(2) PS A child explores the outdoors on a sunny day, observing living things all around: a tall, verdant tree and animals on land, in the air, and underwater. Author Daniel gives voice to each of these living entities: "I'm afraid," says a leaf in the air. The tree from which the leaf fell tells it, however, that it's not alone. A bird nestled in the same tree notes: "I could fall," and the wind replies, as the yellow bird soars through the air: "I will lift you." And so it goes: the stream provides water to a thirsty skunk; a fish provides camaraderie to a lonely crab; the creek cools a hot bear; the grass comforts a worried deer; and more. Daniel stresses the interdependence of living things, stating in a short appended note that "every single living thing depends on another living thing" (such as, for instance, the story's "bored" mushrooms that accept a mouse's invitation to play). The illustrations in thick acrylics are inventive: in one spread, a butterfly's wing, adorned with a pupil-like shape, overlaps with the child's left eye as that eye looks at a snail needing encouragement, and in the final spread, the child sleeps under a full moon while dreaming of creatures. James personifies the animals, many of them with tears and frowns. It's an empathetic primer for the youngest of readers on the interconnectedness of all living things on our planet.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) K-3 Translated by Laura Watkinson. Illustrated by Herma Starreveld. In this Dutch import, a community of birds comes to terms with the death of one of their own. In the wordless opening spread, a lifeless bird lies face up on the ground. A long-beaked bird looks on disconsolately and then states: "Bird is dead." More gather and experience both denial and shock: "Are you sure he's not sleeping?" and "What? He was still alive yesterday!" Some of the creatures cry; some argue over who will bury him; some mourn the loss; and one even shares, "I thought he was a pest." They bury Bird and say goodbye, absorbing the hard reality of doing so forever and that this means "for always," although one acknowledges that he will live in their heads "forever." This decidedly unsentimental look at death is set on a rolling terrain that could be anywhere; the birds traverse it as if on a stage. Grim humor punctuates the narrative, including at the burial: one bird sings "tra-la-la" and responds, after being chastised, that Bird was always "chirpy" and would probably like to hear it at his funeral. Starreveld renders the avian bodies in patchwork colors and patterns and anthropomorphizes them: at the book's close, they share tea, worms, and cake under lanterns they've hung from the leafless branches of trees. This plainspoken and candid lens on death is a conversation-starter. See also Brown and Robinson's The Dead Bird (rev. 5/16) and Yumoto and Sakai's The Bear and the Wildcat (rev. 3/23) for similar approaches to children's natural curiosity about the subject of death.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) PS Illustrated by Laura Dronzek. This adventure of discovery kicks off on the title-page spread with an adult and child walking a dog. The story's second-person voice immediately engages readers: "If you found a little ball on the grass and it was there for days, you could take it home." What about a flower? An empty box? A kitten? Each one ends up at the child's home. Henkes constructs the text conditionally, which will spark many conversations with young children about what is fair for the taking: if the ball was there for multiple days; if the flower sprung forth from a crack in the sidewalk; if the box was on the curb as garbage; and if the kitten was scared and "didn't belong to anyone and it didn't have a mother and you got permission from everyone," you would be "lucky" to take them home. The story taps into the inherent caretaking tendencies of many young children: the kitten is safe in a new home, sleeping in the warm box, playing with the red ball and dog. In nearly every spread, Dronzek's brightly colored illustrations in multicolored borders appear on the recto; the text, perfect for emerging readers, is placed on the verso. Tableaux, dominated by simple square shapes, are reduced to their essentials: ball, flower, box, kitten -- all "happy" in a warm home because the child took the time to notice them.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. Originally conceived for a project produced by the Palestinian Museum and inspired by the traditional embroidery of Palestinian culture, this Argentinian import honors unseen worlds. The mixed-media art relies primarily on highly textured and detailed embroidery to tell the tale of a girl whose mother scolds her for losing things, such as her keys. Leilah, like her grandmother, is sensitive to the dreamlike existence of the "Other Side and its mysterious inhabitants." Isol depicts this as a world embroidered in red thread, and superimposed upon it in blue threads are the creatures that live there; delightfully, she also depicts the back sides of these embroidered cloths to emphasize the "much stranger" other world "just behind ours." She renders the startling, eye-catching forest with black threads, for example. Leilah knows that the holes that lead to the Other Side, including one in the forest, are responsible for her lost items, so she sews up the holes with a needle and thread -- which leads to unexpected consequences. Isol tells the story in four parts and an epilogue, the last introducing the otherworldly Lexis and Rolf, who find a surprising use for the lost keys. A richly imagined tale told with loving care.