviewer: Sarah Novogrodsky

(3) K-3 I Can Read Book series. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Twenty poems, with a good balance of free and formal verse, celebrate such school motifs as the bus driver, the class hamster, the school play, and even the backpack: "Zip it up. Off I ride, / everything I need inside..." Lighthearted but intensely colored illustrations support the poems, each of which gets its own double-page spread. Ind.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(3) PS Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. When Mr. Bungles's alarm fails to go off, he realizes he has a problem: "Oh, no! I'm the teacher / and it's my rule / to never, ever ever be late for... / school!" Vibrantly colored illustrations show Mr. Bungles's frenzied attempts to get to class using increasingly far-fetched means of transportation. Interactive fill-in-the-rhyme text keeps pace with each page turn.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. The students in Ms. Mundy's class describe their year, from first day on the bus to first day of summer. The funny poems in various forms intertwine, and readers will enjoy tracing such threads as Fumi's changing opinion of gym class and Amy and Malik's pen and water-fountain fights. The mixed-media collage illustrations are as vibrant as the kids' personalities.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) PS Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. An adventurous cat jumps out the window and explores the great outdoors but gets lost in a rainstorm and must be rescued by a dog. All this is relayed in airtight quatrains of two-word sentences ("Kitty lost. / Kitty peek. / Kitty gasp. / Kitty shriek") and paintings that make both Kitty's indoor and outdoor lives look inviting.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. This exclamation-point-heavy collection includes twenty-one silly poems loosely centered on school. Individual poems are great to read aloud, but not all in one sitting--you'd get a headache. Bright, colorful cartoony illustrations of deliriously happy kids and critters fit well with the energetic poems, although the frenetic design and multitude of typefaces make it difficult to focus on the text.

Reviewer: Karen Watts

(3) PS Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. This story in rhyme answers the question "What is science?" by giving simple examples: "The study of rocks, geodes and stones, / dinosaur fossils, and old chipped bones." Each spread of cheery acrylic, pastel, and paper collage features three children and a dog engaged in scientific exploration, their facial expressions effectively reflecting the joy of discovery.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) PS Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. A girl and her cat discover that each time they think they're dressed appropriately, they "open the door, but then...Uh-oh!": it's raining (or snowing, or windy, etc.). The rhymes throughout are bland, but Yoshikawa's merrily manic illustrations make a big impression in the book's small pages.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. "Night is to moon / as day is to sun," begins two siblings' rhyming, seaside romp through the world of analogies. A day at the beach serves as a suitable backdrop for exploring linguistic relationships, but, while the analogies are correctly constructed, the device grows a bit tiresome. Energetic, brightly hued illustrations add a hint of whimsy to each word pair.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. "Boy, you're amazing," begins a series of rhymes extolling the virtues of the unnamed boys, who are athletic, imaginative, smart, generous, courageous, and helpful--just like girls, actually, so why draw a distinction? (Kroll is also the author of Girl, You're Amazing!) Meanwhile, the rhymes are peppy if purposive, and the illustrations are inventive and playful.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. A boy spends a day at the beach with his dad--"Race me and chase me, / I'll run away! / Tackle me, tickle me, / Ho Daddy, hey"--after which he returns home to his mother. The rhymes go on a bit too long, but they're as infectiously joyful as the illustrations in tropical hues, and the divorced-parents angle--never mentioned in the text--is subtly played.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) K-3 Jump into Science series. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Some of the many topics covered in this introduction to stars include why we can't see them during the day, classification, and relationships between brightness, size, and distance from earth. Tomecek's text skillfully presents appropriate information to directly address common misconceptions. However, the appealing but misleading artwork and text design undermine the carefully constructed explanations.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford