(2) K-3 Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka. In three brief stories, this beginning reader inventively supports both traditional and visual literacies. The first chapter, "The Cat," opens with the sentence "See the cat" on an otherwise blank left-hand page. On the right-hand page, a dog responds, declaring, "I am not a cat. I am a dog." The text on the left pages continues to expand and embellish the description, and the dog reacts with increased frustration ("I am NOT blue and I am NOT a cat"). There is more to the tale, however, and humor ramps up as surprises occur. The gutter effectively separates the dog's words (shown in speech balloons) from the words of the narrator (always set on blank pages). In one scene in the second story, "The Snake," the dog reaches back over to the previous page, pencil in hand, to modify the sentence "The mad snake is going to bite the dog." None of the secondary characters speaks (including a large, purple, buck-toothed hippo whose not-funny role is as a threat to "sit on the dog"). Short sentences carry a steady rhythm, with word repetition scaffolding language acquisition and offering clever callbacks. Gouache illustrations in subdued hues enliven and support the narrative. This entertaining exploration of words, images, and how they function together to tell a story will be popular with fans of Mo Willems.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(3) PS Illustrated by Jamie Kim. After a "hard day," a sad child is whisked away to a dreamland where wonderful entertainment is in store. The unnamed narrator calls the place the "Isle of You," a purposeful play on "I love you" and the narrator's final message to the soothed child. The frolicsome wish-fulfillment combined with Kim's dreamy, candy-colored illustrations makes this story, like the Isle, an appealing escape from reality.

Reviewer: Mariko Turk

(3) PS Illustrated by Joey Chou. In each of fourteen spreads, a monstrous parent-son pair (e.g., skeleton, ghost, yeti) whoop it up at a shared activity (baseball, instrument playing, igloo making) until it's time for bed. The rhymes are airtight, and the chunky digital illustrations in somber colors convey species-neutral love as well as delectable danger (note Red Riding Hood unknowingly walking past some tree-sitting beasts).

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka. "This is a cat" or "This is not a cat," a mouse teacher explains to her mouse students as she points to corresponding pictures. Meanwhile, who is sneaking through the classroom window? Using almost only the words in his title, LaRochelle tells what amounts to a fantastic joke whose punch line is finessed by Wohnoutka's gouache illustrations showing a flamboyantly freaked-out cast.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Fearing. A surly gang of green beans kidnaps Martha's parents. She soon realizes, with a pinched nose, that to save them she must consume every last one of her least favorite vegetable. Witty text matched by humorously rendered mustachioed, marauding green beans will speak to any veggie-dreading child who has heard (and any parent who's said) "eat your green beans!"

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(3) PS Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka. The story is simple: a cow takes the farmer's car for a joy ride with disastrous results. It's simply told with one word: moo. The active gouache illustrations depict most of the drama of the cow's wild ride, while the single-word text conveys meaning through different fonts, sizes, and graphics. Non-readers will delight in "reading" this on their own.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(4) PS Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard. A storytelling child imagines stumbling upon a tiger in the jungle and flees; every subsequent location holds a visual clue to the hiding tiger, and the discoveries keep the child running--until he realizes the yawning tiger just needs a belly rub. Bright, thick-lined ink and digital-media illustrations match the energetic if too-familiar story, which begs to be read aloud.

Reviewer: Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Paul Meisel. Ghost siblings Franny and Frankie demand a story--a scary story--from Father Ghost before they'll go to sleep. Of course, one bedtime story is never enough, and Father Ghost is persuaded to tell three. The book's humor is freewheeling and perfectly calibrated for its audience; it should evoke both sniggers and belly laughs. Meisel's illustrations have an exaggerated tongue-in-cheek goofiness.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2011

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Brenda Sexton. 1 + 1 = 2, doesn't it? Not always, as LaRochelle reveals in this playful look at arithmetic. Turning the pages, readers discover that 1 + 1 = 3 ("1 unicorn + 1 goat = 3 horns!") or 1 + 1 = 10 ("1 left foot + 1 right foot = 10 toes!") or 1 + 1 = 0 ("1 worm + 1 snake = 0 feet!"). Sexton's cheerful digital illustrations provide clues for solving each math riddle.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) K-3 Photographs by Joe Rossi. Rossi's photographs uncover hidden letters in nature. Gnarled roots of a tree form a K, a caterpillar bends like an L, a vine twists into an S. The spare layout allows the striking photographs to stand out; captions inform each picture. The unusual places that letters are found may inspire young readers to look at their environment differently.

Reviewer: Amanda Mc. MacGregor

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Richard Egielski. LaRochelle and Egielski tell their story from the end to the beginning, starting with "And they all lived happily ever after." Egielski's pictures, complete with icons of the fairy-tale world, nearly burst off the pages, and the text gallops through the story's riotous events. Youngsters will read this book over and over, from front to back and back again.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2007

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama. When his repeated requests for a dog are denied, a boy asks for a pet dragon. "If you can find a dragon, you can keep it..." his mother says. The dragon he finds behaves badly, and his mother agrees to a dog after the boy tells her "Dragons do not like dogs." The retro-style illustrations lend an old-fashioned look to the slyly entertaining story.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister