(3) K-3 Illustrated by Julia Woolf. Billy Bob is a gum-chewer who has "one tiny trouble, / for try as he might he could not blow a bubble." Practice makes more than perfect, as Billy blows a bubble so big he floats away. Smith stretches for some rhymes, but Woolf's round, friendly, bubblicious illustrations (most notably a wordless double-page explosion of pink gooiness) are chuckle-worthy.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) K-3 Illustrated by David Catrow. After a trip to the zoo a boy wakes up to a world populated by animals. Some of the creatures replacing the school staff will cause extra chuckles: bugs in the computer room; worms in the library books; a bat in the nurse's office. In the illustrations, wacky animals swarm across the pages, enhancing the chaos described in the rhyming text.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(4) PS Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. Jolly, brightly colored dinosaurs hide behind trees from the baby dino who is "it." Each durable page features a banal rhyme about dinosaurs, an unfinished rhyme, and a flap to unfold, revealing the rhyme's conclusion and a hiding place. The pictures are humorously exaggerated (e.g., maiasaur hides her eggs in a tree), resulting in a painless if somewhat hokey introduction to basic dinosaur facts.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Garland. Feeling constrained by a mom who checks homework and packs healthy lunches, Goldilocks builds a spaceship and travels to Mars. The rhymed text follows her as she visits the home of a Martian family and, of course, tries their food, chairs, and beds. Illustrated with what look like airbrushed images, the slight story may appeal to those who like fractured fairy tales.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta