Different Drummer Dogs: Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio

MRS. POODLE ADMIRED HER NEW PUPPIES--FIFI, FOO-FOO, OOH-LA-LA, AND... GASTON.

A doting mama, Mrs. Poodle thinks her four pups are perfect. And being a good mother, she begins to teach them to behave as proper poodles do.

Fifi, Foo-Foo, and Ooh-La-La are perfect little fluffy teacup poodles, cute and diminutive, and they take to dainty ways like ducks to water.

"SIP, NEVER SLOBBER! YIP, NEVER YAP!"

But Gaston doesn't do dainty with ease. If his sisters are petite teacup pooches, he's more like the teapot.

Mrs. Poodle loves all her pups, and gently she praises Gaston for trying so hard to emulate his refined sisters, even if he is, well, rather big-boned for the breed. And Gaston tries his best to fit in with his super-civilized siblings. Mama Poodle is satisfied and proudly takes her litter out to the park to show off their good manners and elegant carriage.

But there she meets another new mother, Mrs. Bulldog and her four youngsters. Three of them are properly brawny and brash, tumbling and wrestling, and, it must be said, slobbering quite a bit in the process. The fourth pup sits sedately and demurely and frankly looks exactly like Fifi, Foo-Foo, and Ooh-La La.

Obviously, there has been some mixup in the canine nursery. Gaston is clearly like Mrs. Bulldog's three, and her Antoinette is obviously a dead ringer for Fifi, Foo-Foo, and Ooh-La-La. It seems that a a puppy exchange is in order, so Gaston goes home with Mrs. Bulldog and Antoinette leaves with Mrs. Poodle. Now everything is in order.

Or is it?

Nature or nurture? Nurture seems to be winning out here. Gaston can't help yipping politely, and eschews joining his brothers in being "brutish or brawny or BROWN!" Meanwhile, Antoinette is a little bored and put off with being "proper, precious, and PINK!" None of poodle girls will tussle with her. The two are just not quite a good fit with their look-alike siblings, despite the obvious family resemblance.

Luckily, Mrs. Poodle and Mrs. Bulldog are empathetic mothers, and seeing that Gaston and Antoinette have acquired different styles from their original families, arrange to a second swap for the misplaced pooches. But time spent in the two families has given Antoinette and Gaston a broader view of how the other half lives, and when they grow up and marry, they have the perfect precious and brawny, pink AND brown pups who fit right in with both families.

Kelly DiPucchio's brand-new Gaston (Atheneum Books, 2014) is a delightful doggy tale of finding the perfect blendship of family styles. Her narrative is crisp and wry, and artist Christian Robinson follows through with classy illustrations done up in an apt blend of style and media that echoes the premise of DiPucchio's story.  This gentle theme offers a lot of insight into what makes us what we are while dishing up a delightful mix of appealing pooches that kids, especially those who are a bit different from their siblings, will laugh over and love.

Cowdog Babysitter: Charlie and the New Baby by Ree Drummond

MAMA IS RUBBING MY BELLY.

AHHHH! LIFE DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER!

IT'S GOOD TO BE KING OF THE RANCH.

Charlie the Ranch Dog has it made in the shade--which is where he prefers to be in midday. He's petted, coddled, and doted upon properly, considering his regal status as senior cowdog.

But wait! Where is everybody going? What about the rest of that belly rub?

It seems that ranch work has intervened. Mama and the kids go off and quickly return carrying--a calf!

Charlie has never seen that happen in all his cowdog career. And would you ever....?

They take the weak little calf right into the shed and put it in---Charlie's own bed! And tuck him in warmly.

HEY! THAT'S MY BLANKET!

Mama and the kids bustle off and mix and stir up some stuff. They pour it into a big bottle and put a big nipple on it!

Charlie watches the little calf drink all his milk while listening to his own stomach rumbling. Nobody seems to notice. And then--the unkindest cut of all--Charlie has to sleep in the floor of the shed while the calf sleeps sweetly in Charlie's own bed!

But Charlie is abruptly awakened at dawn with the calf licking his face affectionately.

It's not so bad being a baby sitter, and soon Mama and the kids come in and congratulate Charlie on his caretaking, with a few belly rubs included.

It is all in a day's work for a diligent ranch dog in Ree Drummond's latest, Charlie and the New Baby (Charlie the Ranch Dog) (Harper, 2014). There are no surprises here for fans of the lazy but self-congratulatory canine hero of this series, but as always Diane deGroat's droll portrayal of Charlie's displacement anxiety flesh out this slender story with charm and good humor. Other books by "Pioneer Woman" Dee Drummond are Charlie the Ranch Dog Charlie and the Christmas Kitty (Charlie the Ranch Dog) and Charlie Goes to School (Charlie the Ranch Dog) and Drummond's and the I-Can-Read Charlie titles.

Animagicals: Presto Chang-O, or A Book of Animal Magic by Edouard Manceau

Here you'll find a magic book

Where all's not what it seems.

PRESTO CHANGE-O

For when you turn each object round,

The unexpected will be seen.

Can YOU change a bowl of green salad into a turtle?

Or how about a little legerdemain to convert a hot air balloon into a rabbit?

In his hard-to-resist toy-and-movable-book, illustrator and designer Edouard Manceau offers some sturdy moving parts and a lot of artistry in a bit of bibliographic transforming. By moving a few jointed parts, a black cauldron becomes the perky raccoon on the cover. On another page, a rocket becomes a penguin "flying" through his underwater habitat. A fancy teapot transforms itself into elephant and back again, and a clock slips into the shape of an owl on its perch.

It's fun for young fingers and a treat for the eyes in Manceau's latest, Presto Change-O: A Book of Animal Magic (Chronicle Books, 2014), giving preschoolers a chance to work a little magic with their own fingertips.

For an absorbing lesson in shapes and their manipulation into basic graphic forms, try Edouard Manceau's delightful Windblown (Owlkids Books, 2013) with a little help from his invisible friend the wind (with downloadable, printable shapes for kids to experiment with)  here.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Fiction: Bad Kitty - Drawn to Trouble by Nick Bruel

AS BOTH THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR OF THIS BOOK, I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT.

Bwaaa-haaa-haaa! His name is Nick Bruel, and he is the master of this universe. It's often not a pretty sight, with a main character (or protagonist, as Nick explains patiently) like Bad Kitty, a born contrarian. Kitty tries to resist being put into a story, stalking away to her basket with her favorite snarky retort:

FEH!

Kitty also tries snatching Nick's pencil from his all-powerful hand when she doesn't like the plotline.

And she particularly doesn't care for Nick's choice of an antagonist to introduce the conflict:

"HI! I'M TERRY THE TURNIP!"

No, not now, Terry. Go back! Go Back!

Terry? Don't worry about him, Kitty. That was just a little foreshadowing, which is when a writer drops little hints about what's going to come later in the story.

Nick goes on to explain that he has to pick a setting for the story, and after Kitty gets an unexpected dowsing in the briny deep setting of a pirate tale, almost gets snatched by a zombie or chomped by a lion, the author relents and settles on the relatively quiet confines of Kitty's house as the setting.

"Now?"

Soon, Terry, soon. Just be patient.

It's time to think of what unfolds to make things happen in Kitty's plot. Now what is Kitty's conflict to be? She's a famous overeater, so the hand of the creator draws Kitty as the star of Bad Kitty Goes On A Diet. Now, that's a sure-fire best-seller. But to be a real literary success, the story must have a theme. Could it be a turnip? Uh, oh. Even authors have a hard time explaining themes. Where's an English teacher when you need one? Let's consult Uncle Murray's Fun Facts.

"Well, you've been talking a lot about things like "character" and "setting" and "plot" and stuff like that. I think the theme here is about writing stories," (says the sage in the undershirt).

Uncle Murray knows his novels. So now all Nick Bruel and Bad Kitty have to do is pick a suitable plot, put in some arresting plot points to wake up their readers, choose a style (comic, scary, lyrical), add a few minor characters (Strange Cat? Chatty Cat?), and they're on their way to a conclusion, so Kitty can get back to her nap.

But, WAIT! Nick still has to work Terry the Turnip into the story. I know he's annoying, but a promise is a promise.

Nick Bruel, the brilliant author-illustrator of all those best-selling Bad Kitty books, decides to morph into Meta-Fiction Man (all the cool authors are doing it, you know), and open up that fourth wall to his extremely intelligent readers, in his seventh in series, Bad Kitty Drawn to Trouble (Roaring Brook Press, 2014). After this one, Bruel's readers are ready to ace the "elements of fiction" section of their state language arts tests: viz.:

The protagonist is

a. a little hint at what happens later in the story

b. the main character

c. a turnip.

Bruel even teaches his dear readers how to draw Bad Kitty, part by part, in case they want to do their own book, in this laugh-out-loud manual to the art of writing and reading fiction, making this Bad Kitty beginning chapter book an excellent kick-off for the study of analysis of fiction for kids of all ages. Strange Kitty, Expert on Everything, even points out that Nick has failed to note the attribution of the hand of the creator in the story, citing Looney Tunes' Duck Amuck and Rabbit Rampage as precursors. Bruel's quirky characters and comic style could make a turnip laugh, and this one may be the best yet. As Kirkus' starred review reports, "Surprisingly (and sneakily) instructional, totally hilarious…and worth every penny. (glossary, recipe)"

WAIT! Glossary? Where? What for?

And there's a recipe for roasted turnips?

Bwaa-haaa-haaa!

And now, the Appendix....

Personal Space: Dog Vs. Cat by Chris Gall

ONE DAY MR. BUTTON WENT TO THE ANIMAL SHELTER TO PICK OUT A FRIENDLY-LOOKING DOG.

ACROSS TOWN, ON THE SAME DAY, MRS. BUTTON WENT TO A PET STORE AND BOUGHT A SMART-LOOKING CAT.

HOWEVER, THE BUTTONS HAD ONLY ONE ROOM FOR THEIR PETS.

Obviously, Cat and Dog are going to be resistant roommates. But both can see that they are better off at the Buttons than in their previous housing arrangements, so they agree to bury the traditional dog vs. cat hatchet, shake paws, and try to make the best of it.

But soon they realize that their personal habits are not a good fit.  Dog litters his side of their room with sports toys, cast-off dog bone boxes, spends a lot of time in his recliner watching the game on the tube. Cat is a persnickety housekeeper, with a place for everything, and everything in its place, especially her prized books on their proper shelves.  Dog's predilection for sniffing everything constantly drives Cat up her tree, so to speak, while Cat's fondness for clawing anything that moved made it hard for Dog even to wag his tail!

AND THEN THERE WAS THE LITTER BOX ISSUE.

"CAN'T YOU GO OUTSIDE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE?" SAID DOG.

"I HAVE INDOOR PRIVILEGES," SAID CAT, STANDING RESOLUTELY IN HER LITTER PAN.

The roommate war escalates. Cat fills Dog's dish with hacked-up hairballs. Dog ends one of Cat's frequent naps with a dog dish full of cold water. They try get each other in trouble with the Buttons--Cat uses a high-frequency dog whistle to make Dog howl in the middle of the night, and Dog sprinkles catnip all over the living room to trigger Cat into a upholstery-ripping frenzy.

The Buttons are at wits' end, and Dog and Cat seem to be at a balance-of-power stalemate.

Finally, they decide to wall off their sections of their room and ignore each other totally. Cat uses her bookshelves to delimit their space, and Dog piles on helmets, hockey sticks and tennis rackets so that they cannot even see each other.

Peace reigns for the odd couple roommates until... both of them discover that isolation is lonely and boring.

A heartwarming reconciliation follows, and it looks like Dog and Cat have an idyllic life ahead of them.

And then....one day the two pacified roommates hear an unpleasant sound outside the door of their room.  Waaawwwhhhh!  Could Mr. and Mrs. Button have come up with another pet to share their quarters? Horrors!

THEN MR. AND MRS. BUTTON BROUGHT IN THE CAGE.

THE CREATURE NEVER SEEMED TO STOP SCREECHING....

AND IT CERTAINLY COULDN'T USE A LITTER BOX. (OOOH--THE SMELL!)

If Cat and Dog thought rooming with each other was a challenge, sharing their crib with the Button's new baby and his crib is something else, in Chris Gall's hilarious new Dog vs. Cat (Little, Brown, 2014). Gall's comic, color-filled illustrations add much in the way of visual humor to his dead pan narrative delivery throughout, and readers will pore over each detail on his bright double-page spreads. Gall's foreshadowed final sight gag on the last page will leave 'em laughing in the ironic tradition of the best picture book humor.

Crack of the Bat! The Philly Fake (Ballpark Mysteries) by David A. Kelly

Poodle McGuire, the Phillies' tough little shortstop, stepped up to the plate. He was famous for making big hits just when the team needed them.

"Come on, Poodles!" Kate yelled.  Mike whistled.

When the second pitch came in, Poodles swung with all his might.

POW!

The ball blasted off the bat! Home run!

Mike and Kate are seeing red--and white--and blue--everywhere.  It's almost Independence Day and Kate's sportswriter mom is covering the Fourth of July series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Mets. History is all around, from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, to the Betsy Ross House, not to mention America's oldest ballpark.  A Ben Franklin reenactor works the crowd, clutching his kite and key.  The club mascot, the Philly Phanatic, has been firing his fake cannon loaded with foil-wrapped hotdogs into the stands around them, and the giant neon Liberty Bell is flashing and swinging to celebrate Poodles' homerun.

But the Phillies are still behind, with two out in the ninth inning, and even with Poodles Maguire's homer, they still need a run to tie the game. But Nelson Nolan, their best power hitter, is next at the plate.

The Mets pitcher hurled a fastball.  Nolan swung from his heels.  The bat struck the baseball with brute force. 

CRACK!

Bummer! Nolan's bat shatters into sharp shards, one of which hits the net right in front of Kate and Mike.  Even worse for Nolan,  the ball bounces lamely to the pitcher, who easily throws him out at first base.  Game over.

Kate and Mike console themselves with her mom's promise that the big green furry Philly Phanatic has promised to give them a ride around the park on his ATV after the game, and he does, even autographing their programs.  But as they make their way back toward the press box, one of the groundskeepers grumbles that the Phillies have had a bunch of broken bats during the last week, strangely always during big games and crucial at-bats.

Kate and Mike love a baseball mystery, and they gamely take on the challenge of this one.  As they question the grounds crew and other non-playing employees, suspicions seem to fall on the Philly Phanatic himself.  But "Phil," the Phanatic's alter ego, seems to be a nice guy and insists on his innocence. One worker claims to have seen the big green Phanatic fooling around the bats after the last game. But a manager tells the kids the bats are checked right before every game.

Kate and Mike decide that they must find a way to get into the dugout and take a careful look at the team's bats in the rack beside the bench.  But Mike looks nothing like the team's bat boy, and they can't even get through security pretending to deliver a fan's free hotdogs for the entire team. Did Mike blow his entire allowance on two dozen hotdogs?  Will the detective duo strike out or crack the case of the cracking bats?

David A. Kelly's Ballpark Mysteries #9: The Philly Fake (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))(Random House, 2014), takes his young detectives behind the scenes in yet another major league ballpark to uncover an unexpected saboteur among the crowd-pleasing mascots in his latest in his popular beginning chapter series, Ballpark Mysteries.  Kelly's easy reading mysteries combine the observational skills of a young Sherlocking pair with a solid dose of historic ballpark settings for lovers of  both baseball and sleuthing.

Exotic Pet: Sparky! by Jenny Offill

"YOU CAN HAVE ANY PET YOU WANT, AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE WALKED OR BATHED OR FED."

Mom has always said no to her daughter's requests for a pet.

No bird. No bunny. No and no again to the trained seal.

But this girl doesn't give up. She cruises the library for ideas, and when the librarian offhandedly hands her the S volume of the encyclopedia, she finds the article on the Sloth. She reads that they sleep in their trees most of the time, eat the foliage, and only drink dew from the leaves.

Definitely a low-maintenance pet!

Her sloth arrives express mail.

MY MOM WAS NOT HAPPY.

BUT A PROMISE IS A PROMISE.

Apparently, low-maintenance in a pet also means low energy. The girl, however, has high hopes for her pet. He's pretty cute lying on his limb, but he sleeps for two days while she camps hopefully underneath his tree. Still, she is sure he can be fun to play with. With infinite optimism, she names her limp new pet Sparky.

But Sparky doesn't play games very well. In fact, he always lets her win--except at Statue. Sparky wins that one going away.

The girl's prissy classmate Mary Potts is not impressed. Her cat dances on its hind legs on cue, she points out. What can Sparky do? she asks.

Challenged, the girl counters that she is planning a Trained Sloth Extravaganza for the next weekend, with Sparky as the star, and invites Mary Potts and the neighbors to the show.

But sloth training requires a lot of patience, she learns.

HE TOOK SO LONG TO FETCH THAT I WENT INSIDE AND HAD DINNER WHILE I WAITED!

... BUT A PROMISE IS A PROMISE!

Mom gets into the swing of the thing and offers deck chairs and cookies and lemonade for the spectators, and the big day finally comes. Will Sparky rise to the occasion? Will he even wake up and move?

Jenny Offill's Sparky! (Schwartz and Wade, 2014) takes a tongue-in-cheek look at pet training that will resonate with kids whose pets don't quite live up to their original expectations. With wry, dead-pan delivery, her little pet owner gives it her all, and wisely seems to come down on the side of valuing Sparky's huge capacity for constant companionability despite his total lack of pet pizzazz.

Artist Chris Appelhans gets into the spirit of this quietly comic tale, limiting his palette to three colors in his understated but charming illustrations of Sparky, who manages to be quite cute while doing absolutely nothing at all until the final page, where he gives his devoted owner, who joins him on his branch, an approving smile. Definitely not a story for fast-break action fans, this picture book has a special appeal to kids who dig ironic, offbeat humor. Kirkus stars their review with this peppy endorsement: "A serene, funny addition to the new-pet genre'."

For more of Jenny Offill's off-beat humor, try her 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore (see review here) and 11 Experiments That Failed.

Keep On Kickin'! Maisy Plays Soccer by Lucy Cousins

GOOD MORNING, MAISY!

MAISY IS GOING TO PLAY SOCCER, AND ALL OF HER FRIENDS ARE PLAYING, TOO!

Maisy dons her red jersey, laces up her sneakers, and heads out to the neighborhood pitch, where her teammates, Cyril and Eddie are waiting.  Arrayed against them are the Blues, with Dotty, Tallulah, and Charlie ready to go for the goals.

The ref blows his whistle, and the game is on.  The players dribble, pass, and try to kick a goal or block a shot.  They each score, and by halftime the teams are tied.  Maisy and her friends quench their thirst as they take a breather, and then it's back to the action.

The players do their best, and when the match ends in a tie, no one is unhappy. They've all had fun. Well done!

In her latest, Maisy Plays Soccer (Candlewick Press, 2014), famous author-illustrator Lucy Cousins has to get into the game--the soccer game--just in time for all the excitement of the World Cup play, and of course her indomitably game little mouse, Maisie, has got game, too! Maisie and her friends come out kicking and play hard for the team,  but Cousins points out that it's all in good fun. Playing any game is PLAYING, and playing is what kids do to have a good time.  Cousins' trademark style, thick black marker outlines, filled in with strong gouache color, give her pictures plenty of pizzazz, and her game play narration is full of energy and motion.  Kids from preschoolers to early primary grades will root for Maisy.

Action, Camera! This Is A Moose by Richard T. Morris

THIS IS THE MIGHTY MOOSE [Take One]

Clack goes the clapstick.

The elephant gaffer has the Kliegs lighting the star. The grip, a bored bear, holds the boom steady just out of camera range. The camera chimp is set to dolly in for the opening closeup. Director Waddler, a cliched quacker with a French beret, megaphone, and script board, has his concept firmly in mind--an award-winning wildlife documentary about to go before the cameras.

"CUT!"

It seems that this thespian is having a problem getting into character as a mighty moose. He's wearing a space helmet and obviously sees his character in a different role. He wants to play an astronaut. Actually, he wants to BE an astronaut. And he's determined not to be typecast as your typical moose, wading in a lake and munching lily pads.

Everyone in the North Woods gets into the act.  Grandma Moose paddles up in her red canoe and admits that she always wanted to be a player for a Division AAA lady lacrosse team:

"WHIP A SHOT IN! I'LL STIFF YOU, SONNY!"

From racket-wielding grannies to wannabe giraffe physicians, Director Waddle can't seem to get anyone in character for his documentary.  Instead, the crew and extras get into the Moosetronaut's dream of going into space and fashion a workmanlike rubber band catapult and get their jerry-built red-canoe capsule set for launch. It's "MOON or BUST!"

Director Waddler, his webbed feet spread wide, grabs his megaphone and bellows at the cast and crew:

"CUT!

LISTEN TO ME! ALL ANIMALS ARE GOING TO PLAY THEIR PROPER ROLES FROM NOW ON.

UNDERSTOOD?"

Everyone silently takes in the ironic absurdity of that direction. The bear grip, the giraffe staff doctor, the elephant gaffer, the kangaroo with the clapper, the chimp behind the camera, all look at what they are doing and at each other.

?????

Finally Director Waddler looks down at his feathers and webbed feet and realizes ... he's a mallard!

OH.

The director decides on a new, er, focus, for his film.

THE MOOSETRONAUT [Take One]

In Richard Morris' This Is a Moose (Little, Brown and Company, 2014), with faux cinematography by peerless artist Tom Lichtenheld, all the usual movie cliches are comically parodied, along with the premise that nature can be faked before the camera.  Lichtenheld's illustrations, done meticulously in  a tongue-in-cheek style and textured ink, colored pencil, and gouache pastiche, spoof all the tired movie tropes in a salute to the I-gotta-be ME main character who steals the show.  Even kids who have no idea of the various roles in movie making will get the humor of this book (a glossary of movie terms is appended) and will chuckle at the back cover, a faux front-of-book showing Moose on the moon, craters and all, with the title This Is the Moosetronaut.

Booklist brags in its starred review, "A rambunctious and hilarious story of embracing the unexpected," and Kirkus adds their asterisk and concurs, "A humorous--make that hysterical---homage to movies and big dreams."

Pete the Cat Goes Crepuscular: Pete the Cat: Twinkle,Twinkle, Little Star by James Dean

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR!

Everyone knows that cats like to go out as twilight approaches, and Pete the Cat is no exception. With his trusty skateboard and guitar, he rolls out as the sun is setting to see what night has going on. It's getting pretty dark out there, with just that first star visible.

THEN THE TRAVELER IN THE DARK

THANKFUL FOR YOUR TINY SPARK...

To the words of that most venerable of nursery songs, Pete plays along with the lyrics, watching fireflies fly up as the stars pop out in the dark blue sky. Sunset and moonrise are good to see, but soon Pete rolls home, glad to see his mom in the lighted door, looking for him. There is dinner with family (peas on the plate), a sudsy bath with his yellow ducky, sailboat, and red rocket, bedtime hugs, and off to dreamland, where Pete's dreams have him boarding his toy red rocket and flying to a favorite star, "like a diamond in the sky," just in time for the end of the song.

For youngsters who haven't heard the whole of this old English nursery song, Pete's gentle introduction is a pleasant way to sing the whole song as they head for bed. Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Harper, 2014) is a sweet way to greet the stars that may twinkle at their windows "all the night."

Blue Crab Blues: Crabby Crab by Chris Raschka

The sun may be high over the beach, but it's definitely low tide as far as Crabby Crab is concerned. His shell may be bright red, but he's definitely one blue crab.And when this crustacean gets crotchety, he's quite a cranky crab.

His seaside retinue tries to cheer him up, pointing out that as crabs go, he's a hunk. Why, he's got two curvaceous claws.

Crabby Crab complains that he would just as soon have fingers, thank you!

His friends cite the fact that he has eight (count 'em) legs. (He's way ahead in the locomotion category. After all, Clam has only a foot, and no legs at all!)

Crab kvetches that they only walk sideways. He couldn't "go straight" even if he wanted to.

It seems that Crab cannot be consoled. But after all, who actually expects a perky crab? He is their Crabby Crab, and his oceanside gang loves him for his, um, consistency! Yeah, yeah, that's it.

In his brand-new Thingy Things book, Chris Raschka's Crabby Crab (Thingy Things) (Abrams Appleseed Books, 2014), Caldecott artist Chris Raschka takes complaining to new heights with his irascible crab protagonist. Raschka's art style is in full evidence here, with his textured scratchy line and paint daubs seemingly applied with abandon, managing to give his cross crustacean a lot of quirky personality and what looks like a heck of a sunburn. "Sublimely ridiculous!" crows Kirkus in their starred review.

Others of Chris Raschka's Thingys (Thingies?) are Cowy Cow (Thingy Things), Whaley Whale (Thingy Things), and Lamby Lamb (Thingy Things).

Shower Happening! Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle

TAP TAP
DARK CLOUDS.

Two boys, heading for the park, notice a few drops of cold rain. They watch a dad hustle his daughter, a girl their age in a bright yellow dress, down the stairs to the subway.

TAP TAP TAP TAP
BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Umbrellas bloom and gutters gurgle as the rain ruins the boys' playday plans. Suddenly, everyone seems to scurrying in the same direction.

FEET WETTER?
YOU'D BETTER
GO DOWN
UNDERGROUND
WHERE THE WATER
CAN'T GETCHA.
YOU BETCHA!

Everyone around them streams down the subway stairs to escape the storm.

Thunder boomer! It's a bummer!

But, it's not. The little group of rainstorm refugees wait, and a couple of dogs take the opportunity to shake themselves dry, sending drops all over. The little crowd laugh at themselves, windblown and rain-spattered, and smile at each other as they huddle together in their ad hoc haven.

There's a girl in fancy dance costume on her way to class, a tall lady with a gussied-up poodle, all kinds of people, on their own little island for a moment. One guy passes around slices of his pizza to all takers. It's really a bit cozy down there, safe from the storm, where the thunder seems far away.

FEET WETTER.
SOME WEATHER!
WET SIGHS.
SMILES WIDE,
TOGETHER IS BETTER.

But it's only a summer sun-shower, and as the tap tap taps above slow, the boys race upstairs where they find some giant sidewalk puddles reflecting the skyscrapers and sky to shatter as they bounce their basketball in them and splash each other. Then they spot a rainbow shining in the clearing sky over the city.

NOW PEOPLE SCATTER,
THROUGH PUDDLE SPLATTER.
WE WAVE GOODBYE!
"SO LONG! KEEP DRY!"

Author Elizabeth Bluemle and artist G. Brian Karas capture a rare moment of impromptu community in the big city in their Tap Tap Boom Boom (Candlewick Press, 2014) as a sudden shower brings a group of strangers together. Kids, dogs, shoppers, workers, and errand do-ers share shelter and forget their destinations for a moment. Bleumle's impetuous urban rhythms and playful rhymes set the mood, and G. Brian Karas' illustrations capture the scene with a combination of photo-collaged city settings set against his overlay of art, with his witty portrayals of busy city people stopped in their soppy tracks by the rainstorm.

This book achieves a special mood set by the perfect combination of text, text design, and art that is both humorous and warm, a moment foreshadowed by Karas' frontispiece, a giant raindrop in which the cityscape is reflected. This is a wonderful picture book with plenty in the pictures for readers to discover and a lively refrain--TAP TAP BOOM BOOM--to join, one which leaves the reader with a different feeling about city folk and thunderstorms.  "...magical," says the New York Times, "the kind of interruption in routine that might loom large in a small child's eyes and is rendered evocatively here."

Daring Deeds on Deadline!:Zoe's Jungle by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

ABOVE THE JUNGLE FLOOR THE FEARLESS EXPLORER GLIMPSES A RARE SPOTTED ADDIEBEAST.

SHE SAILS THROUGH THE TREETOPS,

QUICKLY CLOSING IN ON THE ELUSIVE CREATURE.

"ZOE! ONLY FIVE MORE MINUTES!!!"

Zoe and her little sister are with Mom at the park. At least, Mom thinks they are at the park. Zoe and Addie know that they are actually in a tropical rain forest.

Zoe sees herself as the intrepid explorer, with pith helmet and binoculars. Addie is a swift, spotted jungle cat, the elusive Addiebeast, and and Zoe is on her trail through the forest canopy.

Mom thinks it's time to go home. When she warns that playtime is about up, Zoe is on the verge of a wild reaction. She launches a protest, but Mom is adamant about her deadline!

"FOUR MORE MINUTES.....!!!"

Is there no respect for the explorer and her quest? Protest yields no extension, so Zoe throws herself into the chase. Time is short, and the Addiebeast is wily.

Swinging from vines (the monkey bars), crossing a log bridge over an alligator-infested river (the balancing beam), and slithering through the dense growth on the jungle floor (shrubs), Zoe follows brief glimpses of the lithe Addiebeast's tufted tail, and relentlessly closes in on her quarry.

"ONE MINUTE!!!!

...A LIFETIME OF PREPARATION COMES DOWN TO THIS MOMENT, CHASING THE WILD ADDIEBEAST TO ITS TREETOP LAIR.

And by the time Mom calls time and heads for the car, the capture is complete, and Zoe and Addie, their dresses not even mussed, return safe and sound from the jungle, with quite a story to tell, in Bethanie Deeney Murguia's latest Zoe adventure, Zoe's Jungle (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic Press, 2014), an ebullient celebration of the joys of imaginative free play. The sisters appear both in dainty girly frocks when their mother calls to them, and as an eager explorer and an elusive great cat when lost in their fantasy play. Murguia's light ink and watercolor illustrations capture the special time and place that the sisters inhabit during their leafy adventure on the wild side, a special world that children will recognize as their own.

Murguia's previous stories about the winsome and strong-minded Zoe are Zoe Gets Ready and Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) (See my reviews here).

What Goes Around...: Mr. Bud Wears the Cone by Carter Goodrich

MISTER BUD HAD A BAD HOT SPOT. HE CHEWED AND LICKED ALL NIGHT.

A big, lovable, easy-going mutt, Mr. Bud keeps Zorro, the fidgety, feisty pug, awake all night with his scratching.

Next morning, though, Zorro is up and at it, demanding their usual first-thing routine as usual. He barks insistently.

"BISCUIT! THEN WALK!

BISCUIT! THEN WALK!"

But their owner shushes Zorro and hugs Mr. Bud. She applies some ointment to Mr. Bud's itchy back and assures him that it will soon be better.

Zorro hates any interruption in his list of their daily routines. And he hates that Mr. Bud is getting all the attention.

But when the itchy hot spot is no better, their owner knows what comes next. Mr. Bud just can't help scratching and licking the spot. There is only one thing to be done.

The cone!

Conehead Mr. Bud is humiliated. When their owner leaves for work, he frantically tries to get it off. Trying to help, Zorro grabs it in his jaws and pulls, but the cone does not budge. Mr. Bud can't see well and keeps blundering into things. He can't play with Zorro. Bored, Zorro wanders off and figures out how to open the cupboard and spots the dog biscuits on the bottom shelf! Excited, he chews the box open and spills the biscuits all over the floor. He barks for Mr. Bud to come as he starts gobbling, but poor Mr. Bud can't reach them with the cone over his head. He tries to drink from his bowl, but that's a disaster. He collapses on the rug, disheartened.

At first Zorro enjoys taunting Mr. Bud, sneaking his toys and shaking them right in his face, but after a while, the teasing stops being fun.

It's a long day for Zorro and Mr. Bud, and when their owner finally returns, Mr. Bud doesn't even get up to join in "Greet and Make a Fuss Time" on Zorro's schedule. And it's not so much fun when their owner sees the dog biscuit box empty and chewed into shreds all over the floor. Who did it?

It's an open-and-shut case!

Zorro is in the figurative doghouse. But Mr. Bud's boo-boo is all better, He gets his cone removed and a special treat for being such a trooper, but being Mr. Bud, he shares his reward with Zorro. Mr. Bud is good to go--outside for a romp with his buddy.

AND THAT WAS THE END OF THE CONE....

Or not.

Zorro doesn't catch up on his sleep that night. He's up a lot, scratching....

Carter Goodrich's third book about his pair of lovable dog pals, Mister Bud Wears the Cone (Simon and Schuster, 2014), has all the subtle wit and charm of its predecessors. This unlikely pair of best friends are portrayed sympathetically and comically in Goodrich's funny but poignant tale of dealing with a best friend's temporary infirmity. What goes around comes around for the pesky Zorro, but it's all in good fun for dog owners attuned to canine interpersonal relations. See Zorro's backstory in the earlier books, Say Hello to Zorro! and Zorro Gets an Outfit (Junior Library Guild Selection) in my reviews here.

Exit Exam: Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau

Everyone here at the University was chosen to lead. But what I will need to know is that those on my team believe as I do that The Testing must be ended. That those who have worked for the rebellion, thinking they were bringing change, must be saved. That we need new leaders who will change the system to secure the futures of those younger than us who dream of someday being selected.

And if the people I decide to ask to participate in this terrible task are willing to fight for those things, there is still one question that must be answered.

Can they be trusted?

Tomas and I have only one choice. We will need to stage our own Testing.

"Trust no one," Valencia Vale's father had whispered to her as she left for her own Testing in Tosu City, the trial that would determine if she would be admitted to university studies. In the time after nuclear war and environmental collapse have made most of earth near uninhabitable, the leaders of the United Commonwealth have fashioned the Testing and university studies to select for those who are ruthless enough to kill to become part of the ruling oligarchy. Cia believes that failure leads to redirection, which means execution, rather than reassignment of remote colonies. But now she learns that perhaps an even worse fate follows redirection--being used as subjects of genetic studies on the results of the radiation and toxicity that followed the apocalyptic Seven Wars.

Cia had known that her older brother Zeen is one of the leaders of a rebellion planned to overthrow the ruling caste and longed to join with him, but now she also learns the Dr. Holt and Dr. Barnes, directors of The Testing, have spies among the rebels and plan to use their uprising as the premise to take over the government and oust the few leaders who oppose The Testing. And as her trusted intern, Cia was chosen by President Collindar to assassinate Dr. Barnes and seven other leaders who might thwart the ruling Chamber vote to end The Testing.

Now Cia must devise her own testing to make sure that the students she recruits to carry out the assassinations can be trusted to be with her to the death. And Cia knows that her final test will be when she has to face an unarmed Dr. Barnes and kill him in cold blood. Is there no way to avoid doing evil to do good?

But even as she makes that choice, Cia meets one last test when she faces Dr. Barnes.

I wrap my fingers around the gun. I could never have imagined that Dr. Barnes would stand quietly in front of me asking me to take his life.

Is he the monster I have always believed, or someone who is now making the ultimate sacrifice as a means of righting wrongs?

Everything depends on this moment. I need to fire.

I need to kill.

