What's Your Fossil? 50 State Fossils: by Yinan Wang

Maybe you know that Wisconsin is nicknamed the Badger State, Louisiana is the Pelican State, and California is the Golden State. But did you know they are also the Calymene Trilobite State, the Petrified Palm State, and the Saber-Toothed Tiger State?

Most states also have a state fossil, named for a fossil plant or animal found within their borders. Alaska calls itself the Woolly Mammoth State (of course it does!), and Colorado claims the Stegosaurus. Some states far away from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have state marine fossils named for their ancient inland sea denizens: Kansas is the Tylosaurus State, that mostly desert state, Nevada, is the Ichthyosaur State, and Missouri owns the name Crinoid Sea Lily as its state fossil. Several seaside states claim ocean-dwelling fossils for their states as well: North Carolina is the Megladon Shark Tooth State, Alabama is the Basilosauarus State and has a fossilized skeleton of the early whale hanging over the great hall in their Museum of Natural History. Several states claim some kind of dinosaur: Utah is the Allosaurus State, and South Dakota is the Triceratops State.

Young fossil hunters and geographical trivia fanciers will find Yinan Wang's The 50 State Fossils: A Guidebook for Aspiring Paleontologists (Schiffer Publishing, 2018) full of fascinating fossils. But this lively illustrated handbook is more than a gee-whiz look at geographical lore for the fifty states.

Scientist Wang explains what fossils are and the different processes (premineralization, mineral replacement, carbonization and original remains preserved in tar or amber) by which they are formed and also offers a run-through of the terminology of time (eons, eras, and epochs) and taxonomy (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) as background information for middle readers in understanding the paleontology of the United States.. There is a useful appendix--Glossary, Places to See Fossils, bibliography (Further Reading), and Index, including states and scientific terms. With color photographs and illustrative drawings by Jane Levy, this one is great for student doing science and geography research projects and browsers as well, and belongs in libraries serving elementary and middle school students.

Pedaling Peddlers! Bikes for Sale by Carter Higgins

THEY WERE NEW ONCE!

At the Bike Shop Maurice has invested in a bright yellow bike cart and pedals off to sell his wares, collecting the best lemons from the grove along the way. He stops at the grocery for a sack of sugar and is soon pedaling and peddling his tall glasses of refreshing lemonade in the perfect spot, not too close to the Snack Bar, where the customers are.

Lotta picks a bright red bike and sets out to collect sticks along the muddy trails in the woods. It seems that her friends can find many uses for some hand-picked (shall we say, artisan sticks)--throwing-sticks for pups, stilts, pretend dueling swords, and limbo poles to slither under.

But Maurice and Lotta feel the urge to move on... and SMASH! and CRASH! Accidents will happen, and both bikes are wrecked!

Maurice and Lotta have to log their miles on foot, with sneakers for Maurice, and galoshes for Lotta.

BUT SNEAKERS WEREN'T AS FAST AS RUBBER TIRES, AND GALOSHES WEREN'T GOOD FOR CLIMBING.

It's an unsatisfactory substitution for both. They miss their wheels!

But then, enter Sid.

SID KNEW ALL ABOUT BIKES.

Where there's a will, there's a way, and with Sid on the job, the rescued parts of Maurice's and Lotta's bikes are some transformed into a nifty tandem bike--a bicycle re-built, re-purposed, and NEW for TWO! And...

... It's on the road again for the two new partners, in Carter Higgins bright new Bikes for Sale (Chronicle Books, 2019), and Maurice and Lotta are back in business at their new location with new products and new friends. Author Higgins constructs a crafty tale of two entrepreneurs who recycle their rides, with his own partner, artist Zachariah OHora creating jolly illustrations which help to tell the story. What's was old is now new, in a jolly picture book that finds friendship and makes something happy from a mishap!

Back to School! Ready Or Not, Woolbur Goes to School! by Leslie Helakoski

It's the first day of school, and little Woolbur is up for it!

"I can dress myself and fix my wool!"

"No one else will look like you," said Maa.

"Your wool is a little unusual," said Paa.

"I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

With his wool in something like wild dreadlocks, Woolbur is more than ready to take on Barnyard Elementary. His confidence is overwhelming. When the other piglets and puppies and little llamas struggle to to paint houses and snowmen, Woolbur's painting is clearly avant garde abstractionist.

"We can't tell if it's upside down or right side up," said Dog.

"I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

When it's time to wash up after art, Llama laments that there are so many of them at the sink. Woolbur replies that that's great! Goat grouches that grass tastes different in the school cafeteria. Woolbur agrees and adds that that's great. Donkey does not like the noisy new games on the playground. Pig objects to riding the bus home.

"It's filled with kids I don't know," said Pig.

I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

With the exception of James Dean's Pete the Cat's Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, most well-known back-to-school stories deal with fears of the unknown, but in Leslie Helakoski's Ready or Not, Woolbur Goes to School! (Harper, 2018), her popular woolly character is an unusual first-time student who immediately embraces the newness of everything there.

Woolbur is a far-from-sheepish little lamb who loves novelty, a gung-ho little character who humorously flips the trope of the fearful school newbie and whose ebullient style gives youngsters an appreciation of the positive side of new experiences. As Pete the Cat would say, "It's all good!" Helakoski's use of Woolbur's repeated take on the unexpected will bring some laughs, and noted artist Lee Harper milks Woolbur's enthusiastic embrace of everything for all it's worth in her vibrant, full-bleed illustrations. "In a long list of appealing back-to-school books, this one really makes the grade," puns School Library Journal.

Pounce! Max Attacks by Kathi Appelt

Max is a cute kitty, with four soft little paws.
But at the end of each paw are five sharp little claws.

And Max know just what to do with them...

MAX ATTACKS!

IN A BOWL OF WATER BRIMMING...

FISHES! LOTS OF FISHES SWIMMING.

But just as Max get poised to plunge a clawed paw...

Wait! Is that a lizard on the window? Max whirls away from the fish bowl and leaps, landing spreadeagled on the window screen.

The family watchdog stops the attack, but cannot save the window plant as they both come down. Max leaps away Scot free, while the dog is tagged for the downed drapes.

MAX, ONE.
DOG, NONE.

Max's claws may be retractable,
But Max himself is quite distractible.

Max unhooks each claw from the screen and goes back to the fish bowl. But just as he's about to snag a fish, his toy catnip birdie on a string flaps by! He pounces, his claws penetrate, but the birdie swoops away into the dirty clothes basket. Max turns on a dime. That bird won't escape this time. Hey! Max is the predator. This is what his claws are for!

UP! UP! UH-OH!

WHERE DID THAT BIRDIE GO?

Oh, there it is, in the dirty clothes basket! And what are those stinky things in the basket? Ooooh!
Socks rock! Max pounces.

SOCKS, NONE.

MAX, NINETY-ONE!

Full of bravado, Max goes back to the fish bowl.

The fish are swimming, still accessible.
This time will Max's attack be successful?

Or will little Max wind up all wet? Suffice it to say, for Kathi Appelt's latest, Max Attacks (Atheneum Books, 2019), no goldfish were harmed in the production of this picture book. Despite his prowess at attacks and his claw-ful paws, kitten Max fails as a carnivore but succeeds as a charmer, in the Newbery-winning Appelt's adorable rhyming cat tale for young readers, while illustrator Penelope Dullaghan creates an irresistibly lovable striped kitty who switches his twitchy tale, licks his small whiskers, and pauses before pouncing like any proper kitten would do. With its big bold illustrations shown from varying prospectives and its intriguing rhymes, this one is the cat's pajamas for reading aloud to one or a group. Puns Kirkus Reviews, "Max's actions should win plenty of accolades: Max, a million; readers a million-plus."  More Max, Ms. Appelt!

Kathi Appelt was the winner of a John Newbery Medal for her brilliant middle-grade novel, The Underneath (See my review here.)

Surf Pup: Spot Goes to the Beach by Eric Hill

Spot the pup has mastered swimming! By now the swimming pool is old school.

Spot is ready to move up--to the BEACH!

Some of the rules of the pool are the same as those for the beach. Sun screen is important, and sunglasses and a sun hat are a big help. A shovel and sand pail are great for making sand castles, and a floatie can be fun for a rookie, but soon Spot is ready to move up to his little surfboard.

"THIS IS FUN!

LOOK AT ME, MOM"

Spot manages to stand up on his surf board long enough to show Mom, and then he shows her how to fall off his board, too. Luckily, Spot has all summer to practice his technique, but...

Right now it's time for a picnic, in Eric Hill's sun-and-surf-filled board book, Spot Goes to the Beach(Putnam, 2019), which introduces preschoolers to all the activities in some sunny fun times by the sea.

When Daddy Comes Home! My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero

My papi has a motorcycle.

When I hear his gray truck pull into our driveway, I run outside with both of our helmets.

Papi is careful with my ponytail as he pulls my helmet tight.

Daisy feels so special, her arms wrapped around her father's chest, toodling around town, startling the cats and making dogs bark. They zoom past her grandmother's church and the market, where she exchanges nods with the librarian, and she waves at her grandparents in their front yard. Her friend calls out to her as she rolls past.

"DAISY!"

She looks sadly at the shop, now closed, where she and Papi used to stop for fruit-flavored ices, but as they head for home, there is a happy surprise!-- a fruit ices seller's cart with her favorite flavor, right in front of their house.

Time with Dad is special, in Isabel Quintero's portrait of family life in a friendly town, My Papi Has a Motorcycle (Penguin Books, 2019), so poignantly evoked in the warm and detailed illustrations of artist Zeke Pena. Sharing experiences is one of the many ways to be a good dad, and Pena's detailed and joyful illustrations make feelings between parent and child come alive. Says Booklist's starred review, "A heartwarming story that centers joy in the midst of looming change."

Watch Out forThose Black Holes! Llama Destroys the World by Jonathan Stutzman

"I AM LLAMA!" LLAMA PROCLAIMED. (on Friday)

That's pretty tough talk, but on Monday all Llama does is eat cake, lots of cake.

THAT WAS HIS FIRST MISTAKE (one that leads to the Ultimate Doom of Everything.)

On Tuesday Llama is more rotund than before, but he is still determined to struggle into his dancing pants, now too tight.

That is not a great idea, either, since the pants are bound to rip--an unfortunate event which leads to the Cosmic Vibrations which lead to ... A Rip in the Fabric of the Universe!

Llama should have consulted Einstein first!

It's into a Black Hole by Friday, for the world and Llama and all, in Jonathan Stutzman's loony llama tale of a doozy of a disaster. But not to worry--all's well that ends with everything back in place by Saturday, thanks to illustrator Heather Fox, who puts Llama and and the rest of the cosmos back in place where it all started, this time with no cake! But, Wait! Is that pie? Don't tell Llama! Oh, NO!

There are a plenty of funny sight gags and a double-page blackout during the unfortunate black hole event, to keep kids giggling in this first book by husband and wife team Stutzman and Fox, Llama Destroys the World (Henry Holt and Company, 2019).  "Dessert has never seemed so epic." says, Publishers Weekly's starred review.

Cravin' a Kraken? Ginny Goblin Cannot Have A Monster for A Pet by David Goodner

Ginny Goblin wants a goat. Several goats, actually.

Her parents are not pleased.

Goats are kind of stinky, and it's a lot of work to take care of them.

Maybe if we can help Ginny Goblin find a pet, she'll stop trying to herd goats through the house.

Ginny's on it in a nano-second, with a bear collar, a huge net, and, uh, an armored tank? Not exactly what her parents have in mind.

Maybe a trip to the beach will inspire her to adopt a teeny-tiny tropical fish or may hap a lovable and low-maintenance hermit crab?

But no. Ginny goes overboard for an aquatic pet. She commandeers a mini-sub on a mission to capture the dreaded tentacled Kraken.

No way, Ginny! Perhaps in those daisy-covered hills she'll fall for a furry little bunny?

Hey! Wait! Ginny! Don't go down in that dank, dark cave and wake up a dragon!

Dragons eat cows in a single bite. Dragons are even crankier than krakens!

Her parents drag Ginny out of the cave just in time to avoid being barbequed by dragon breath and take her into the woods, hoping that she'll become enamored of a small-ish bird. But Ginny gets busy building a trap.

She should not catch a basilisk in her trap.

Basilisks turn everything they look at into stone, and they won't use the litter box.

What's with this penchant for mythical beasts? But now Ginny boards a rocket ship to adopt a space alien! Better abort that mission!

But wait! what's that she's cuddling in her arms? A baby goat? Whew!

Goats don't wrap people in tentacles, or fry the neighbors with fiery breath, or even turn them into marble monuments!

Goats even eat all the weeds in the yard.

A baby goat is not a monster.

Now if they can just keep Ginny Goblin from taking her goat to bed, in David Goodner's tale of a critter-loving tot, Ginny Goblin Cannot Have a Monster for a Pet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Picking a (suitable) pet is an important part of childhood, and Ginny's penchant for unsuitable pets makes for a jolly "can I keep him" story for preschoolers and especially for savvy primary graders whose mania for monsters extends to the folkloric.

In the artwork of illustrator Louis Thomas, Ginnie Goblin is a cutie, with her greenish skin and little red overalls, endearing in her enthusiasm for exotic creatures. Goodner's and Thomas's first book together is Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box. (see my 2018 review here)

See the Wet Set! Alphaprints: Sea Life by Jo Ryan, et al

Alphaprints goes down deep to see who's in the sea!

GREAT WHITE SHARK IS GREATLY FEARED.

HAMMERHEAD SHARK LOOKS VERY WEIRD!

Bud somehow, when Priddy Books does the great white shark's face in blue fingerprint style, he doesn't look so scary. And in this wet-set entry in the Alphaprints series, young readers get to meet some familiar denizens of the deep--the clown fish (a la Nemo)--the dolphin, and crab, and some more unusual ones--the narwal, squid, and moray eel. Also found inside are octopuses, sea lions, lobsters, starfish and stingrays.

All twenty ocean animals are standouts set against bright white board book pages in cheery and reasonably realistic images that will introduce preschoolers to these more well-known forms of sea animals common to aquariums--a good preparation for a summer visit--in Roger Priddy's Alphaprints Sea Life (St. Martin's Press/Priddy Books, 2018), created by Jo Ryan, Ella Boultwood, Penny Worms, and Amy Oliver. With rhyme and rhythm and touchy-feely textures, this sturdy little board book is a treat for visual and tactile experience.

A Glimpse of the Magic: The Lost Boy's Gift by Kimberly Willis Holt

There are places where you want to go and places where you want to leave. Sometimes you have no choice in the matter. This was the case for a boy named Daniel.

Daniel is moving, to a smaller house in a smaller town, and he can't take all his favorite things along. His world is shrinking.

He didn't take Snappy the Snail, but he packed his rock collection, his slingshot and skateboard.  He packed the sailboat his dad had given him, promising to find a pond to sail it in together. But he couldn't take his dad along. He had already moved somewhere else.

He packed the only book worth reading, Peter Pan.

But riding his bike down While-A-Way Lane he spots a lemonade stand that says CLOSED FOR SPRING BREAK, a pond where he could sail a boat, and a woman with a big, shaggy dog, talking to something in the grass. She says it's a grass snake, named Isadora.

And that's how he meets Tilda Butter, who nervously gives a spider a spot of tea and a crumb of toasted biscuit with jam as he chats about how his web captured a grasshopper hungrily eyeing Tilda's hosta's big green leaves.

"Yes, indeed," said Spider. You got to keep your perfect hosta and I got a nutritious meal. One must eat one's greens."

With a woman like Tilda to introduce him to the hidden magic of While-A-Way Lane, Daniel comes to see things in Falling Star Valley with new eyes. Tilda lets him walk her big dog Fred, and introduces him to some simple magic like mulch piles that transform garbage into rich dirt and the Woof Woof Wafers that make lay Fred into an obedient dog. He meets the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, Lemonade Girl, Tilda's friends Zip and Zap the squirrel brothers, and dodges the stern-looking piano teacher who pretends to play a shiny saxophone by her window every night. And he discovers the fireflies that swarm over the pond like a cloud of little stars.

Slowly the magic of While-A-Way Lane becomes visible, and when in his new school Daniel gets to play a Lost Boy in the school play Peter Pan, he finds himself an actor, playing a part, because he's not really lost anymore. He's home.

There are said to be people who work magic, and then there are those who can see and feel it, and Tilda Butter is that person for Daniel. Far from the place and people he knows, life had lost its magic and a lost boy needs a woman who talks with snakes and snails to help him find it again, in Kimberley Willis Holt's latest, The Lost Boy's Gift Henry Holt and Company, 2019. Sometimes life loses its sheen and it takes a guide to learn to see it again, and author Holt's novels are always guides to help find the way back to life's magic. Says the Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books, "Holt’s whimsical narrative moves between Daniel’s struggles in his new life, Tilda’s reflections on her old one, and the critters and community that surround them both. . . A smart, hopeful perspective of life on any lane."

Kimberly Willis Holt is the National Book Award-winning author of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town and the noted My Louisiana Sky

Meta-What? The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burdach

Caterpillar #1: "Hey! What are you doing?"

Caterpillar #2: "We're going to metamorphosize... transform into butterflies."

Caterpillar #1: "Right. Right. I knew that. WAIT! Meta-WHAT!

You're telling me I can become a butterfly?"

Caterpillar #2 patiently points out that that's what caterpillars DO. They spin a chrysalis around their little many-legged bodies and metamorphose into six-legged, winged butterflies.

At first Caterpillar #1 can't get the hang of that spinning thing, but finally he manages to make himself a fairly decent chrysalis hanging side by side with his buddy. He's excited. Is he meta-whated yet? Caterpillar #2 patiently explains that it takes a couple of weeks and patience to change into a butterfly.

"TWO WEEKS??"

Can he go get a comic book to read? What if he needs a potty break? What if he gets hungry? He pulls out his phone.

"Hello? Two pizzas, please.

My address? A chrysalis.

Hello? Hellooo?"

Halfway though Day 1, Caterpillar #1 is going stir crazy.

There's nothing to do in there and he's getting claustrophobic! Surely he's done by now! KA-POW! He rips off his chrysalis, Superman-style.

WAIT! Where are my wings?

But Mother Nature takes her time, and Caterpillar #1 returns to his chrysalis and decides it's time for mind over matter. OMMMMM!

"Become One with the Chrysalis."

There's nothing for it but to go with the flow, in Ross Burdach's preternaturally funny The Very Impatient Caterpillar (Scholastic Press, 2019).  It's a picture book that has it all, a slice of primary-grade nature science, terrific comic art, and a bit of  a life lesson in patience. Burdach's quirky back-and-forth banter makes this one a dandy read-aloud in the best tradition of Darleen Cronin's classic Diary of a Worm and Tedd Arnold's Hi! Fly Guy,. Burdach's clever cartooning chops make this one a laugh-out-loud delight, one that will engage sophisticated story-time-savvy second and third graders, who will also find this one the bee's knees for reading solo.

Keeping Your Cool! Summer by Wenxuan Cao

IN SUMMER, THE GRASSLANDS ARE PARCHED.

THE ANIMALS SEEK SHELTER FROM THE SUN.

Their only respite seems to be a distant tree, but as all--Elephant, Rhino, Bear, Leopard, Jackal, Lynx, and Mouse--race toward the tree, they stir up choking dust.

When they finally reach the tree, they all fight to get under it. Being the largest, Elephant quickly stakes out his place right under the tree.

"NO FAIR!" ALL THE ANIMALS SHOUT. "WE GOT HERE FIRST!"

But as the others gather to glare at Elephant from some distance, the truth becomes clear. The tree has only a few tiny leaves, and Elephant, under his shadeless tree, is just as hot as they are. The animal begin to laugh at Elephant and then at themselves. And then they notice a couple of figures making their way across the dusty grassland--a man and a small boy. But...

THE FATHER'S SHADOW COMPLETELY COVERS THE SMALL BOY.

Suddenly the animals are ashamed. Soon the Lynx invites the little mouse to sit in his shade. Jackal moves next to the two and shades them both. Sheepishly, the rest of the animals in turn--Leopard, Bear, Rhino, and finally... Elephant--take their place, providing shade for the rest of them.

And prophetically, a small cloud drifts by and stays to shade them all, even Elephant, in Cao Wenxuan's Summer (Imprint, 2019), lyrically written little parable of sharing scarce resources. Artist Yu Rong adds paintings, both evocatively warm and lovely, that extend the narration beautifully. Writes Publisher's Weekly, "An exquisitely calibrated fable, with a lyrically plainspoken voice, a vivid sense of atmosphere, and deftly choreographed moments of high drama and humor."

Dino Hunters: How to Catch a Dinosaur by Adam Wallace

TOMORROW'S THE BIG SCIENCE FAIR.

WE'VE NEVER WON BEFORE, BUT THIS YEAR, I CANNOT LOSE!

You can't fault this kid for not having some BIG dreams. As a hunter, he's gone after some exotic creatures--a mermaid, unicorn, leprechaun, elf, a monster, a dragon, and even..., yes, The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy.. But this time, it's for SCIENCE, and he's going after the ultimate catch--a DINOSAUR.

Dinosaurs have been described as huge, fierce, and carnivorous They have also been described as extinct!   But this kid doesn't buy that story! He's a full-blown dino extinction denier.

And besides, he and his friends have a plentitude of plans for this big game hunt. After all, they know all about dinosaurs! They try setting out a tasty meaty bait, but the dino bypasses the easy bite.

LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A PLANT EATER!

But one dino trap after another fails to capture this mighty--volcano deadfalls and power machinery with potent pulleys, their Robohugger 9000.

SHE SHOULD BE CALLED T. WRECKS!

It's back to the old drawing board, for our intrepid hunter and for intrepid author Adam Wallace and illustrator Andy Elkerton, in their latest in their How To series, How to Catch a Dinosaur (Sourcebooks/Wonderland, 2019). It seems as long as there are big beasts and magical creatures to catch, our boy will be game for the big game hunt and young readers will keep on chuckling at his efforts. See other funny books by Adam Wallace here.

