(2) PS A child with numerous questions welcomes readers at the door of a stately, many-chimneyed mansion: will we help find the rumored ghosts in the house? Have we ever seen any? Do we know where to look? Viewers explore the house with the narrator, who peeks into rooms and closets; searches the library, a chimney, and the attic; and more. Jeffers features monochromatic images of rooms from architectural reference books and furniture catalogs, onto which he draws the narrator, who pops off the page with jade-colored skin and hair and in a dress with vivid chartreuse stripes. Readers turn translucent pages adorned with paintings of ghosts that reveal, on the next spread's verso, the location of the ghosts the narrator asks us to find: cue excited giggles as viewers spot specters near, but always hiding from, the narrator. The ghosts, depicted as white sheets with holes for eyes, are endearing and playful (gleefully jumping on the bed while the child looks under it), never too frightening or threatening to children, who are in control of the page-turns--and, therefore, of the ghost-sightings. Delightfully, we're also told that a collective noun for this group is "a fraid of ghosts."

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(3) PS Inspired by the birth of his son, Jeffers offers those new to the planet information and advice, which, boiled down, is: be kind to Earth, animals, and other humans. The book's potential for preachiness is skillfully avoided by its down-to-earth chattiness, its own admission that "you will figure lots of things out for yourself," and the lighthearted illustrations featuring amusing labels and asides.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) K-3 Hueys series. The egg-shaped, stick-limbed cast demonstrates opposites as only the Hueys can: with clever humor, visual narrative arcs and transitions, and kid-perfect examples--e.g., a cat stuck in a tree provides the context for up/down and high/low. As for "What's the opposite of the beginning?" The answer saves some Hueys from a monster who sends them fleeing at the end.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 In this love letter to literature, a girl and boy journey over "mountains of make-believe," through "forests of fairy tales," and so on, exploring a "world of stories." Multimedia illustrations place Jeffers's expressive, energetic depictions of the children amid Winston's stunning "typographical landscapes" composed of excerpts from classics such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, "Hush-a-Bye Baby," Kidnapped, and others.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert

(3) K-3 Hueys series. In their second book, the Hueys, who usually get along with one another, devolve into an argument, which Jeffers depicts as a communal dialogue bubble showing a storm. When Gillespie Huey asks what the others are arguing about, the Hueys are speechless--and colorless (Jeffers switches to black-and-white). The illustrations, featuring a cast that resembles eggs with stick limbs, tell the story expertly.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(1) K-3 Each letter gets its own story in this inventive collection of (sometimes) interlocking four-page tales, from A (for astronaut Edmund, afraid of heights) to Z (for the zeppelin Edmund flies four feet above the ground). Jeffers's loose cartoon style lends itself to visual humor. Although alphabet books are usually for younger children, it's older kids who will delight here in the clever concepts.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2015

(3) K-3 Wilfred has a pet moose named Marcel--or so he thinks until they are out walking and encounter a woman who exclaims to the moose, "Rodrigo! You're back!" Whose moose is it? Or is he his own moose? These weighty concerns are both amplified and lightened in the dynamic art, in which Wilfred is (or is he?) rescued by Marcel.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 When Rupert--who, like the other beings known as Hueys, resembles an egg with rudimentary facial features and stick limbs--dons a sweater, conformity ensues; in Jeffers's perfect line, "Being different was catching on." But when Rupert experiments with wearing a hat... The wordless ending to this ingenious meditation on thinking independently is funny, joyous, and a complete surprise.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Floyd's kite is stuck in a tree. He throws his shoe to knock the kite loose, setting off a humorously absurd chain of events. A random assortment of increasingly larger objects gets tossed up in his attempts to knock down the previous item. Jeffers's spare illustrations have plenty of kid appeal, meshing nicely with the comical story line.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter

(4) K-3 In this overly allegorical story, a girl and the unidentified man (father? grandfather?) she lives with share a love of astronomy, oceanography, and life science. When the man (presumably) dies, the girl puts her heart in a jar for safekeeping and abandons her studies. Finally, she meets "someone smaller and still curious" with the power to release her heart. Jeffers's fanciful mixed-media illustrations provide a lift to the heavy text.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) K-3 In this tale of steadfast friendship and fulfillment, Penguin dreams of flying. In pursuit of his dream, he ends up zooming through the air, alone and terrified, as a "living cannonball" in the circus. But all's well: his best friend, a little boy, is there to catch him. Spare but expressive, the illustrations (a few backgrounds are too dark) suit the story's restraint.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 When the forest animals notice that some trees are missing branches, they launch an investigation. Meanwhile, readers will spot a bear sneaking around with an ax, then see a flyer tacked to a tree advertising a paper-airplane competition. The story's details are so funny (especially the sight of otherwise normally proportioned animals with stick legs) that the respect-the-land message goes down easy.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 After a boy finds an airplane in his closet, he takes it for a spin and gets stuck on the moon. There he meets a likewise-stranded Martian. Together, they devise a plan that ensures each makes it home safely. Jeffers places his sparely drawn protagonists against expansive backdrops; their relative tininess underscores the story's tender emotions.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Henry, the incredible book eating boy, learns a lesson in moderation. Jeffers expands on the age-old axiom--too much of a good thing is never a good thing--with a cheeky sense of humor. At times the text is overshadowed by the rich color palette, but the illustrations, constructed from the pages of old discarded books, are eye-catching.

Reviewer: Sarah Scriver

(4) PS A boy who loves stars decides to catch "one of his very own." But star catching turns out to be more difficult than he expects--especially since he begins at sunrise. Brightly colored illustrations effectively convey the protagonist's emotions in this thoughtful tale. However, with more philosophy than action, the slow-moving plot may not hold the attention of preschoolers.

Reviewer: Jennifer Bittorf