Dire Straits! READING RATES HAVE DROPPED PRECIPITOUSLY AMONG ADOLESCENTS!

This is serious!

In the past thirty years the number of teens who report that they never or hardly ever read has tripled. And that includes the Harry Potter generation of fans.

And we're not talking about War and Peace or Plato's Republic. We're talking about garden-variety science fiction or teen thrillers and romances. We're talking about magazines, graphic novels newspapers, even movie reviews on the iPhone.

It's no wonder that the reading ability scores of high school seniors are exactly the same as they were back in 1984, the year of big hair, "The Karate Kid," $1.10 per gallon gas, and the first Apple Mac computer.

Scores for elementary and middle schoolers have improved. Teachers have obviously been working hard, but apparently practice makes perfect, even for teen-aged readers.

Gaming, FaceBooking, texting, watching endlessly recycled movies and television shows--all deserve some of the blame, of course. But kids in past years had the much maligned comic books, radio shows, movies, and television to compete with reading, and overall scores improved. Now we may be slipping back toward a level of functional illiteracy not seen in over a century.

Common-Sense Media has more statistics and good suggestions for parents who are concerned that their children are losing out on the joys and advantages of childhood reading. Nonfiction introduces new knowledge, takes us into things we don't know, things that compel us. Fiction broadens our world view, letting us live inside someone else's skin for a while as they work through situations we haven't known but may soon experience.

For what to do to give your child the advantages that wide childhood reading brings for his or her future life, read the Common Sense's article here.

Be sure your kids see you reading it and and take time to talk about it with them.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends: Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won

GO AWAY!

I'M GRUMPY!

Elephant awakes in a deep funk! His own private cloud of gloom hangs over his head as he sits up in bed.

Even a cheery ding-dong from the doorbell doesn't break his mood as he stomps down to the door.

But there's no one there. What is there is a large box with a perky red ribbon. Who could resist looking inside?

Inside the box is a hat wearing a hat wearing a hat, wearing a hat.... A hat unlike any other hat!

IT WAS HARD TO STAY GRUMPY NOW.

This quintuple-decker topper has a top hat (complete with cup holder and cuckoo clock), crowned with a kingly crown, topped with a red mortarboard (with its own red-and-white striped awning), under a wide-brimmed red-white-and blue sun hat with feather, set off with a party hat with tassel on top.

Nobody could be grumpy wearing such a hat, and Elephant smiles broadly as he dons his mystery gift and sets off to show it off to his friends.

But it must be blue Monday in the forest. Friend Zebra is in a definitely down mood. In fact, he is GRUMPY! But Elephant is too upbeat to let Zebra get him down. He reaches up with his trunk for the party hat and sets it jauntily on Zebra's head. Zebra doffs his blues and the two share smiles.

It's off to share their fun with their friends, but as in turn they find Turtle withdrawn into his shell, Owl moping in his dark hole in his tree, and Lion depressed inside his den.

There's nothing for it but for Elephant to share his wonderful hats with all his friends. Turtle gets the sun hat, Owl appropriately gets the mortarboard, and of course Lion gets the crown.  Only Lion does not smile:

"I CAN'T CHEER WHILE GIRAFFE IS NOT FEELING WELL."

Giraffe is definitely down in the mouth, with his gloomy face buried in the foliage of a tree.

And, alas! Elephant is out of hats. What to do?

The conclusion of Brian Won's mood-altering Hooray for Hat! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) is a happy and heartwarming heads-up for the power of friendship, as all the friends doff their hats and repack them into the gift box for Giraffe. Who could remain melancholy wearing that stack of hats? Not Giraffe, and it's a big shout-out for hats and friends in this winning new picture book.

With a simple textual refrain which will strike a chord with kids and gloriously simple but evocative digital illustrations done in a dynamic pastel palette, not to mention the vertical double-page spreads which depict Elephant and Giraffe modeling  their multi-layered chapeau, this brief story celebrates the power of the gift of mood-altering friendship. Hats off to Brian Won!

Kitty Knows Best: Matilda's Cat by Emily Gravett

Little Matilda is clearly trying to bond with her pet. She's wearing her cat costume so that they can be twins. She's hauled out the requisite ball of yarn, and has a ball herself twisting and flinging it all about for her kitty to chase.

But Matilda's cat is no chubby, sweet-eyed kitty enthralled with chasing a length of wool.

Matilda's cat is a long and lanky marmalade Tom, sharp of snout and ears, and clearly having none of it.

Matilda crosses out her first supposition and moves on to try another idea. Perhaps her cat likes tea parties....

Matilda lays out a rather sumptuous spread for a pretend party--tomato and cuke sandwiches, cupcakes, and a pretty pot of tea. Her cat stares contemptuously at his plate with its single (unpeeled) banana.

Scratch that. Perhaps her tabby prefers some outdoor feats of skill and derring-do. All cats like to climb trees, right? Matilda goes right up the trunk to a nice limb, just right for a girl and her cat to share. The cat is clearly appalled, with ears laid back at the sight.

Wearing funky hats? Matilda looks stunning, but this cat is no cat in the hat. Feathered and fruited, his chapeau covers his entire furry head, and Cat freaks out.

Matilda crosses that one off her list. How about reading story books?

Matilda exchanges her cat costume for purple Yorkie-printed PJs and doggy slippers and hops into bed, patting a place beside her for her cat. But Cat is not pleased with her choice of books (it's Emily Gravett's Dogs, a nice inside joke) and the shadow on the wall is indeed rather wolfish! Cat is horrified! Matilda's pet-pleasing list is a total loser!

MATILDA'S CAT LIKES PLAYING WITH WOOL

TEA PARTIES

FUNKY HATS

CLIMBING TREES

BEDTIME STORIES

Is there no pleasing this finicky feline?

Author Gravett slyly suggests that her list is all things Matilda likes to do, in her latest, Matilda's Cat (Simon & Schuster, 2014). But there is one thing Cat truly likes to do, and in artist Gravett's final page we see him cuddling on top of Matilda's cat-printed blanket, ready to snuggle up for a long winter's sleep with her.

Gravett's pitch-perfect pictures are done in grainy crayon on rough-textured, off-white paper, extending her simple text with drawings which contrast Matilda' determination and her cat's disdain for her chosen activities for them in telling vignettes.  Emily Gravett's work has great charm, having deservedly earned her Kate Greenaway Medals (the British version of our Caldecott Awards).  As Kirkus Reviews writes in a starred review, "A master of animal countenance, Gravett pairs an expressive cat with a busy kid and winks at the difference between textual and visual message."

Re-Hanging the Moon: Sidney and Stella and the Moon by Emma Yarlett

SIDNEY AND STELLA DID EVERYTHING TOGETHER.

BUT THERE WAS ONE THING THAT SIDNEY AND STELLA DID NOT DO TOGETHER.

SIDNEY AND STELLA DID NOT SHARE.

It's a common problem between brothers and sisters, and when someone won't share a toy or the TV, it's usually not a national emergency.

But this time--it  might be.

Sidney has taken possession of a ball that Stella fancies, and as he darts off, the ball slips from his fingers and bounces toward an open window.

In fact, it somehow bounces right out the window and drops toward the earth. Sidney and Stella peer out at it as it hits the ground, and with their mouths open in astonishment, they see it hit the sidewalk outside and take a bounce--a BIG bounce!

HIGH! HIGH! HIGH!

UNTIL IT WAS SO HIGH IT COULD TOUCH THE MOON.  SMASH!

It did more than touch the moon!  It broke it in pieces which fell toward the earth. Oops!

Sidney and Stella run downstairs and look out their door, which opens into a double gatefold of the out-of-doors scene.  The sky is empty of everyone's favorite satellite, and all the neighbors are looking up, trying to figure out where it went. Even some astronauts are wandering around, looking for the moon.

Sidney and Stella feel guilty. They must be in BIG TROUBLE, right? There's only one thing to do to mend the moonless situation: come up with a NEW MOON--fast!

Emma Yarlett manages to stay just a bit over the line between believable and far-fetched in her missing moon fantasy in her Sidney, Stella, and the Moon (Templar, 2013), primarily through her dreamlike illustrations done up in midnight shades of blue.  Her fanciful solution of a glowing wheel of cheese found in the fridge may be a bit hard to, um, swallow, but preschoolers are often fairy tale fans and will chuckle at how the two now co-operating siblings work well together to accomplish their mission to re-launch their somewhat cheesy satellite into its proper orbit.

Read this one along with with Eric Carle's similarly themed and popular Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me (The World of Eric Carle) for a pair of dark-of-the-moon, pie-in-the sky lunar tales (see review here).

Up, Up, and Away? Flight School by Lita Judge

"I WAS HATCHED TO FLY," SAID PENGUIN.

"BUT, DEAR, YOU ARE A PENGUIN," TEACHER SAID.

"UNDENIABLY," SAID PENGUIN. "BUT I HAVE THE SOUL OF AN EAGLE."

When a rotund young penguin, obviously far from home, arrives to matriculate at a tropical flight school, it certainly doesn't appear to the staff or the other students that he has the right stuff.

What can a good teacher say in the face of such a burning urge to learn?

Perched on their pilings, the other students--Flamingo, Owl, Booby, Wood Duck, and Cormorant--stifle the urge to scoff at Penguin's unimpressive wingspan and quite un-aerodynamic contours, and pitch in to try to help the new student. With his red goggles and eager good-natured face, Penguin is so appealing that they smile as his claim that he is "born to soar" and let him join them on their perches as they practice their flapping.

But Penguin's first soar ("Geronimo!") turns into a dive as he plummets below the sea and glides underwater. Teacher peers dubiously down into the depths through her spectacles as clownfish and angelfish flee in all directions.

"I'M SORRY, BIRDIE," SAID TEACHER.

"PENGUINS AREN'T BUILT TO FLY."

"I JUST NEED A LITTLE HELP WITH THE TECHNICAL POINTS," COUNTERS PENGUIN.

But at last a sad Penguin is about to give up and crank up the outboard on his boat to chug south, when Flamingo has an idea. Penguin is outfitted with an assortment of wing feathers secured by fishing line, and Flamingo lifts off with Penguin in tow as a glider behind him. It's a thrill as Penguin manages a few flap flap flip, flaps in flight before he loses air speed and plunges down to earth again!

It's no perfect three-point landing for Penguin, as he hangs upside down from his fishing line feathers in a palm tree, but it's enough for Penguin to have achieved his dream. His classmates and a visibly relieved Teacher watch a happy penguin finally head off happily for home. Whew!

But in a few days Teacher spots his little red boat approaching again. And who's that in the passenger seat?

An ostrich?

An ostrich with the "soul of a swallow?"

A guy can dream, can't he? is the theme of Lita Judge's newest, Flight School (Atheneum Books, 2014). In illustrations reminiscent of Helen Lester's Tacky the Penguin Judge's motley assortment of birds are a comic cast of characters, each with his own personality and body language which helps tell this story of improbable aspirations. Page design, with alternating use of spot art and full-page watercolor and pencil drawings, offers both predictable and surprising outcomes, and the final page spread, with the hopeful but naive ostrich and the dubious flight students is hilarious. Here we go again!

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time?: Help! We Need A Title! by Herve' Tullett

HEY!  SOMEONE IS WATCHING US!

COME HERE.

LOOK AT THIS. THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE AND THEY HAVE OPENED OUR BOOK!

It's not really even a book. To be generous, we might call it a collection of preliminary sketches, a hastily crayoned pink pig, a scraggly sorceress-princess, a one-eyed giant green worm bordering on the bizarre, and a stick-man which looks as if it was drawn by a four-year-old on a bad day, all surrounded by random squiggle-doodles in different colors!

But the princess and pig playing together inside are proprietary about their pages and don't quite know what to make of  the peeping Tom people peering at them. But these would-be "readers" seem innocuous enough, if a bit intrusive.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

The interlopers seem sweet, but they have caught Pig and Princess quite by surprise.

"I THINK THEY WOULD LIKE A STORY."

But...

"WE'RE NOT QUITE READY YET!"

Giant Green Worm suggests adding a backdrop to the page, and Stick-man, who has wandered into the scene from page right, conjures up a bland tropical beach scene that looks like a cheap 1920s postcard. It doesn't help much. How about a monster? A red crayoned monster with fangs appears. He's not very scary. And he has no idea what he's supposed to do. Princess laments:

"WE'RE BORING, AREN'T WE?"

What they need, the characters decide, is someone to organize these pages--AN AUTHOR! And they actually know one!

In the follow-up to his best-selling, groundbreaking hit, Press Here,  Herve' Tullett's newest, Help! We Need a Title! (Candlewick Press, 2014) takes the metafiction picture book to a whole new level. Author-illustrator Tullett is summoned from behind his studio door, appearing in comic snapshots pasted on a hastily-drawn body, protesting that he's barely started work on this book. After listening impatiently to the protests, he throws a crumb to the visiting "readers," a hackneyed paste-up in which a kind fairy vanquishes a evil monster. Even his characters pronounce it, at best, only so-so. Tullet-head loses his patience.

LOOK! IF YOU'RE NOT HAPPY, GO LOOK FOR A STORY SOMEWHERE ELSE. THERE ARE LOTS OF BOOKS...!

Of course, Tullett's "readers" aren't going anywhere in this joyous fourth-wall-fracturing spoof of the interaction between books, authors, characters, and their "dear readers." Tullett again turns the whole author-reader relationship inside out and upside down as he invites kids to interact with his story, encouraging them to "Press This Button" and turn off the lights on the whole fiasco. In the dark, the characters, only their eyes visible, beg the readers to turn the lights back on, but, that done, find themselves still without a premise or plot to go on. But as they grow anxious, Stick-man notices a way out of this altogether awkward situation--there are only a few pages left! With a little luck, they can fill them out with a l-o-o-n-g Goodbye! CIAO!

Herve' Tullett and a growing group of other author-illustrators have taken on the challenge of interactive computer games for kids and shown that there is plenty of life left in the old picture book format yet. He captures the kidlike joy of filling the page with untidy, unconventional open-ended possibilities with eye-and mind-opening potential. For some other promising ventures into to the meta-book for preschool and primary students, begin with Mo Willems' We Are in a Book! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) and Barney Saltzberg's Beautiful Oops!

From there, well..."There are lots of books...."

A Job for Jane! Extraordinary Jane by Hannah E. Harrison

JANE WAS ORDINARY.

IN A WORLD THAT WAS EXTRAORDINARY.

Jane is a perfectly darling little dog whose talents are---well, undiscovered.

The circus scene is based on spectacle--the largest, the fastest, the most daring, the ultra-rare, the super-duper! There is an elephant who paints like a Rembrandt while balancing on one foot. The tiger leaps through fiery rings as the brilliant Ringmaster shows off his magnificent wild beauty.

Of course, Jane's family members are singularly talented. Her mother poses on one foot, a graceful bareback rider dominating one of the Barnaby Belluchi Circus' three rings. Her look-alike brothers are phenomenal flyers, shot from matching cannons to soar just under the roof of the great tent, while her daring and spangled sisters sashay across the high wire under matching umbrellas.  Her father is a mighty dog, hoisting elephants with one paw.

Surely little Jane has an as yet unrevealed ability like everyone else in her family. Ringmaster is confident that he can find a role for the retiring Jane. He tries out Jane on the trapeze, but it turns out she's more than  anxious; she's acrophobic! Her paintings are prosaic. As a clown, even her seltzer bottle has no fizz. And when Ringmaster tries her out on the huge balancing ball, she threatens to flatten the whole circus family. Ostrich sports five (5!) cervical collars, Elephant has his trunk in a sling, and the ringmaster's whip-wielding arm is broken. Even Tiger has a bandaged tail.

Jane is extraordinarily--unremarkable!

Ever since H.A. Rey's little monkey saved the day at the circus in Curious George Rides a Bike, picture books have featured characters who, when push comes to shove, discover remarkable talents under the Big Top, but Jane is not one of them. Jane is just a really good dog, and that is enough in Hannah Harrison's Extraordinary Jane (Dial Press, 2014.)

In this debut by a promising author-illustrator, Harrison's quintessential circus scenes are as extraordinary as her shaggy heroine is not. Her retro-styled acrylic illustrations of the animals and the crew glow with their own built-in Klieg lights, and her page design zooms from tent-top perspective down to close-ups that show off the characters' rueful reactions to Jane's misadventures.

There is a pathos in this story that will engage readers' sympathies for its uncommonly untalented heroine, and great humor in Harrison's two-page spread which shows the battered but still determined circus cast after Jane's disastrous audition. And above all, there is that certain plucky perseverance in this untalented but eager-to-please pup which shines through. While Jane is no star, Harrison's story has earned its stars from reviewers all around. "A touching, delectably illustrated circus story that applauds the underdog," says Kirkus Reviews.

Growing Greens: Peppa Pig and the Vegetable Garden

"WHAT HAPPENS TO SEEDS, GRANDPA?"

"THEY GROW INTO PLANTS!"

Peppa Pig and her little brother George are playing at Grandpa and Granny Pig's house when they notice that Grandpa is pulling out some tools and digging in the grass. Curious, they come over and watch as Grandpa explains that he's digging a vegetable garden and that if they plant seeds and water and weed  them, they will soon have delicious vegetables to eat.

Dig and delve, dig and delve! Kids love to dig holes, and who better to dig a garden than a family of pigs! Mummy and Daddy arrive and get into the act, too, laying out rows.  Peppa specializes in dropping the seeds into the holes they dig, and George discovers that there are some creatures already living there--a wiggly worm, which the kids have to imitate, and a snail with stalky eyes and  what looks like a basket on his back!

"MON-STA!" CRIES GEORGE.

Peppa finishes planting the seeds and Grandpa points out that the butterflies will help make the plants grow well.   But Peppa is worried.  She doesn't see anything coming up. Grandpa laughs and tells her she needs something special to be a gardener--patience!  And when a flock of birds land in the garden and start pecking around, Granny points out something else they need right away--a scarecrow--and making and dressing one is just the job for George and Peppa!

For youngsters who aren't quite sure where fruits and vegetable come from before the supermarket, Peppa Pig and the Vegetable Garden (Candlewick Press, 2014) is a spring-y entry into the concept of garden-to-table for preschoolers. Simple, stylized illustrations show Peppa and George digging, seeding, picking berries for a pie, and even offer directions for using the various veggie shapes into a dino salad with cucumber halves for jaws, just for  the salad-averse George. For fans of Peppa's television series, this easy-going entry into family backyard gardening is a sweet springtime read for planting time.

Tost [sic] of the Town: I Am Otter by Sam Garton

HI! I AM OTTER.

NO ONE KNOWS WHERE I CAME FROM.

OTTER KEEPER SAYS THAT HE FOUND ME IN A BOX ON HIS DOORSTEP ONE DAY.

I WISH I'D MADE THE MOST OF BEING SMALL.

Otter loves the weekends. Otter Keeper is home and he and Otter and Teddy Bear have fun. Otter gets most of the attention, since Teddy just sort of sits around.

But when the work week rolls around and Otter Keeper leaves early in the morning, Otter gets bored and lonely. But when stowing away in Otter Keeper's briefcase and drowning the alarm clock in the goldfish bowl don't work, Otter decides that he and Teddy need their own jobs!

They hang out their sign [TOST RESTRANT] and Otter institutes employee training.

Teddy's learning curve is NOT steep.

And at the grand opening things go very wrong:

TEDDY FORGOT TO TAKE RESERVATIONS.

HE HADN'T TOLD ANYONE HOW MUCH OUR TOAST WOULD COST.

HE GOT ORDERS WRONG. SOME OF THE CUSTOMERS HAD TO BE ASKED TO LEAVE.

When Otter Keeper comes home from work, he finds his day is far from over. The whole place is a mess, and the kitchen is in shambles. The window is still open where disgruntled and unruly patrons were forcibly ejected. Toast toppings are everywhere--catsup, jam, Tobasco sauce, maraschino cherries--and some of Teddy's plush cohorts seem to have collapsed with their noses in Otter's culinary creations. Otter tries to explain that it is all Teddy's fault. But where IS Teddy?

Popular humor blogger Sam Garton introduces his comic character Otter to the picture bookosphere in his just published I Am Otter (Balzer And Bray, 2014). Otter is an adorably well-meaning but mischievous character in the venerable tradition of H.A. Rey's Curious George, and his young and earnest Otter Keeper is the worthy successor to the Man in the Yellow Hat. Garton's dead-pan narrative is clever, his page design is perfect, and his wry portrayal of his energetic but naive pet has so many amusing details that it will take kids a while to get through this story as they stop to laugh along the way. Kirkus Reviews simply says, "Hysterical!"

To Each His Own: Boom Snot Twitty by Doreen Cronin.

BOOM, SNOT, AND TWITTY RELAX BY THE TREE AND WAIT FOR THE DAY TO BEGIN.

"LET'S GO SOMEWHERE!" SAID BOOM.

Boom is an ebullient bear cub clearly born to move. His unlikely buddies--Snot, a thoughtful snail, and Twitty, a robin devoted to her nest and knitty things--are not so keen.

"LET'S STAY HERE," SAID TWITTY.

"LET'S WAIT," SAID SNOT.

Twitty continues crocheting away with her pink yarn, and Snot leans back on her shell and reads her book. Boom, bored with books, climbs the tree, but he's bored with the treetop view, too. Twitty temporarily tangles her yarn.  Snot sits.  Boom sighs.

But fate steps in to disturb the serene scene, as the wind suddenly rises and the tree writhes in the tempest. Boom shouts for them to jump!  Twitty advises hanging on tight. Snot observes the obvious.

"WIND!"

Suddenly the quiet scene is turned upside down.  Twitty's yarn balls blow from her basket nest and roll away, pushed by the wind.  Snot sticks to a large leaf and is carried away on the wind, right into the middle of the pond, where she calmly poles her leaf boat toward the bank. Boom finally gets his wish to go somewhere as he is blown along by the wind and rain.

"YUCK!"

But all's well that ends warmly, as the clouds roll by, the sun returns, and the three friends are soon reunited. Twitty fashions a clothesline from her yarn and hangs the book over the line to dry, and when Snot asks what they should do next, Boom's thrill-seeking seems temporarily satisfied, as he says,

"SIT STILL."

Best known for her busy, scheming barnyard critters in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, award-winning author Doreen Cronin takes a different tack in her latest, Boom Snot Twitty (Viking Press, 2014), a story of three atypical friends, whose lackadaisical response to a storm is mostly soothing and stoical.  Her wittily spare text gains greatly from the artistic skills of illustrator Renata Liwska, whose soft, fuzzy understated characters and rich details tell the between-the-lines story that Cronin intends. Boom's paper airplane pointed page right foreshadows the wind to follow, and Liwska slyly depicts Twitty's needlecraft first as a homey tree cozy, then as a neck warmer for the soaked and shivering Boom, and finally as a line upon which to hang Snot's book.  Liwska, noted for her trademark subtle pencil and digital artwork in Deborah Underwood's The Quiet Book and sequels (see reviews here) carries out the picture book illustrator's mission, to extend the story, perfectly with Cronin's odd trio. Cronin and Liwska are as unlikely a pair as the three friends in this book, but a pair with a quiet communication that says it all.

Standoff: When An Alien Meets A Swamp Monster by Cornelius Van Wright

TODAY I, J. T. BOI, WILL BECOME FAMOUS.
I WILL GO FASTER THAN ANYONE HAS GONE BEFORE.
DISCOVER LANDS THAT NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN.
I WILL BE...
TOTALLY AWESOME!

In his coolest helmet and racer goggles, on his scooter, equipped, of course, with verometric outerhull stabilizers, J. T. heads down to the swamp to live out his fantasy of absolute awesomeness on wheels.