In a post-apocalyptic world in which a society is fighting an uphill battle to restore health and security to its citizens and its reclaimed lands, a benignly-intended but flawed government can easily become dystopian. To provide for survival of the many, some may die, and leaders must be selected who can make those hard choices. It is Lincoln ordering Sherman's March, Truman dispatching the Enola Gay to Hiroshima. Conventional morality and trust are often the first victims in human history, as in Joelle Charbonneau's final book in her trilogy, Graduation Day (The Testing) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

This series might facetiously be called Hunger Games for Dorks, a fierce life-or-death competition to determine future leaders through academic and intellectual competitions which test rational decision-making rather than gladiator-style combat. Even so, there is plenty of direct conflict in this series, along with intrigue, espionage, booby-trapped devices, and murder, institutional and personal, along the way to keep the pages turning. Charbonneau's gripping first-person narrative reveals Cia's inner coming-of-age as she deals with issues of ethics and the nature of leadership and governing, the big questions of human society. Wisely, the author's closing is no conclusion, as the task goes on. For young adult readers who think about these issues of civil society--equality and justice and the hard choices that governance requires--this series is not to be missed.

Earlier titles in this series are The Testing and Independent Study: The Testing, Book 2 (see reviews here).

Brave Nadine: I Am Cow, Hear Me Moo! by Jill Esbaum

NADINE WAS A TRULY REMARKABLE COW.
THERE WAS NOTHING SHE FEARED. . .

SO SHE CLAIMED, ANYHOW.

Nadine's fellow heifers are dubious. They cite supposedly scary things like lightning and loud noises.

I'M NOT SCARED OF ANY OF THAT!" she sniffs.

Her sister bovines call her bluff. How about the deep, dark woods, huh? they taunt.

Secretly, Nadine knows that the woods are pretty scary, but now that she has boasted that she's the bravest of bovines, she has to follow through. She offers to lead her buddies in a woodland walk.

At first all goes swimmingly. Starla and Annette give Nadine a nudge up a tree, and she moos contentedly from the treetop.

"I AM COW. HEAR ME MOO!"

Her walk on the wild side is turning out to be a success. Starla and Annette are clearly impressed. The three sample blackberries and sniff fragrant pine cones like veteran woodsmen. But then, Starla notices that it's getting darker in the woods and points out that they soon won't be able to see how to find their way home. Nadine is swinging from a branch and reluctant to end her bravado tour. But then she spots the opening of a dark cave. What a way to show off how brave she really is!

Have you ever noticed that storybook characters ALWAYS go into the dark cave?

So of course, Nadine does. Like a tourist, she leisurely checks out the cave drawings and the sleeping bats, until she spies something that makes even her udder shudder--a pile of bones and a cow skull.

Does the fearless Nadine panic? Yes!

She dashes right out of the cave, looking back for pursuing bears, and runs right off a cliff.

Down she dives, luckily landing in an icy stream, on the banks of which she finds her bovine buddies milling around, lost and leaderless. "If you desire a virtue, assume it and it shall be yours," said Benjamin Franklin, and Nadine follows his advice. Moo-hoo-hoooo! Let's hoof it, heifers!

And when Nadine leads her little herd back home at a full gallop, Starla and Annette hail her as a hero.
Nadine knows better. She knows she should stop basking in the praise and tell them the truth.

"BUT SHE SORTA FORGOT."

Jill Esbaum's latest, I Am Cow, Hear Me Moo! (Dial Books, 2014), is the story of a bloviating bovine who has to save face and make good on her boasts whether she wants to or not.  Artist Gus Gordon's comic illustrations of Esbaum's not-so-courageous cow who finds her inner heroine after all are full of deliciously humorous details that make this one udderly delightful as a self-read or group readaloud.

Beach Babes: Duck and Goose Go to the Beach by Tad Hills

Duck and Goose are enjoying the morning sun in their meadow.

"DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT HERE?" GOOSE HONKED.

"LET'S NEVER LEAVE!"

"YOU JUST GAVE ME THE GREATEST IDEA, GOOSE!" SAID DUCK. "LET'S TAKE A TRIP!"

Homebody Goose thinks there's no place like their meadow. Why would anyone leave such a perfect place?

Duck, however, has a case of webbed wander-foot. He suggests they take a hike.

Goose is appalled.

"I'LL WALK, BUT I WILL NOT HIKE!" GOOSE GRUMBLED.

But Duck is his friend, so Goose trudges along, still pointing out the accouterments that make the meadow perfect--log, pond, their special ball. Duck zooms ahead, paddling down an unexplored brook, and then waddling up a long hill. Suddenly he stops and stares at a sight he's never seen before.

"COULD IT BE THE BEACH? ... I LOVE THE BEACH!"

Duck dashes down the dunes, across the sand, and wades right into the sea. Goose follows more slowly. There so much sand, so much sound all around. Warily Goose gets his feet wet, too. Duck is thrilled.

"THESE WAVES ARE VERY...."

Suddenly a big breaker bowls the two over.

Duck is tipped tail over bill and comes up sputtering and draped with seaweed.  It seems he is not so sure about the beach now. Goose, on the other hand, has an unexpected reaction.

"FUN!"

Author Tad Hills takes his endearing little water fowl duo to meet the beach, in his latest in series, Duck & Goose Go to the Beach (Schwartz and Wade, 2014). As usual, Goose drags his webbed feet a bit but comes around to lead the way as the two explore the fun of the beach, having an adorable encounter with a crab and listening to the sound of the sea in a washed-up seashell. The two little waddlers in their sun hats share an adventure that can be a bit intimidating at first for youngsters, taking that first dunking in the waves vicariously for their readers. "There is so much expression in just the eyes of these characters that children can't help but smile, " says School Library Journal.