(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. In these jaunty verses (with the occasional rhythmic hitch), the Mouse family moves into a human home and discovers Christmas. Glowing illustrations, featuring the Borrowers-like Mouse household, show how the mice create their own joyful celebration. A hidden item treasure hunt is an added bonus, though the answer key is located (inconveniently for libraries) inside the book jacket.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. When he wakes up to find his sidewalk shoveled, a young boy wonders if his snowman is responsible. He begins to contemplate all the jobs snow-folk might have. The clever rhyming text and cheeky illustrations add to this story's lighthearted appeal. Hidden images in each double-page spread painting are challenging and frustrating; the answers are on the back of the book jacket.

Reviewer: Meredith M. Sittman

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. On the chilly heels of Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas comes this fantasy, courtesy of a boy who imagines an entire year spent playing with a magically unmelting snowman. The visual variety (settings include a zoo, the beach, and an amusement park) is effective in helping to camouflage the occasional uninspired rhyme.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Queen Sophie is bored. She enrolls in a correspondence course with the Royal College of Beauty, then forces her subjects to let her practice on them--until they protest her cosmetic tyranny. The accompanying oil over acrylic illustrations deliver on the funny premise; farm folk and sheep alike are beehived and otherwise coiffed within an inch of their lives.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Skipping into the log cabin of the Three Bears comes a very active Goldilocks wearing red cowboy boots. Set in a Rocky Mountains-like wilderness, the illustrations (oil paints over acrylics) are filled with funny details and hidden animals. The jump-roping intruder speaks in rhyme, and the amusing art will hold children's attention, even those who've heard the tale before.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jack E. Davis. Cousin Ed alternately feeds the narrator lies ("your head is shrinking") and bizarre truths ("Aunt Mary has no teeth!"), so he doesn't know whether to believe Ed's declaration about "poisonous pie." Though the rhymed text's meter isn't exact, the winning premise is well paired with Davis's semi-grotesque illustrations. Readers will cheer when the narrator gets the better of his cousin.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. When cat Cleevis teases him unmercifully, Dexter, a tiny dachshund, trains to be a superhero. Despite Dex's new rippling muscles and superdog outfit, Cleevis still laughs--until he gets stuck in a tree and must call on Dex for help. Only the hardest heart wouldn't cheer on Dex, and the humorous art capably depicts his determination.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Upon noticing that a snowman appears disheveled the morning after being made, a child imagines what snowmen do at night--such as drinking ice-cold cocoa, skating, sledding, and playing baseball. Told in rhyme, the story is imaginative and fast paced, and the rich oil over acrylic paintings (which contain the artist's signature hidden shapes) are jubilant, energetic, and reflective of a mischievous mood.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(4) PS Illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers. A mother lists the times she loves her child, during playtime or a noisy return from school. "When I call you to get up and you clatter down the stairs, / With your eyes still blinking sleep, and your porcupine-ish hair, I love you." The sentimental poem is illustrated with painted torn-paper collages, which often show the mother and child outlined in an eye-drawing bright color. This book will find a greater audience among moms than kids.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) K-3 Following the quiz format of their manners book, 'It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel!', the Buehners' latest humorous lesson in good behavior asks readers to choose among answers a, b, and c for each scenario, and then find the letter of the correct answer hidden in the accompanying painting. Bonus fun comes from locating other hidden objects, such as a dinosaur-shaped stream and an ever-present bee.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.