(3) K-3 Illustrated by Robert F. Goetzl & Robert F. Goetzl. This is a straightforward and thorough interpretation of the Wright brothers' story, and a worthy addition to the recent batch of books celebrating the centennial of their historic flight. Scientific and biographical details are well integrated into the narrative; the spacious paintings enhance this appealing and inviting book.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cyd Moore. Paging through her mother's scrapbook, a little girl tries to guess the experience for which her mom is most thankful. The lighthearted illustrations capably depict both real experiences from the mother's past (e.g., she plays guitar on stage) and imagined scenes (she performs with a famous rock band), but there's no suspense here: readers will predict from the start that her "most thankful thing" is her daughter.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Robert F. Goetzl. Detailed art in saturated colors illustrates these monthly highlights, each depicting different Native people engaged in representative traditional activities ("January: Maliseet hunters follow the tracks of the moose through crusted snow"). This somewhat simplistic body is augmented by a glossary of up-to-date tribal lore and a map showing tribal regions.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cyd Moore. The boy of I Love You, Stinky Face fame returns with a host of Christmas worries, from "What if Santa's lips get chapped...?" to "What if the sack of toys starts to rip?" Mama addresses each concern, but on Christmas Eve, they leave Santa some "just in case" items, including Chap Stick and duct tape. Cheerful, lighthearted images compound the humor readers will derive from Stinky Face's anxieties.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cyd Moore. When a father calls his daughter "Princess Pruney Toes" at bath time, he begins an imaginative exchange that adds pizzazz to their bedtime preparations. She dubs him "Sir Daddy," and her nightgown becomes "an exquisite gown of pure spun gold." Energetic illustrations reflect the playful father-daughter conversation; the ending is satisfying if sentimental.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu. The athletic feats of Josh Gibson, a star in baseball's Negro League, are narrated from the fictional perspective of a grandfather who remembers attending many of Gibson's games. The conclusion focuses on one especially dramatic game, played at New York's Yankee Stadium. Gibson's remarkable talent is revealed through well-matched text and illustrations, which together tell a lively tale that reads like fiction.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(4) K-3 In this picture book adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the Spirit of Christmas shows Scrooge, who is a stingy goat, scenes from his past and gives him a glimpse of the Cratchit family's humble but happy Christmas celebration. The story has been simplified, but it's an adequate introduction to the familiar holiday tale, and the animal characters are well drawn.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Tim Raglin. In a takeoff on the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas," a spooky-looking man and woman in Restoration-era clothes celebrate Halloween with "eight brooms a-flying, seven spiders creeping, six owls a-screeching," and so on. The derivative poem comes to an abrupt and disappointing ending, though there is some inventiveness to the way each new set of gifts is added to the humorous illustrations.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cyd Moore. A boy's wild, meandering fantasies about what could possibly go wrong at school are answered with compassion, humor, and just as much imagination by his sympathetic mother. The text works hard to portray the boy's naïvete, but the illustrations make full use of each spread, conveying the tremendous energy of any young school-age child.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(3) K-3 Mama and her children enter the chili cook-off to win money to fix their washboard-rough road. Unfortunately, a space monster swallows their whole batch before the judges get to it, but he thanks them by giving them some of his "Chee-lee"--an inedible goop they use to fix their potholes. The subdued colors in the cartoon-style paintings lend a dusty dry West Texas atmosphere, with pen strokes providing shading.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.