Dogs Do It All! My Dog Laughs by Rachel Isadora

Warning: If you absolutely, positively don't want a dog--ever--you will after you read this book.

There's nothing more appealing than preschoolers and puppies (except perhaps toddlers and kittens), and noted Caldecott author Rachel Isadora takes prospective dog fanciers through the whole process--meeting, naming, and sharing life with a dog who likes to do what you do--and may even look like you when you smile.

The good thing about dogs is that they like almost anything you do with them--watching TV, doing homework, following you to the bathroom, and sharing beds, yours or theirs!

Dogs may not exactly adore dog training, but they learn to do what a good dog does--sitting, staying, and not jumping on people.

Every dog is different and every dog is adorable in Rachel Isadora's My Dog Laughs (Nancy Paulsen Books/Random House, 2018). Get ready to smile as author Isadora gets right down to the minutiae and delights of dog ownership. Her not-quite-ready-for-prime-time pups have accidents on the rug, chew shoes, shred the toilet paper, and when it's handy, drink from the toilet, too.

My dog eats worms.

My dog barks at skateboarders.

My dog cries... when I leave.

Isadora's charming young dogs also play catch, dig holes in the sand at the beach, and love their kid even when he strikes out. They comfort sick and sad kids, help sing "Happy Birthday," and when they laugh... who can resist them!

Artist Isadora's smallish black-line illustrations of all kinds of dogs, set spot-art style along with simple text are filled with humor and the magic of the bond between dogs and their humans. Says School Library Journal's starred review, "This charming work deserves a spot in all libraries."

What If? Sign Off by Steven Savage

What do graphic signs do when the moon rises?

Swathed in darkness, with no built-in lighting, those familiar black-on-yellow caution signs--Deer Crossing, Tractor Crossing, Wheelchair Crossing, Children Playing, Men Working, School Zone--could take on a life of their own. Does the deer stretch for a nibble at the roadside trees? Does the farmer use his tractor to plow some new ground? Do the playing children swing higher under the moon? Do they rearrange the fulcrum of the seesaw to construct a clever catapult and propel the yellow circle from the red-yellow-green stoplight sign into the sky as a pro tem sun?

In a flight of creative fantasy author-illustrator Stephen Savage imagines what those iconic characters do when no one is watching. Author Savage shows how those classic black figures of the running boy, the scampering deer, and those laboring men take a break and socialize when they are off duty, while artist Savage's striking graphic figures break free of their boring yellow backgrounds. Wheelchair Guy slaloms over curvy car roofs and Men Working sculpt edifices with their shovels, while that trudging School Zone schoolboy plucks blooms for a pleased schoolgirl, and then, under a lovely lilac and lavender pre-dawn sky, all cooperate to help the sun rise.

In Steven Savage's newest, Sign Off (Simon and Schuster, 2019), his distinctive graphic style will serve to help introduce pre-emergent readers to road signs, while older youngsters will chuckle as those famous static images from familiar signs take on a life of their own. It's a tour de force of fancy and art, almost impossible to resist. "This is a must-buy for any elementary or juvenile collections," states School Library Journal.

Hard Lessons! Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head by Nancy Viau

"Aaargh! Samantha Hansen! Get your stupid rocks out of here. I want them gone!"

It's just Jen, my big sister. Jen likes to boss people around. So what if I'm ten years old? I don't need a boss who's fifteen. I rush to the bathroom to make sure Jen didn't touch my rocks.

"Rocks can't be stupid!" I yell back to Jen. "They don't have brains!" I peek inside the egg carton. They were touched, all right.

"Sam!" Mom calls from down the hall. "Stop yelling!" Jen does her eye-roll thing--and grins. My sister loves when I get in trouble.

I know my mouth has a mind of its own. I can't help it.

Sam admits that she has rocks on her head most of the time. She loves their different textures and colors, she loves that some can even be fluorescent under special lights, and she loves being the expert on rocks in her class. Her special rock assortment is carefully nestled in its egg carton and she's hoping her teacher will give her an A+ on her science project. She's even planned a production on fluorescent minerals with special lights that show off their glow-in-the-dark properties for her entry in the grade-level talent show. But her temper sometimes gets ahead of her.

And then Mom has a big announcement--a mini-vacation to the Grand Canyon.

"It would be good for you and me and Jen to get away. Just us girls," Mom says. "But you have to learn to put a lid on that temper of yours."

