(3) PS "Where are my striped underpants?...Where is my light blue shirt?" Readers can answer each of a boy's seven questions by poring over the book's double-page spreads featuring animals and children making merry with assorted garments. By this winsomely clever book's end, the once naked boy is fully clothed and marching the cast outdoors to play.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 A mouse shares his reliable cure for the blues: "Elephant soup!" The fastidious illustrations accompanying the recipe's steps ("Scrub gently") show a team of mice capturing a bemused-looking elephant who ultimately escapes the pot but nevertheless finds a way to cheer them up. Readers will delight in recognizing the tension between the narration's evenness and the illustrations' absurdity.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Two bears living in a tree house don't mind when their tranquility is disturbed by a variety of uninvited animals, who are finally lured away by a third bear in some sort of balloon boat. Children will appreciate this large-scale wordless book's whimsicality and its commanding art, especially the tree house's out-of-focus look as it's battered by a rhino.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Rushing to help ill crocodile Kevin, hippo Ophelia tells Meerkat of Kevin's stomach "butterflies." Meerkat tells Frog, Frog tells Porcupine, etc.; with each telling, Kevin's ailments become increasingly dire. The dramatic art will satisfy readers, but the promising story line is derailed for the picture-book set upon learning that Kevin's "butterflies" are the result of his "being in love."

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mies van Hout. In this odd story, Lovey and Dovey are jailed for stealing socks. Lovey bemoans the view from prison, so Dovey sneaks out and brings her the sun, stars, a tree, etc. They're released, but now the real world is cold and gray. Only one thing to do: steal more socks. Cheery illustrations show their cell resembling more and more the natural world.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Irene Goede. A year in the life of the European House Sparrow is conveyed through friendly text and beguiling pictures. The writing is both playful and informative, delighting in the birds' antics and posing questions to readers. Realistic illustrations intersperse views from the birds' perspective with field guide–like pages that illustrate anatomy and behavior and introduce other animals in the sparrow habitat.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2008

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Martijn van der Linden. One dark night, five animals "investigate" a creature they can't see (it's actually Elephant). Each touches a different part of the creature and imagines a gigantic version of itself; to Bat, for example, Elephant's ear is a "superduper big" wing. The animals, painted in a bold patchwork of brilliant colors and patterns, are particularly striking against the pages' black background.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 This book explains that baby animals need to be cared for by their parents, "just like people." From seahorse babies incubated by their fathers to platypus young no bigger than a bean, this basic introduction discusses the ways animals raise their offspring. Most of the illustrations are fairly realistic; occasionally the animals have been anthropomorphized (e.g., a beaver spanking its young).

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mies van Hout. A bored girl welcomes being kidnapped by a giant until she determines that he's not a "nice villain" but an "ordinary old child cruncher." Readers will be amused by the narrator's initial cluelessness and attempts to win over her captor. The illustrations, featuring dark-outlined figures in the foreground with gauzy, fuzzy-edged backgrounds, reassuringly reinforce the interplay between real and imaginary.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Marije Tolman. Sick of being called "cute," rabbit Toby adopts a biker look and a macho persona. However, he rethinks his new lifestyle after unintentionally alienating an attractive female. The story line is a touch too glib, but there's nothing cutesy about the delicate-line illustrations, which are full of amusing details (e.g., a bird uses Toby's discarded motorcycle helmet to gather flowers).

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mies van Hout. A ghost appears in Charlotte's bed one night. She's less surprised by his existence than she is miffed by his selfishness ("Mine!" is his only word), which she devotes herself to curing. Due in large part to van Hout's nicely textured illustrations, children will recognize the smiley ghost's behavior as more immature than malicious and will sympathize with Charlotte's plight.

Reviewer: Nell Beram