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) K-3 Shinbi is a ghost who doesn't care for haunting houses. She prefers sitting on her favorite rock and stargazing. When a shooting star flies through the sky, she wishes for a friend. One day, she sees a "Hi" on her favorite rock and leaves a response. Its recipient is Greem, the shadow formed by the same rock during the daylight hours, who also longs for a friend. The two leave messages for each other, primarily about constellations, something Greem has never seen. Greem thinks the Big Dipper looks more like a whale, and Shinbi says Cancer looks less like a crab and more like a child doing a handstand. When a "star parade" adorns the night sky, it provides enough light for them to finally meet, "pouring their hearts out to each other" for one glorious night. Min's depiction of Shinbi is the sort of ghost that won't frighten children: she's composed of rounded lines and rosy cheeks. Greem is shaped precisely the same but filled with the dark colors of night. Most of the richly colored spreads are full bleed; the occasional use of borders accelerates the action. The sky filled with shooting stars is particularly dazzling with its sparkling, warm colors against the darkness.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(1) PS First published in Portugal, this wordless book celebrates -- with abundant style -- the blossoming of spring. Most spreads convey the action in a series of four or six small, square panels. In the opening ones, an aerial perspective reveals, after clouds part, a neighborhood of homes. Inside one of those homes is a child who sees the sun is shining and bolts outside. She takes flight and visits a forest teeming with life. Moreira's tableaux -- with simple shapes and a palette of primarily reds, blues, greens, and browns -- are filled with clever surprises. The change in season is indicated via a calendar (a "30" page falls away to reveal a "1"), along with a newscaster on television whose speech bubble contains a sun. The protagonist's boundless energy propels the story. For example, in one early spread, the child's body, exaggeratedly elongated, winds around the living room furniture, seeking an exit to the outdoors; she's so eager to get outside that her body flies headlong toward the door -- readers see her from a side view -- only to be halted by a parent who reminds her to put on her shoes. It is playful and exceptionally funny moments like this that make the story sing; many preschoolers will relate. Throughout, changes in scale accentuate the child's wondrous forest discoveries, which includes a grasshopper crooning into a microphone. A breath of fresh air, in more ways than one.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) Translated by Vineet Lal. Simler takes on the perspectives of twenty-seven creatures who share the intricacies of their homes in this eye-catching French import. Each entry features a poem about, and illustration of, the animal and its habitat. The playful poem titles include a comet moth's "Silky Apartment," a European fan worm's "Tubular Condo," and the common tailorbird's "Haute Couture Bedchamber." Creatures relate their stories with style: the satin bowerbird tells readers that its home is built from sticks and twigs, which Simler describes as "an arched avenue." It paints its walls with berry juice, adding, "I have a real flair for home decoration." Readers leave with facts about the natural world, such as that the red ovenbird takes several weeks to construct its "Mud Bungalow," that the elf owl is the smallest owl in the world, and that the silk that connects the walls of the "Leafy Fortress" of a weaver ant is spun by young larvae. Simler's highly textured, jewel-tone illustrations give readers detailed peeks into the animals' homes. The elf owl stares directly at readers from its perch on a cactus plant, and a Sumatran orangutan, about to succumb to sleep, gazes out from a "mattress of fresh leaves" in the forest. These vivid, sensory poems could serve as superb classroom writing prompts, and back matter (including a glossary and recommended resources) provides additional information.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) PS Illustrated by Samantha Cotterill. This companion to Snyder's 2021 Listen encourages children to find visual patterns in our "VAST world." In vivid three-dimensional scenes, Cotterill depicts a redheaded pair: a child, sketchbook in hand, and a pregnant parent. Snyder writes in a direct, second-person voice: "But what if you stop, LOOK around, and get a closer view?" When the world "feels like too much" or is hard to "make sense of," look for patterns: stripes, repeating shapes, opportunities for repetitive movements ("Step, HOP, step, HOP"), zigzags, circles, checkerboards, polka dots, spots, and more. Cotterill fills her hand-built, mixed-media dioramas with patterns for viewers to find as the characters visit a farmers' market, a dock, and a forest. She keeps the compositions busy; that's the point. Once we find the patterns in her textured, bustling scenes, a sense of order grows from all the details. Snyder's text is particularly evocative during the book's close, noting that patterns connect us like "notes in a lullaby" as parent and child wrap themselves in a patterned quilt on the front porch. Back matter describes various types of patterns (fractal, branching, alternating, etc.) as well as a few activities related to making and locating patterns (the creation of sound patterns and taking "pattern walks").

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) K-3 In a rousing adventure dedicated to the author's grandfather, who "sailed the seven seas," readers meet Gabriel, an elderly elephant who lives with his sea cat, Milou. Gabriel, whose face has "as many lines as the sea has waves," lives by the harbor, remembering the old days. Vere then rewinds the clock to visit Gabriel's boyhood, during which he revered the crew of creatures who worked on the lifeboat. (No humans here. All characters are anthropomorphized animals.) They tell Gabriel to return when he's older, but when he does, he's too large to fit in the boat. Disappointed but undeterred, he constructs his own lifeboat, built "for strength. Built for him!" In this boat, Gabriel saves a fleet during a disastrous storm. Vivid copper and rose colors dominate the palette, punctuated by cool blues and grays. Vere animates the story with seafaring language ("Heave away, haul away, heave-ho, heave-HO!") and bustling verbs ("The wind whipped and whistled. The waves turned into giants, tumbling, lashing, and crashing"). Vere describes Gabriel's determination to build a boat that can carry him as "an important thought...There is only one thing I want to do...So I will do it!" The gentle reminder to readers to pursue their passions, no matter the odds against them, makes this endearing tale an inspiring one.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) PS While her father does yard work, Madeleine stands still, arms outstretched. She's pretending to be a tree, "because a tree gets to stay outside all day long!" When Dad agrees to join in the imaginative play ("only for a minute"), a baby owl falls asleep on his shoulder, a robin builds a nest in his hair, a spider spins a web in his armpit, a squirrel slides an acorn into his shirt pocket, and more. Then a kite flies into his face, rain starts to fall, and it gets dark. Dad insists that they go inside, but then the baby owl on his shoulder wakes up. It joins its mother in a real tree, and father and child bond over witnessing this moment in nature. Madeleine's goal has been achieved too: "We got to stay outside all day long!" Agee keeps the compositions and dialogue uncluttered and unfussy ("Dad, you are a very good tree!"), and children will delight in the visual hyperbole--the growing number of creatures who pile on Dad. This entertaining story expresses what children know so well: playing outside can be filled with surprises.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) PS Illustrated by Christian Robinson. This conversation-starting picture book presents a series of questions and invites children to supply the answers. The first spread asks viewers to count the number of animals pictured, with Robinson depicting a creature-filled tree and a bear and elephant at its base. The next spread, featuring a tiger partially concealed by jungle leaves, adds an element of delicious mischief: "How many animals can you not see in this one, because they're hiding from the tiger?" There's much more mischief: someone has just robbed a bank ("which of these ladies" did it?); bandits bury a treasure (and "what would you do if you found it?"); there's a mysterious beast in a bathtub (what kind?); and more. Some questions give simple options, one spread showing three sleeping children with Barnett's text asking which one dreams of peaches. Others are open-ended, making them a good match for creative writing prompts. For instance, a woman stands atop a cliff next to the question: "Who is she waiting for?" Robinson's textured mixed-media collages provide just enough detail and sometimes pose visual questions that the text doesn't even touch on. How, for instance, did the snake get in the tennis shoe pictured on the cover? Even the endpapers are a delight, Robinson turning everyday objects (a banana, a mug) into question marks. This is creative, interactive picture-book fun, without question.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Evan Turk. On her eighth birthday, Maude buries a red tin box under a dogwood tree (only she knows what's inside), making a promise to herself. Decades pass. Maude, now an older woman, remembers the box but not its contents. One afternoon she is "seized with a feeling" and invites her granddaughter on a long drive to her old home. The granddaughter is filled with questions ("what's inside the box?"), and they both wonder if they'll be able to find it. They do indeed, and Maude is overcome with emotions as she explores the box's contents and then shares stories from her childhood on the drive back home. Burgess's (Drawing on Walls, rev. 1/21) detailed text is filled with evocative sensory descriptions: "At the foot of the flowering dogwood, in a soft spot where she once discovered a fallen nest, the earth seemed to whisper, 'Here.'" A vivid coppery-red and brilliant golds dominate Turk's (Hello, Moon, rev. 9/22) palette, and he fills the book with intriguing perspectives and distinctive textures. Burgess's warm intergenerational tale leaves Maude's specific memories, the meaning of each item in the red tin box, and Maude's promise to herself a mystery to readers, thereby inviting them to imagine the contours of her childhood and perhaps even consider what they'd put in their own red tin boxes.