The Grand Canyon is like a dream come true for a rock scientist like me. I'm going to need a very tight lid. And quite possibly a different sister.

It's a rocky week for Sam, trying hard to control her angry words, but she and Jen pull off a surprise early birthday party that softens Mom's mood, and at last they are there, actually hiking with backpacks together down Bright Angel Trail!

The canyon is huge! The rock layers sit on top of each other like Mom's layered cake, but here each layer is a different kind of rock The colors bounce off my eyeballs. Maybe I'll find a rare mammoth fossil named for me.

Sam's petrological knowledge impresses their guide Chad, and she sparkles like a mica specimen when he asks her to be his assistant. But that night in their camp, Sam is awakened by her mom. Jen is missing, and Mom needs help finding her sister in the dark at the foot of the canyon, and in the course of that stormy night Sam uncovers a lot about her Mom and how her Dad died suddenly, and even how much she cares about her sister.

In Nancy Viau's Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head (Schiffer Publishing, 2019), Sam learns a lot about the science of geology, but, to her surprise, something about human psychology, too--that feelings are like rocks--there's often a lot about them buried below the surface. There's a lot to learn out there, and the likable Samantha Larsen is about to learn how to dig it all. Viau's page-turning middle-reader novel is what Beverly Cleary called "funny-sad," a chunk of real family life, with its everyday conflicts and its victories, and, as rock lovers might put it, it's a really gneiss summer read! And readers should keep their eyes out on the trail for Nancy Viau's Samantha sequel, Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen, forthcoming August 28, 2019.

School Daze! Five Little Monkeys Shopping for School by Eileen Christelow

"Stick with me," Mama says, "and don't go wandering off."

Mama issues her marching orders and sets off with her five little monkeys to shop for new school clothes in what turns out to be an impromptu back-to-school review of basic number facts as well.

Things start to get complicated as one little monkey wanders off into the toys and books department. When Mama counts heads, she comes up with 5 - 4 = 1 missing monkey! Before rounding up the missing monkey, Mama firmly issues an order to the remaining four to try on the clothes while she finds her missing monkey.

"AND DON'T GO WANDERING OFF."

By the time Mama brings back the missing monkey, however, two of the four have gotten thirsty and gone out to find a drink. Mama's count: 1 monkey back, 2 monkeys trying on clothes = 3. Now 5 - 3 = 2 missing monkeys. Mama orders the three to stay put!

But as Mama tries to locate her two little missing monkeys, one of the three monkeys takes a potty break and the remaining two hook up with old classmates. Meanwhile, other Papa Monkeys and Grandma Monkeys are looking for their little missing monkeys, too, and the math problems look like a homework page. 7 - 3 = 4? 5 - 4 = 1?

At last the saleslady has to make an announcement on the loudspeaker.

"Will ALL the little monkeys who are missing mamas, papas, sisters, and brothers please come to the children's clothing department RIGHT NOW!"

With her own five monkeys and their brand-new school wardrobes finally in hand, Mama herds her brood toward the car, not noticing that one little monkey is inviting a friend to come along home to play. When Mama pulls out of the parking lot, she discovers she has a new problem: 5 little monkeys + 1 more little monkey = TOO MANY MONKEYS!

In its revised board book edition, Five Little Monkeys Shopping for School (A Five Little Monkeys Story) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), with its good-natured but harried Mama and those effervescent little monkeys, is just in time for back-to-school shopping.

Different But Together!: If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano

If you were the winter
and I was the spring
I’d call you whisper
and you’d call me sing.

Some things that are different go together, like sun and rain, oceans and boats, silence and sound, fireflies and dark, and even apples and worms!

And in the noted author poet Julie Fogliano's latest, If I Was the Sunshine (Atheneum Books, 2019), both nature and the concepts of alike and different  come together in opposite but complementary pairing as the subjects of her charming quatrains, simple verses which bring together unlike elements of nature in definite but delightfully arresting pairings.

If I were a bird
and you were a tree--
I'd call you home,
and you'd call me free!

Fogliano, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats' Award, writes poetry that is simple, but not simplistic, introducing youngsters to a depth of meaning that feels both right and surprising, logical, but moving, and with the help of the notable Caldecott artist Loren Long's lovely illustrations, this little poetry book has a lot to say about the rightness of the natural world. As School Library Journal sums it up, "The dance of words and pictures is lovely . . .."

Shakeup? Shakedown? Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up by Dave Eggers

The curtain has gone up...

and so have the actors, apparently. Abner and Ian are sideways, perpendicular to the earth, itself a vague silhouette on the backdrop.

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

"Can't you see? We're sideways!"

Yes, Dear Reader, it's happened again. You have opened a meta-book, one of those interactive volumes where the characters expect you to do all of the work.

"We can ask that kid," suggests Abner.

"Hey, Kid! Do us a favor. Shake the book, then turn the page!"

Well, they're not stuck on the side of the page anymore. Now they are suspended from the top.

Ian is dubious about the efficacy of under-aged plot movers, but he's getting too woozy to argue.

Luckily, Abner is an experienced reader. He's cites that story where the author tells you to shake the book, and when you do everything is fixed. Ian says he's familiar with the genre, and after some banter, the two manage to cooperate on the cue.

NOW!

Nope! The Kid cooperates, but each shake seems to make things worse. Abner and Ian find themselves joined at the hip in the book's center seam. How do they get out of the gutter? More shakes find them disambiguated and discombobulated. It's time to try something different.

"Kid? Can you turn out the light and count to ten? We'll meet you on page 76."

And finally, Abner and Ian, feet planted on terra firma, should be ready to start the story, in Dave Eggers' latest theater of the absurd picture book, Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). But will they? Now Abner and Ian need a nap! All they need is for someone to close the book and make it be nice and dark in there. The End.

In this latest, a sort of spoof of Herve' Tullet's graphic metabooks such as Press Here Game and Mix It Up (Interactive Books for Toddlers, Learning Colors for Toddlers, Preschool and Kindergarten Reading Books) and Bill Cotter's Don't Push the Button! and sequels, artist Laura Park lets the illustrations tell the meta-story with some charm and wry humor. This one is a fun read-aloud for grown-ups (who will appreciate some sophisticated asides planted for them by the author) and especially for youngsters who cut their literary teeth on Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggy early reader series. Says Booklist, "A mind changer for anyone who every thought reading was a sedate occupation!"

Re-Writing Little Red: I Am So Clever by Mario Ramos

It's a sunny day in the forest. A hungry wolf is lurking behind a tree, feeling a bit peckish, when he spots a petite child dressed all in red, tripping along with a basket.

"Hello, my dear! How fine you look!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Wolf!" she replied cheerfully.

Mr. Wolf is already salivating and formulating his dining plans for the day. He only needs to delay Little Red Riding Hood briefly....

"I am so clever! I'll be having a feast today.

Grandmother for the main course, and this little raspberry for dessert!" he gloated to himself.

But Little Red fails to fall for his faux warning about ravenous sharks in the woods.

"Oh, come on! Everyone knows there are no sharks in the woods."

But Little Red seems persuaded that her Granny would love it if she picked a bouquet of posies for her, so leaving her choosing some blooms, Mr. Wolf streaks through the trees to Granny's cottage, prepared to gobble her down without a personal introduction. But Granny is not in residence, so Mr. Wolf invites himself in. The first thing he sees is Granny's ruffled pink nightgown spread out on her bed, and in glee Mr. Wolf makes a quick change in his meal plans.

"Aha! An even better idea! The little cherry for the first course...

... the grandmother for dessert!"

All Mr. Wolf has to do is squeeze into Granny's gown and hop in bed to ambush the little appetizer. But first, the wolf, encased like a sausage in the pink nightie, decides to hustle outside to conceal his paw prints on the path.

It's meal time and the perfect crime--a two-for-one special!

But outside there's a virtual parade of passersby going down the path, and Mr. Wolf has no choice but to impersonate Granny for the hunter who's dropped his glasses, three little pigs playing chase, seven dwarfs hi-ho-ing their way down the path for a summer swim, and the gallant Marquis Montresor, who reigns in his stallion to ask directions to the castle where he plans to wake a sleeping princess. At last Mr. Wolf spots Little Red approaching with a fistful of daisies. Ah-ha! Time for a bite of brunch!

But, hoist by his own petard, Mr. Wolf's feet gets tangled in his ruffled disguise and he falls flat as he lunges for Little Red. THUD!

"I've bwoken all my teeff! And I'm twapped in diff terrible dweff!"

It looks like Mr. Wolf will NOT be snacking on the catch of the day after all, in Mario Ramos' parody of Little Red Riding Hood, his just published I Am So Clever (Gecko Press, 2019). Artist Ramos' perky protagonist gets the best of the would-be wolfish predator (who may be begging some pureed porridge for dinner from the Three Bears) in a clever comic comeuppance in this funny fractured folk tale of just desserts. Says Booklist's starred review, "a delightful and fresh retelling, a worthy addition to the fractured fairy tale canon."