(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. A father and daughter do errands in their trusty old pickup truck. The daughter narrates the simple and mildly patterned story, recognizing new purposes for Old Blue (restaurant, garden, toolshed, etc.) each time they take on new cargo. Saturated colors and rounded shapes in the art and design establish the mood of a happy and easygoing day with dad.

Reviewer: Sethany Rancier Alongi

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. In sprightly rhyme, the text describes a little girl's worries about her loose tooth. She's nervous about the pain but wants the tooth out so she can get money from the tooth fairy to buy her father a birthday present. Spanish words are incorporated into the English rhyme. Unfussy oil-paint illustrations show a loving family (even her imposing brother comes around). Glos.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(4) PS Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. Mrs. O'Leary's cow sparks trouble in this expanded version of the song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (likely better known to grandparents than to kids). Mattheson's bright oil paintings help mitigate the scary situation ("and as the flames crept near, / We feared that she would roast"); thanks to some brave firefighters, the barn is the only casualty.

Reviewer: Elizabeth Shaver

(3) K-3 Step into Reading series. Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. After Anna's father gives her eight tulips for her birthday, she barters seven of them for farm animals, furniture, and a painting. Despite enticements of gold and jewels, Anna refuses to trade her last tulip as she values it more than anything else. This lighthearted treatment of the Dutch tulip craze in the 1600s features short sentences and sunny pictures.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. This energetic rhyme has a worthy but obvious purpose: portraying happy, self-confident girls who do everything from playing the piano to piloting a rocket. They're "strong," "bold," and "smart," but they're not goody-goody. "Great girls, / Brave girls, / Often misbehave girls. / Fighting. Frighting. / Stay-up-half-the-nighting." In the oil paintings, a multiethnic cast of characters moves across pleasing compositions.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) PS Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. Using the "house that Jack built" formula, this cumulative poem briefly tells an updated version of The Nutcracker. Each page adds another element as Saint Nick fills the socks, the Rat King frightens a doll, and a nutcracker defeats him. The final spread in the nicely detailed illustrations show the children playing with their new toys on Christmas morning. Hand motions to accompany the story are appended.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(4) PS Illustrated by Jenny Mattheson. In a rhyme patterned loosely after "The House That Jack Built," Willard tells the story of a mouse, a cat, and a runaway birthday cake. The strength of the whimsical story is the ending where readers are left to imagine the next series of catastrophes. Mattheson's oil paintings in purples and greens are too murky to convey the light tone of the text.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth