(3) PS Illustrated by Patrice Barton. The song-like rhyming tale celebrates children playing outside through the four seasons. Luminous digitally colored pencil sketches show children of many races sloshing through spring mud, frolicking at the beach, gathering fall apples, and bundled up in snow. A gentle refrain--"We're bringing the outside in, then..."--adds a playful jingle as the children bring inside the remnants of their outside play.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) PS Illustrated by Jimmy Pickering. "What color is Halloween?" Each page offers an answer (e.g., "Halloween is white") and a brief rhyming verse: "Cobwebs clinging, / Misty trail, / A skull, a spook, / A face gone pale..." A tongue-twisting string of descriptive words ("stony-bony, pearly-swirly, mostly ghostly / Wisp of white") and hip, eye-popping illustrations feature lots of (not too) spooky details. A frightfully good read-aloud.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Ashley Wolff. Bouncy, rhyming verse suggests compost items in alphabetical order: "Mulch removed from garden beds / Nutshells / Oatmeal / Paper shreds." Though purists will balk at the illustration of metal staples on teabags being tossed into the stew, especially when the back matter decrees "not a shred of metal" should be added, the gouache and collage art is otherwise cheerful and inviting.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) PS Illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles. A young boy slowly peers over his covers and begins his morning by greeting all his belongings. As he wakes up, he becomes more energetic--getting out of bed, opening the curtains, and playing in his room until Dad comes by for a hug. Pastel illustrations echo the wake-up process, progressing from dusky blue to sunny yellow to complete this simple, cheery celebration of a new day.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(3) PS Illustrated by David Wisniewski. Expert cut-paper collages show children interacting with nature. In a simple first-person text, children tell the sun, wind, clouds, rain, stars, and moon how they can play together: "I'll play with you, Sun. Meet me outside. I'll help you make shadows. I'll hide while you climb." The small-sized book, which features children of several different ethnicities, is a good introduction to some basic features of the natural world.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(3) PS Illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles. In this small-format counting book, a girl counts falling snowflakes from one to five. The brief rhyming text captures the simple pleasure of cavorting in newly fallen snow, as do the lavender and blue pastel illustrations, which start off as small squares surrounded by white and grow in size as the numbers increase.

Reviewer: Jackie C. Horne