(4) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. This book (reissued in paperback in 2000) is back as an easy reader in paper-over-board and library editions. Eastman's simple, humorous cartoons illustrate exactly what the words describe. This is a useful book for beginning readers (and nostalgic adults).

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. Illustrated by Michael Fleming. Because Gwen the hen reminds him that "it's bad luck to count your eggs before they hatch," Red Rooster makes several back-to-back trips to the worm store to buy one for each of ten new baby chicks as they hatch. The easy-to-read, repetitive text in this slight tale about an excited new father provides counting practice and is supported by large, clear illustrations.

Reviewer: Sethany Rancier Alongi

(2) K-3 Beginner Books series. Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre. In this beginning reader, Pete's pet snake Sneaker is not only good for playing games like "I Am a Necktie" and "I Am Handcuffs" but is also smart and heroic. Cartoon art in bright oranges, blues, and greens with plenty of white space has a retro feel with modern sensibilities. The pictures provide clues to comprehending the text while adding characterization and fun.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(2) K-3 Beginner Books series. Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre. In this goofy rhyming story, a town is overrun by hordes of ski-crazed squirrels. The hilarious illustrations are filled with action, just the sort of energy that very new readers love. The text is likely to trip up the same readers, as some of the words are quite challenging, but the art will make the challenge a lot more palatable.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2013

(4) K-3 This third Fred and Ted adventure finds the dogs preparing for and going on a short road trip. Children may enjoy the text's silly humor, but for beginning readers, there's not much story to reward their work. Classic illustrations and the voice of the text are sweet, simple, and consistent with the earlier books.

Reviewer: Betsy Murray

(4) K-3 This companion to Lopshire's well-known 1960 beginning reader Put Me in the Zoo is appropriate for young readers because of its simple sentences, bright art, and rhyming text. The story itself, however, lacks distinction and depends on knowledge of the first book.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 This book enumerates in rhyme the many kinds of bellies found on people and animals: "High belly / Low belly / Prickly belly / Sickly belly." Undistinguished cartoons illustrate the proceedings. The final pages give familiar advice on eating a healthy diet ("Go easy on junk food / like soda and chips").

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. Illustrated by Roy McKie. One of Seuss's less memorable early readers, this book poses a series of silly choices: would the reader "rather be a minnow or a whale?...a hammer or a nail?" The story is illustrated with McKie's cheerful, simple cartoons. The only thing changed in this reissue is the author's name (originally published under Theo. LeSieg).

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) K-3 In their newest book, the two canine buddies fly to an island, where each experiences the beach in his own way. Ted sits in the shade, Fred sits in the sun. Ted hits the volleyball, Fred misses it, and so on, until the rising tide sends them running to their planes. Amiable cartoon illustrations make the simple text even more accessible.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. Illustrated by Henry Payne. "We hear a Ding. We hear a Dong. We hear a Ping. We hear a Pong." Snappy onomatopoeia-filled rhymes make up the text of this newly illustrated edition starring a big-eared boy who tunes in to his environment. The comical art gets the text's humorous elements just right.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. Illustrated by Roy McKie. A mouse gives a bird a tour of a "People House," naming and trying out each object in his path. As in The Cat in the Hat, adult humans spoil the fun: the house's residents ultimately give mouse and bird the boot. There's no hint of this book's vintage in the ebullient rhymes and cleanly cacophonous illustrations.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Bright and Early Book series. Illustrated by Scott Nash. The narrator goes through the alphabet, inviting everyone from Alice to Zipper--but not Hooper Humperdink--to his birthday party. As the party balloons in the narrator's imagination, he has a change of heart and invites Hooper after all. Nash's drawings present Hooper's loneliness without losing the story's lightheartedness.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) K-3 Fred and Ted, two dog characters created by P.D. Eastman, the author's father, embark on a camping adventure. "That night, Fred was awake. Ted was asleep. The next morning...Ted woke up early. Fred woke up late." Portrayed with humor in the amiable cartoon illustrations, the many differences between the two friends will likely engage beginning readers.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 One of the Berenstains' early easy readers featuring the Bear family is back in print. Affable but incredibly clumsy Pop tries to show his son how to use his new winter sports equipment, eventually advising his son to do as he says, not as he does. No long drawn-out moral tale here--just a simple, rhyming text and slapstick action that are just right for the audience.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Art Cumings. "Everyone wants / a big green kangaroo. / Maybe, perhaps, / you would like / to have TWO." On the First of Octember, everyone's most outrageous fantasies will be fulfilled, according to this humorous, lively verse, which Seuss originally published under a pen name. Although Cumings's cartoon-style art seems a bit dated, it playfully illustrates the wacky wishes listed in the easy-to-read text.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth