(3) K-3 Illustrated by Denise Holmes. Phoebe's name starts "with a P and had a whole lot of other letters that didn't make sense." "Everyone makes mistakes, even mamas," declares Phoebe. When her class practices writing their names, Phoebe's teacher encourages everyone to sound them out; Phoebe proudly writes "Feeby" in glitter-glue. Friendly illustrations and an understanding teacher make this a sympathetic discussion-starter for kids facing similarly tough spellings.

Reviewer: Rebecca Fox

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Denise Holmes. "I feel like writing a story," says a period with stick limbs. "What are you doing?" asks a like-limbed question mark. So begins a dialogue among various punctuation marks in search of words. The book is a smart campaign for collaboration (says an exclamation point: "Let's write the story together!") and punctuation awareness, illustrated entirely by the talking marks themselves.

Reviewer: Nell Beram