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) PS Hungry baby bear wakes up early and wanders off alone. When a delicious red fruit falls from a tree and lands on his head, he decides to search for more. The tree is exceedingly tall, but that doesn't stop him. On his way up, he spots what he thinks is the red fruit, but page-turns reveal other surprises: a caterpillar, a squirrel, a beehive. At the top of the tree, he's mesmerized by what he thinks is the biggest red fruit of all: the setting sun. Eun fills this Korean import with simple sentences ("I want to eat more"), perfect for pre- and emerging readers. Playful text orientation captures bear's daunting climb: the letters of "Going up" are set in a vertical line. The use of a repeated "Oh!" for many of the creatures the bear sees on his climb emphasizes his abundant curiosity. Vibrant pops of red for the elements in nature that baby bear discovers punctuate an otherwise monochromatic palette in textured illustrations with relaxed lines that look like they were done in charcoals. Thinking the setting sun is "a huge red fruit," baby bear leaps to grab it but instead falls toward the ground, passing all his red discoveries on the way down. Thankfully, an adult bear is there to catch him. A new discovery, this one yellow, hints at another enchanting adventure.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) PS Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. In short, punchy sentences, many of them one or two words long, Ferry introduces readers to a persistent rainstorm: "Dreary. Weary. Dim. Grim. Drip. Drop. Nonstop." Lichtenheld, alternating between full-bleed spreads and energetic vignettes that hasten the pace, depicts a town utterly tired of all the rain. Children look out windows in despair, wanting to run and play outdoors, but the rain, falling in driving lines, will not relent. The monochromatic purplish-gray palette captures the pervading sense of gloom: "Nights and days. Always grays." A girl heads outdoors with her pup ("Gotta go--rain or snow") and stops into a curio shop. She finds a battered yellow umbrella, the book's one pop of color. The umbrella disintegrates in the rain as she runs home, but she later discovers that the pieces have bloomed, creating a field of dazzling yellow umbrellas. She and her pup dig them up and distribute them throughout town, the pages now emanating a sunny-bright glow: "Goodbye, dreary. Goodbye, gray." Color and joy return, chasing the clouds away. A pleasing pick-me-up story, rain or shine.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) K-3 Translated by Emilie Robert Wong. Illustrated by Violeta Lopíz. Fontenaille and Lópiz bring readers a deeply affectionate intergenerational story of a six-year-old child and Grandpa Luis. The child admires Luis, a talented gardener who fled war in Spain as a youth and never attended school or learned to read or write. "Dad told me Luis didn't have a chance to be a kid." The grandchild's first-person narration lovingly describes Luis's tattoo-covered arms, his artwork that covers the walls ("Dad says Luis is as good as Henri Rousseau"), his cooking, his guitar-playing, and the idiosyncratic way he speaks: "He says I am 'the apple of his pie,' which means he really likes me." Lópiz's beautifully composed, exquisitely controlled illustrations burst with color, capturing impressions and moments with graceful lines and evocative, layered patterns and textures. There is a particularity to the story and characters that makes this book most memorable and spellbinding.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) PS This playful tale about colors and numbers stars one adult cat and nine lively kittens. While they frolic on each spread, the text invites viewers to find the felines with certain markings: "3 cats with stripes"; "4 cats with patches." There are also three cans of paint, and as the adult cat sleeps, the sense of mischief is palpable when the kittens lift the lids off the cans. Paint cans tumble, and red, yellow, and blue paint flow across the spreads. Now there are "5 cats with red spots" and "6 cats with yellow dots." Soon the colors mix to create "orange splotches" and "green splats." By the time the bemused adult wakes up, there are "10 multicolored cats," nine of whom are worn out from their adventures. No worries: the big cat cleans them up. Young children learning to count will delight in the growing chaos on each spread, the expressively rendered kittens, and the proliferation of bright colors at each page-turn. Gravett's nimble linework communicates a frolicsome tone. Viewers will want to head immediately back to page one and start counting again.