But there he finds himself eyeball-to-eyeball with what he thinks is a swamp monster, a huge green alligator, appropriately equipped with scary parts!

Under the alligator mask is Alik, who was just all set to read a stack of comics, beginning with his fave, Attack of the Aliens.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"RUN!!!"

Two kids, each in the middle of their own fantasies, suddenly confront each other and assume the worst!

Both head home to tell their tales to anyone who will listen. Predictably, no one believes them.

Alik even draws a picture of the giant bug-eyed space alien he confronted. His brother tells him to stay out of the sun. J. T. describes a big green monster with a million teeth and giant claws to his big sister. Uh-huh. Sure.

J.T. and Alik each settle down and begin to feel a little silly. Maybe they overreacted. Perhaps they should go back down to the pond for another look.

And there's an another awesome encounter ahead in Cornelius van Wright's When an Alien Meets a Swamp Monster (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014), a comic book/picture book potpourri of mistaken identities and friendship found.  Van Wright's pencil and watercolor illustrations are as wild and woolly as his heroes' hyperbolic fantasies. Told in an attention-holding combination of comic panels and double-page spreads, this story shows two kids who find more adventure than even their already vivid imaginations promise. Kirkus Reviews hands this one a starred review, saying "Van Wright turns the whole silly affair into a hilarious romp with easy, breezy language that captures the essence of little boys (or little alligators). Total laugh-out-loud joy!"

Too Cool for School? Flip and Fin: We Rule the School by Timothy Gill

HOW DO FISH GET TO SCHOOL?

ON THE OCTOBUS!

Flip and Fin, the sand shark twins, crack each other up with their sea-themed riddles.

But now they have to train for a new challenge--the annual school Joke Day! If they can't be the standout stand-up comic kings, how can they rule the school?

Flip falls flat when he forgets the punch line of the old groaner, "Orange Who?" knock-knock. He needs practice!

Flip works on his routine all week, with his twin Fin acting as straight man:

"WHAT DID THE OCTOPUS SAY TO HIS GIRLFRIEND?"

"I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, HAND, HAND, HAND, HAND, HAND, HAND, HAND!"

The sand shark twins polish their quips all week, and Fin is confident he is ready. Flip is not so sure.

When the big day comes, Flip feels stage fright setting in as he listens to his pals cracking up the class. Even Celia Starfish knocks-knocks them dead with the old Orange Who? riddle. Flip is not feeling confident when he takes the stage.

"AH...  AH.... ER...."

But his twin Fin has his back. From the audience Fin feeds Flip his line:

"HEY, FLIP! WHAT DID THE BEACH SAY TO THE WAVE?"

And Flip snaps back with his best toothy grin...

"LONG TIDE  NO SEA!"

Seasoned joke fans will fall for the sandbar fare in Timothy Gill's Flip & Fin: We Rule the School! (Greenwillow Books, 2014). Flip and Fin are two brash and toothy characters whose call-and-response act offers kids some simple and sophisticated riddle fare, set off by Neil Numberman's jolly and bright bottom-of-the-sea illustrations of deep-sea students. For twin fin trouble, double this one with one of Bruce Hales's tales of Clark the Shark, (see reviews here).

Who Done It? The Mischievians by William Joyce

THINGS WERE DISAPPEARING AT OUR HOUSE--EV'RY DAY.

LIKE, A LOT! 

So..., what else is new?

Do keys, and tomorrow's homework, the good scissors, that other sock, and the remote all seem to disappear mysteriously?

Of course they do. Everybody knows that.

But two kids decide to find out They pen as message, send it off via helium balloon, and instead of receiving a reply from above, the ground opens up and drops them into subterranean laboratory of Dr. Maximillian Fortisque Robinson Zooper. Ask him anything, he suggests.

Okay, Dr. Zooper, here's a biggie. Sometimes I know I've done my homework, but the next morning, I can't find it.  Sometimes, I turn it in, but then my teacher can't find it.

Doctor Zooper explains that it's not your dog that did it. It's creatures called the Homework Eaters. Homework Eaters are dumb as the proverbial rock, but so hungry for knowledge that they will eat anybody's homework, no matter how messy or boring it is. Ancient creatures, they crunched homework right off cave walls in the paleolithic days and chomped up Babylonian clay tablets before paper homework was invented. Does that mean that when the world finally goes paperless (as promised), will the Homework Eaters go extinct?

Not exactly.

"Homework Eaters have evolved into File Suckers," says Dr. Zooper.

With all the knowledge in  the world's computers, will that mean that they will suck up all the facts and finally become so intelligent that they will take over the world? Ah..., YES.

"I think that happened last Tuesday," says Dr. Zooper.

Dr. Zooper know where the television, stereo, and garage door remotes go. It's the Remote Toter to blame. He also knows where annoying things come from. Where do blisters come from? It's all the Mista Blistas that live in our shoes that do it. How do songs get stuck in your head? It's the Ear Worm.

And for the BIG question that has plagued mankind for more than a century?

"Why does no one ever admit that they used all the toilet paper?"

"Humans never use all the toilet paper. It's the Endroller who unfurls toilet paper like there's no tomorrow!"

This and many another question that has  baffled mankind are answered in William Joyce's hilarious The Mischievians (Atheneum Books, 2013). As always with Joyce's imaginative out-of-the-box books, there is many a surprise with each page turn. Adorning the question-and-answer format, Joyce's guilty creatures are a weird lot, the Sock Stalker, a fiendishly grinning ball of yarn equipped with a long hook, the tiny black Sticker, with his longbow and needle-like arrow, and the Booger Hanger, about whose greenish body the less said the better. Even the book's design is unusual, with its faded, faux shelf-worn cover which makes it look like a copyright 1953 publication, and its title page note card hidden way back on the inside back cover. Not your average book by any means, this one has appeal for imaginative primary and middle graders. "Clever choices abound!" says Publishers Weekly.

RRROARR! Even Monsters... by A. J. Smith

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT MONSTERS
ROARRRR!
BUT DO THEY KNOW....
EVEN MONSTERS PUT ON CLEAN UNDERWEAR EACH MORNING?

This monster tot is a little short on scare power. Oh, he has baby claws and a crooked smile, all right, and his fur IS green, but still, he's pretty downright cute.

And he does all the usual kid stuff. He eats colorful kid cereal (SWAMP MUNCH crunchies, with moose milk and mantis juice on the side.

With a SNARRRL, he brushes his fur with a small croc's teeth and heads off to Krudlump Elementary, where the ABCs begin with Abominable, Bogeyman, and Cyclops, and the proper way to write is with two crayons in his nostrils.

At home with an appropriately grisly GRRUMBLE!, junior monster Stewbo kicks the heck out of a soccer ball and destroys video game aliens with appropriate gusto and then has to finish his dinner, take a bath, brush his fangs, and get ready for bed. GROWLLLL! HOWLLLLL!

And what do even little monsters want at bedtime? A bedtime book called Even Humans... and a goodnight kiss? ZZZZZzzzzz!

A, J. Smith's Even Monsters... (Sourcebooks, 2014) story has no scary surprises, since his premise is that even monsters do all the same stuff kids do, even if combing the cooties out of their fur is not their usual revolting bedtime ritual! The fun in this monster tale is not in getting some vicarious shivers, but in the visual jokes in Smith's illustrations. Stewbo's underwear are whitie tighties with labels that proudly proclaim "USDA ORGANIC," a bit of grownup-pleasing sly humor which trots out all the monster tropes and set them on their head. This little monster is right down the alley for preschoolers, rather in the same vein as Mercer Mayer's earlier classic charmers, the Little Critter series and Jane Yolen's more recent How Do Dinosaurs series. For some serious monster bedtime fun, read this one with Amanda Noll's monstrously delightful twist on monster mania, I Need My Monster (see review here).

Fable Fare! Lion Vs. Rabbit by Alex Latimer

LION WAS MEAN TO EVERYONE.

Lion is the scourge of the savanna. the prankster of the plains, out to humiliate all the other animals, he even dares to play his dirty tricks on creatures faster and bigger than he is.

ONE AFTERNOON HE GAVE  BUFFALO A WEDGIE.

Something must be done, the animals agree, and they advertise an award for anyone who can put Lion in his place.

But none of the applicants--Baboon, Musk Ox, Giraffe, even Elephant--have the right stuff to lay it on Lion.

Finally, Rabbit applies.  Lion struts at the size of his new opponent.

"YOU'RE SMALL!  I WILL LET YOU CHOOSE THE CONTEST," SAYS LION.

"ALL RIGHT," SAYS RABBIT.

Rabbit challenges Lion to a marshmallow-eating contest. Lion downs three baskets, but Rabbit somehow manages to put away ten!

Lion whines that his stomach was feeling queasy, so Rabbit comes up with another challenge, a quiz show. Lion blanks out, and Rabbit offers two more trials--hopping, and painting. Lion predictably poops out at hopping, and loses the art competition when Rabbit reproduces a rabbit-eared Mona Lisa. Lion complains and offer excuses until Rabbit gives him the chance to choose the next contest, winner take all.

Lion chooses a race to the nearby snow capped mountain peak.

But despite Lion's considerable speed and endurance, Rabbit somehow seems to be always on the ledge just ahead of him. How does he DO it?

Alex Latimer's Lion vs Rabbit (Peachtree Publishing, 2014) offers up a tongue-in-cheek twist on the old fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare," with a modern emphasis on outwitting the local bully. Latimer's illustrations offer funny details (Buffalo in his whitie tighties, for example) and wryly foreshadow how Rabbit manages to outdo his rival, with teasing glimpses of the many assorted co-conspirator rabbits partially hidden on his pages, pointing up the role of the power of numbers as well as power of sly wit in doing in a bully. This one is both a beating-the-bully at his own game and a humorous new-fangled fractured fable for young readers.

