(2) K-3 In young ninja Yukio's second holiday-themed adventure (Samurai Santa), doting little sis Kashi annoyingly emulates all of his Halloween trick-or-treating preparations; her copycat costume is the final straw. But then Kashi cleverly invokes Yukio's spooky urban legend about Samurai Scarecrow to get some well-deserved respect. Thoughtful text design enhances the spare, funny narrative. Digital illustrations in a limited orange-and-purple palette capture the siblings' relatable range of emotions.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(4) 4-6 Batman & Robin Adventures series. Illustrated by Luciano Vecchio. Batman and the Boy Wonder defeat familiar foes in these accessible books. Simple story lines--featuring comic book–style sound effects ("ZWIIIIP!") within the text--combine with rapid pacing and playful banter for slight but entertaining reads. Snazzy colors and popular characters will likely appeal to reluctant readers. Discussion questions and writing prompts are appended. Glos. Review covers these Batman & Robin Adventures titles: The Joker's Magic Mayhem, Scarecrow's Nightmare Maze, Clayface's Slime Spree, and Two-Face Face-Off.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Matt Myers. Stripping off layers of straw and clothing, a skeleton finishes his workday as a scarecrow and meets up with "ghoulies and ghosties" to "dance under the moon." A large cast of monsters spend all night with the scarecrow, playing games (including hide-and-seek) and fighting mock battles until the sun starts to rise. The rhyming text and playful illustrations make this a festive read-aloud.

Reviewer: Sian Gaetano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2015

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Axel Scheffler. While off searching for the perfect pink flowers for Betty O'Barley, his bride-to-be, Harry O'Hay the scarecrow is replaced by dashing Reginald Rake. But Betty doesn't fall for Reginald's wild ways, and when fire threatens, Harry is the hero. Jovial, stiff-armed scarecrows and wide-eyed animals star in a charmingly odd tale of true love told in singsongy rhymes.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(3) K-3 It takes time, a rainstorm, and a silly round of "the quiet game" for Otis the tractor to cozy up to the scarecrow, the farm's grumpiest new member. The story is leisurely paced--a fact that will encourage readers to linger over Long's charming gouache and pencil illustrations of cheerful farm animals, a wide-eyed Otis, and rolling landscapes in muted colors.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(4) K-3 When Little Jack Rabbit and his friends venture out to a distant cabbage field, a snowstorm takes them by surprise. Luckily, a lonely scarecrow gives them shelter overnight, leading to a new friendship. The lush, detailed illustrations for this wordy story show the passing seasons and offer entertaining glimpses of animals going about their business.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Nicola Bayley. In this cumulative tale, a child invites a scarecrow and its mouse friend in out of the snow. Soon more and more animals fill the warm house. The animals in the gentle illustrations look soft, cuddly, and furry, and the snowy cottage is invitingly still, quiet, and serene.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Six crows battle a farmer for control of a wheat field. The farmer makes frightening scarecrows, which the crows try to scare off with terrifying kites. Finally, an owl helps the two parties talk over a solution. The fable is illustrated with clean, bright collage. The owl's claim that "words can do magic" is both the tale's moral and a storyteller's creed.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. A scarecrow comes to life one autumn night. He dances over to the farmhouse, where he's humbled and gratified to overhear the farm boy including him in his prayers ("And bless tonight / Our old scarecrow / Who guards the fields / And each corn row"). Yolen's rhymes are air-tight, and Ibatoulline makes every moonlit spread darkly radiant.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mike Spoor. Wisecracking crows are destroying Farmer Ham's cornfields. Frustrated Ham heads purposefully to the pond, fishes out a series of old clothing items, and builds a scarecrow: problem solved. Young children may enjoy uncovering Ham's plan; others will wonder why the clothes were in the pond, whether Ham knew, and why he didn't act sooner. The playful cartoonlike illustrations use varying perspectives.

Reviewer: Sethany Rancier Alongi

(4) 4-6 Three early Goosebumps titles--The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, and The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena--are revived as graphic novellas, their economic plots enhanced by the illustrations' textured backgrounds and irregular paneling. The undemanding stories still lack character development, but their twist endings and well-executed graphic revival may attract new readers.

Reviewer: David Elzey

(4) K-3 After Peggy purloins a scarecrow's fancy outfit to wear to a party, the angry scarecrow--portrayed in suitably spooky illustrations--comes and snatches the clothes back, only to lose them to Peggy a second time. The story's logic is somewhat shaky; besides, it's much easier to sympathize with the scarecrow than with the thieving Peggy.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(4) K-3 I'm Going to Read! series. This series features three levels of beginning reader texts: up to fifty words (level one), one hundred words (level two), and two hundred words (level three). The illustrations are consistently lively, the stories range from forced to adequate (Class Play, for more confident readers, is engaging). There are nine other spring 2005 books in this series. Review covers these I'm Going to Read! titles: A Class Play with Ms. Vanilla, Fish Wish, Go Away, Crows!, I'm Going to New York to Visit the Lions, Silly Pig, and Who Spilled the Milk?.

Reviewer: Barbara Barstow

(3) K-3 After Scarecrow says he'd gladly trade his hat for a walking stick, Chicken searches out several animals who have something they want to trade. She exchanges three of her feathers for Donkey's blanket, starting a comical chain of swapping that supplies Scarecrow with a walking stick and Chicken with the hat, which becomes a fine new nest. Attractive watercolors accompany this satisfying tale.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(2) PS Illustrated by David Diaz. Diaz appropriately lightens his palette for this tale, told with compressed poetry by Brown, of a scarecrow boy who, wanting more than anything to fill his father's fearsome footsteps, sneaks into the fields one day to try to scare the crows. This is a clear, strong hymn to toddler independence and parental security, buoyed by big and sunny illustrations in brightly autumnal colors.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 1998

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Mary Whyte. A girl visiting her grandparents wonders why Grandpa is dressing his two scarecrows in formal wear until he tells her about the time the townspeople, wearing tuxes and ball gowns, had to interrupt their harvest dance to shoo crows out of their corn. Full-page watercolors document the story and gracefully imagine the rumor that the scarecrows waltz around the fields when conditions are right.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(4) K-3 In a lyrical text likely to appeal more to adults than to picture book readers, Rylant presents a paean to the scarecrow, personified here as a creation that appreciates the time to think and the opportunity to watch nature grow and change that his job presents. Soft-edged acrylics in rich earth tones lend a warm, engaging feel.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.