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) PS Readers can expect much more than just a counting book in Gravett's (10 Cats, rev. 5/23) latest: it's also a delightful mathematical puzzler for preschoolers. In the opening spread (one of only two moments of peace), ten sausages sit on a table, and ten dogs, licking their lips, stand around it. The book does, indeed, count down; with the exception of the first spread, the recto of each goes from nine dogs to one (with the finale hinting at zero). But how readers get to zero is where the engaging adventure with math comes into play. For instance, on the second spread, in which chaos immediately ensues, one dog grabs all the sausages, leaving "9 dogs with none." Next, "2 dogs each with half of them, 8 dogs wanting some." And so it goes, Gravett prompting viewers to look carefully at her detailed illustrations to see the deductions in action. Her fine-lined, brightly colored images of ten distinctive canines convey much humor as the pups try to snatch sausages and keep the others away; in the "3" spread, for example, "7 dogs hide sausages" and "3 dogs hunt around." Expect big laughs from preschoolers, particularly those who are dog fans. The dogs topple furniture and put the chairs and the polka-dotted tablecloth to creative use--but, in the end, decide to share. A doggone good adventure.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin. This playful and introspective book asks readers to ponder what the world would be like if things taken for granted disappeared. What if "all the birds flew away"? What if "all the water disappeared"? What if "the sun never set"? Handy presents eight of these scenarios, each one imaginatively exploring what might happen in Corrin's energetic, full-bleed illustrations dominated by vivid ambers. If the birds flew away, for instance, skies would be "plainer." There's much humor here too. If the birds did indeed fly away, worms could take it easy--Corrin's illustration depicts worms lounging on beach chairs and reading books--and if all the water disappeared, soap would fail to work. (The absence of color results in some humorous crayon names: "Dirty Snow" and "Deepening Gloom.") The text succeeds on many levels; children are subtly prompted to consider the effects of climate change (if there were no more people, nature "could relax") yet to also ponder our creative contributions ("there would be no more music or art or stories or dancing"). Each scenario concludes with an exuberant statement in the affirmative to enthusiastically remind readers of the delights of their planet: "But there is WATER!" and "But there are COLORS!" The pitch-perfect ending invites discovery, asking us to contemplate the "something" missing "because it hadn't been dreamt of yet."

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Hüseyin Sönmezay. In the first double-page spread of this Turkish import, readers see a boy and girl, each in their respective homes "somewhere in the world." The boy looks out the window with delight as fireworks flash; the girl sleeps while what is revealed on the next spread to be a bomb falls near her window. The rest of the book, spread by spread and with nearly identical dialogue, juxtaposes the two different journeys of the boy and his mother and the girl and her father. One is safe and comfortable while the other is steeped in danger. In one striking spread, the boy leans over a bridge to point at a swan. "Don't get too close to the edge," says his mother. On the recto, the father says the same to the girl, now a war refugee, as they navigate a small raft in the water, leaving the country they knew as home. A tangerine-colored fish follows the girl; it grows progressively in size, representing her longing for the home she has left. Both parent-child pairs end up at the same fair on a Ferris wheel, a symbol of global interconnection. "Who knows whose turn it will be to pack a bag," the author writes in a closing note. This sensitive story should prompt readers to consider that idea along with the importance of empathy when encountering strangers.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Grace Lin. Cold sleet is falling, and the protagonist of this home-and-back-again adventure tale, Alice, is stuck inside, bored. Then she spots a book on the floor and starts to read: "Once upon a time, there was a girl... She went to a place alive with colors, where even the morning dew was warm." "That sounds like our home," says one of the book's characters (a flamingo), who invites the child into the book. She climbs in and spends time with the animal characters. When it starts to rain, she wishes to be elsewhere, and the camels in the desert on the next spread of the book (one she's both inhabiting and holding in her hands) invite her to join them: "Turn the page and come in." And so it goes, the girl on a thrilling journey of the imagination, swimming through a coral reef, floating in space, and much more. At home, Alice has a plush rabbit and rabbit-shaped slippers, but a real (and vigilant) rabbit accompanies her on her journey; readers can seek-and-find it on every spread. The text builds patterns and a pleasing rhythm with repeating sentence structures; children will delight in anticipating what comes next. Lin's lush full-bleed spreads invite readers to take the journey with Alice, whose dress changes color in each environment, making her blend into every one of the worlds. That Alice is an Asian girl says much about the authors' wishes for all children to see themselves in the books they read--in this case, quite literally.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023