Top Secret! Spies and Spying by Clive Gifford

In 1821 James Fenimore Cooper wrote the first espionage novel, The Spy. Hardly anyone read it.

Today millions enjoy books featuring spies such as James Bond, Jack Ryan, and teenage agent Alex Rider. Millions are thrilled by TV shows that include 24 and Alias, or films such as the Bourne trilogy, Spy Kids, and the Bond movies.

But thousands of years before American author Cooper dipped his pen into the world of espionage, there were spies. People have always wanted to have one up on the other guy, and from the Biblical Caleb to the Hittite double agents who fooled Pharoah Rameses II, secret agent men (and women) have plied the espionage trade throughout history.

Clive Gifford's Spies and Spying (Oxford University Press/Sandy Creek, 2013) gives this vast subject an intriguing keyhole view from the ancient world to the current world of cyber espionage and robotic drones as small as dragonflies. Within two-page spreads such as The Babington Plot, America's First Spymaster (George Washington), Spying for the South, The Zimmerman Telegraph, The Man Who Never Was, Station X  (Bletchley Park and the Enigma Code), and The Atomic Spies, Giffords provides tantalizing glimpses into the history of spycraft through the ages. Drawings, photographs, and copies of documents dot the pages to give readers a taste of each period in the history of public and private espionage. There is also plenty of attention to the cool devices of spycraft, from skytales to microdots to encoded DNA, ninja tegaki claws and throwing stars to umbrellas which inject ricin or plutonium capsules, secret-compartment rings to robotic dragonfly drones.

An intriguing overview of spying through the ages, Spies and Spying leads curious middle readers into further investigations of this ever-popular subject. Spy Dossiers offers thumbnail sketches of famous good-guy and bad-guy agents. Numerous insets, fact boxes, and sidebars  highlight historic facts and spur curiosity, and the book's appendix offers a much needed glossary of terms ("black bag job," "safehouse," "agent provocateur,") and acronyms (M16, DGSE, SOE, OSS), a list of printed and website resources and a detailed index.

Other books for readers intrigued by espionage include Gifford's SPIES (KINGFISHER KNOWLEDGE), ( Dorling Kindersley's Spy (DK Eyewitness Books), and Spy Science: 40 Secret-Sleuthing, Code-Cracking, Spy-Catching Activities for Kids.

Signals! Go! Go! Go! Stop! by Charise Mericle Harper

ONE DAY LITTLE GREEN SAID A WORD.

IT WAS HIS FIRST WORD. HE HAD NEVER SPOKEN BEFORE.

THE WORD WAS GO!

There's bridge to be built, and the gang's all there--Dump Truck, Forklift, Crane, Bulldozer, Power Shovel--roarin' and rarin' to begin.

This is what they were meant to do, and the construction vehicles get going, doing their thing.  They dig, they shove, load, they lift and shovel, and pour. The construction site is filled with hustle and bustle.

But there's a problem! When everybody is focused on doing his one thing, nothing much gets accomplished.

And then Little Green rolls into town.  He finds his niche in a tall frame, and switches into action.

GO! GO! GO!

The crew gets in line, and things start to move. They bustle and hustle and zoom around.

They bump into each other. It's all a bit crazy.

LITTLE GREEN TRIED WHISPERING,

HOPING IT WOULD SLOW THINGS DOWN.

But things don't improve. There's such a thing as too much of a good thing! All go is a no-go for builders. But just in time, a new dude rolls into town. His name is Little Red. He has one word for all of the gung-ho on-the-go boys.

STOP!

Little Red fits right in, below Little Green in the frame.

LITTLE RED AND LITTLE GREEN WERE EXACT OPPOSITES, BUT THEY TRIED TO WORK TOGETHER.

After a bit of experimentation they get their act together, signalling the builders when to go and when to stop, and the bridge construction site is beginning to shape up. But it seems there's one control concept they still need!

THEN LITTLE YELLOW SLID INTO TOWN.

HE HAD SOMETHING TO SAY.

SLOW DOWN!

Charise Mericle Harper's newest picture book project, Go! Go! Go! Stop! Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), uses the cartooning skill the author/illustrator used to good effect in her notable Just Grace
beginning chapter books to come up with a creative combination of construction, colors, and traffic signal concepts. Harper's illustrations have a lot of detail that will keep young power vehicle fans poring over the action on each page, and the idea of personifying traffic lights as the necessary arbiters of systematic order carry a social message cleverly embedded in this story.

Kirkus' starred review cheers, "A wonderful read-aloud and a lighthearted and lively celebration of action words!"

Pair this one with Rinker's perennial best-selling rhyming tale, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, or Ashburn's Mother Goose mash-up, Builder Goose: It's Construction Rhyme Time! (see review here: .