Keeping Control: Strike Zone by Mike Lupica

Nick Garcia had grown up almost in the actual shadow of the old Yankee Stadium and in the virtual shadow of his idol, Yankee pitcher Michael Arroyo. Now Nick is twelve years old, and in his last summer of Little League ball with his team. Coach Vierra tells him that he believes Nick throws harder and faster than Arroyo at his age.

"I saw Michael play in Little League. Heard the sound the ball made in the catcher's glove. The sound you make is louder."

Nick dreams of his team as the champions of the Dream League and himself as Most Valuable Player, getting to throw out the ball at Yankee Stadium. The pressure is on. In his league there's a kid named Benny who's hitting home runs in every game, and rival pitcher Eric Dobbs is throwing a lot of fastball strikes, too.

Nick knows he can throw heat. But being a winning pitcher comes down to one thing. Control.

But controlling his pitches are only part of what it's going to take. His parents are undocumented immigrants from the Dominican Republic, each working two jobs, and his older sister has lupus, requiring frequent trips to urgent care. The family is used to tight money, but when his father is swept up by an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent and jailed, Nick has to deal with the very real fear that his parents may be deported and he and his sister, as U.S. citizens, will be forced to remain behind with foster parents or leave home and go with his mom and dad back to the Dominican Republic. Nick knows that he has to stay in control of his own emotions--for his parents' sake and for his team's chance to share the Dream League trophy.

Keeping cool under pressure is one theme of top-selling sports novelist Mike Lupica's Strike Zone (Philomel Books, 2019). But Lupica's narration also portrays the support and cooperation it takes to maintain family unity and team support. Nick gets by with the humor and help from his best friends Ben and Diego, his sister, his coach, the strength of his mother and father, and the help of strangers, including his idol Michael Arroyo. Lupica's game-play writing is, as always, taut and authentic, but the winning season story is matched with the drama of a threatened family and the community who supports them, making this middle grade novel more than just another "big game" story. A follow-up to Lupica's hit, Heat, this one stresses that, although natural talent goes a long way, keeping strong and in control goes all the way.

Says Kirkus in their starred review, "Lupica skillfully addresses the timely and complicated topic of living as the child of undocumented immigrants and the uncertainty facing many American families. This exceptional baseball novel delivers both lively sports action and critical subject matter."

What's Not to Love? Angelina Loves by Helen Craig

Angelina loves dancing with her friends.

But dancing isn't the only thing Angelina loves....

In fact, Angelina loves doing things with her friend Alice--riding the Ferris wheel and visiting the Haunted House at the fair, watching Alice do handstands, and riding their bikes together--even if some of the country roads get a little bit too bumpy....!

CRASH!

And Angelina loves it when her best friend Alice takes the time to teach Angelina's little cousin Henry how to try out ice skates with them. And when Sammy and Spike interfere with their day, Angelina learns to love skating with the boys when they show them how to do tricks and skate backwards.

It's all better together, and Angelina loves her family best of all--all of them--Henry, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and even though she's sometimes a little jealous of her little sister, Angelina loves Polly, too. In Helen Craig's appropriately pink little Valentine's card to her Angelina fans, Angelina Loves (Angelina Ballerina) (Simon Spotlight, 2019), Craig's charming new Angelina story adds another entry to the Angelina series (read reviews here), sweetly illustrated in holiday colors by artist Katharine Holobird, perfect for a Valentine's a Day gifting.

Feathered Friend! Hello, Crow! by Candace Savage

Franny sat on her favorite rock and started to eat her lunch.

Crumbs went flying, but... she was too busy watching the big black bird coming toward her. He looked at the crumbs...

Closer he hopped. "Hello, Crow," she whispered. "I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

The crow fixed one round eye as Franny and gave her a little nod.

Back home Franny told her dad about her friend, the big beautiful bird who shared her lunch,

Dad called her story "featherbrained!"

"You know as well as I do that you can't have a crow for friend."

But the next day Franny makes a lunch with an extra sandwich for the crow. And just as she is about to give up, he appears and bows to her.

From then on, every day was full of surprises.

Her friend the crow brings her gifts every day--an interesting rock, a red bead, a green pebble, and a tiny silver heart--leaving them on Franny's favorite rock. But when she tells her dad, he scoffs at the idea that she can be friends with a a crow.

"I don't know where you got all this trash," he says, "but this silliness must stop."

But when Franny takes Dad to the rock, the crow comes and perches on her head, giving her dad a beady eye, and happily in Candace Savage's Hello, Crow (Greystone Kids, 2019), Dad apologizes and admits that he has to appreciate his smart little featherhead and her friend the crow. Describing the sort of behavior and intelligence that animal behaviorists have observed in crows, Candace Savage celebrates an intriguing cross-species friendship, illustrated appealingly in Chelsea O'Byrne' artwork.

Says Kirkus, "A gift for the nature shelf."

Wee Wordsmiths Wanted! Bigger Words for Little Geniuses by Susan and James Patterson

An ailurophile is likely to have a chasmophilous pet!

Ailurophile - an adorer of cats.

Chasmophilous - creatures who love to squeeze into nooks and crannies

If you have a cat or kitten who loves to squeeze himself into boxes or shoes, you are an ailurophile with a chasmophilous pet.

Whether the words in this new picture book for young logophiles are long and latinate, or wacky and wild, they are deliciously juicy and artfully arcane: not your usual A Is For Apple alphabet book for tots but a solid lexicon for bigger kids who like to wrap their tongue around weighty words.

In their Bigger Words for Little Geniuses (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), Susan and James Patterson offer a scintillating sequel in their series. The Pattersons offer a potpourri of  splurge words, with well-known literary favorites like "jabberwocky," a word created by Lewis Carroll in his Alice in Wonderland to mean "gibberish," sweet words to savor that also sound like what they mean, like melliferous, which draws its root from the Latin word for honey, wacky words like widdernshins, which inexplicably means "counterclockwise," or limited-usage words like Yoicks, a word used to urge hunting dogs to give chase.

Childhood is the crucial time for language learning, and although most kids may not find ways to work some of these words into their normal lingo, there is much value in learning that there are many ways to say almost anything, a special power in acquiring a taste for that indispensable sine qua non--words--the tools of communication. As you might guess, the authors even provide an appendix of even more words. After all, the English language has a million of them!

Pair this one with the Patterson's initial offering, Big Words for Little Geniuses (see review here).

How Hard Can It Be? Dog and Rabbit by Barney Saltzberg

Dog didn't mind being alone. But...

...Sometimes Dog was lonely.

But sometimes a friend is nowhere to be seen. Dog's standards are not too high. He just wants a friend around.

"How hard can it be..." he wondered.

There's Rabbit, looking lonely, too, wishing for a friend.

Someone to hop with.

But it's hard to find a friend.

 Not everyone hops to the same rhythm.

Dog is not so picky. He fixes on Rabbit as a potential friend and puts a bunny figure up on the front of his fridge, and when Rabbit spots that bunny through the window, he comes back often to gaze longingly at it. He smiles at it. Dog smiles at Rabbit, but Rabbit hops swiftly away.

Things seem to be at an impasse... but then ... one day Rabbit finds Dog's door open.

Rabbit hops inside to meet the bunny, but sadly he sees it is not a real rabbit. Suddenly, Rabbit sees Dog, quietly there, smiling.

The one who had waited.

It's a case of looking for a friend in all the wrong places, in Barney Saltzberg's little parable of friendship found, Dog and Rabbit (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2019). As artist and storyteller, Saltzberg' work is simplicity itself. His art is done with small details, simple black line drawings and a few muted colors; each one of the characters is minimalist, but with a certain solidity. Dog is brown, with a big nose and medium-droopy ears; Rabbit is gray, pear-shaped, with evocative ears that never quite stand straight up, and both have simple dots for eyes and body language that allows readers to interpret all for themselves. Saltzman's text is equally spare, without modifiers.

Saltzman's theme appears equally modest, unexplicated, leaving it to the reader to explore the possibilities. Are Rabbit's expectations pie in the sky (the rabbit on the moon, as in some folklore)? Is Dog simply settling? Or does he simply see beyond superficial differences? What is it that makes certain unlikely friendships happen? Like many well-written children's stories, there are layers of meaning here, embedded within, that require perception beyond a quick read-through.

Ancient Ardor! Cave Boy Crush by Beth Ferry

Neander is a typical lad from back in the Paleolithic.

He is fond of of drawing on his cave's walls. He likes catching fish in the lake.

And he loves his pet rock, Rock.

Or he thought he did--until he caught sight of the girl of his dreams.

She was short.

She was hairy.

She was perfect.

He couldn't stop thinking about Neanne.

Neander doesn't know what to call this powerful feeling that has him all moonstruck and mopey. What is This Thing Called Love? would have been his theme song, except that music hadn't been invented yet.

But Papa and Mama notice Neander's mooney mood.

"You remember?" said Mama.

"Oh!" said Papa. "Crush."

Now Neander knows what this powerful feeling is called, but he doesn't know what to do about it. He picks Neanne a bunch of flowers and crushes them with his club. Neanne thinks he's scary and runs away. Neander finds a beautiful big conch shell and brings it back to her house. He blows a big note and crushes it with a big blow. Affrighted, Neanne flees.  Will this prehistoric Charlie Brown ever win the favor of this little red-haired girl?

Finally Neander chips out an iceberg image of his love, which she reduces to ice cubes! COOL! Now we're talkin'!

Young love can be a crushing experience in Beth Ferry's funny story of archaic infatuation, Caveboy Crush (Abrams Books, 2019). Artist Joseph Kuefler's cute little cave kids show how awkward crushes can be even back in primitive times. Ferry's heartwarming Ice Age love story is a different sort of read for Valentine's Day.

For more heart-y reading, share this one with Beth Ferry's Sealed with a Kiss and Stick and Stone (see review here).

Exclusively Inclusive! The Buddy Bench by Patty Brozo

"Class dismissed!" called Miss Mellon when the recess bell rang.

Her students ran out, one loud happy gang.

But once outside, that big happy gang quickly breaks into groups. Some form a team to play soccer; some play King of the Hill. Some silly kids form a parade with a pretend elephant, and some take flight in a make-believe plane. Some even fly kites.

But not everyone is included.

Each kid on his own has his reasons for hanging back. Jerome is so small that he's never picked for basketball. Lilly thinks she is no good at games. Cooper stammers, and Emma's shy about the holes in her clothes. Sloan hates being alone, but he just doesn't know the way to say he wants to play.

One at a time the left-behind kids come together, just as the bell ending recess begins to ring. Once inside Will speaks up to Miss Mellon...

"How could we say
that we all want to play?"

And Miss Mellon has a plan--a special bench they can build for anyone who wants to be invited to play at recess. And if any group invites them, they have to join in.

And everyone knows:

The Buddy Bench = Nobody Alone.

Patty Brozo's rhyming text helps the message go down easy, in her The Buddy Bench (Tilbury House, 2019), which offers an idea for a way that solo students can silently signal that they want to be included in play groups, making it easier for teachers supervising recess groups to help their students become more inclusive. Noted artist Mike Deas's humorous illustrations keep the tone of this story light and lively, avoiding didacticism. The author includes an appendix that details how to make a "buddy bench" or institute a designated place on the playground for kids to signal they're ready to join in the game, and how to introduce some effective rules for developing a real class esprit de corps together.

Says Kirkus Reviews, “A story inspired by a real-life effort to achieve social inclusion. The generosity on display is heartening. Inviting.”

Make Way for Gray! This Book Is Gray by Lindsay Ward

Gray Crayon has something to say.

They never let me color.

He plans his own book. He's got the right characters--a wolf, a kitten, and a hippo.

The three live a grayt life in a charming gray house beside a gray ocean under a gray and overcast sky. But the colored crayons are instant critics. Red says Gray's landscape is gloomy. Yellow says it is depressing. Blue just looks sad.

The Primary Colors stick together. Yellow raises her sunglasses to complain the lack of sunshine and points out that there's bound to be a lack of greens in Gray's diet.

"What are these animals going to eat? It won't be organic," she says.

"I'm guessing the kitten!" adds Red.

The Secondary Colors pile on, moaning about Gray's monochromatic palette.

Orange opines loudly, asking who muted Gray's hue. But Gray is adamant!

"Achromatics have feeling, too, ya know!"

And he is not without support. White and Black appear and have their say on the side of Gray. White even delivers a sudden snowstorm. It's a whiteout, and new critters--a gray elephant, walrus, whale, raccoon, gibbon, and rhino appear to join the snowball fray.

And the snowy background makes Gray a standout, a way to have his say.

It's a colorful display with all the colors in play, in Lindsay Ward's creative new book about colors, This Book Is Gray (Two Lions, 2019),  in which it's agreed that all colors are cool--and as for Gray and his quiet color friends? They live grayly, secure in their jobs of creating background and contrast, shade and hue, ever after. Says Booklist, “This book is a fun introduction to color theory that may inspire children to use more gray in their artwork and remind them to include friends who are left out.”

Fans of Drew Daywalt's hit crayon caper, The Day the Crayons Quit will want to share this one with Marie Lamba's A Day So Gray, (see review here).

Just Your Usual Day in the Park: Where Did You Go Today? by Jenny Duke

GUESS WHAT?

TODAY I FLEW...

A girl and her father head off for a day in the park.

It's a great park, with a playground with all the usual equipment--swings and a slide, a sand box and pond, a climbing bar with tunnels, a zipline, and even a zoo where you can watch the animals while they watch you.

But she's not really there...

She flies off the swings and above the treetops, climbs a metal mountain and slides down the other side, sails in a little sailing vessel to faraway places, where she crawls through a cold and dark passageway to a sandy desert, mounts a camel and...

... RODE ALL THE WAY HOME.

Imagination is at the heart of child's play and at the root of human creativity, and that easy or not-so-easy jump down the rabbit hole or through the wardrobe door is a valuable aspect of personality that some of us can keep as long as we live.

Every time someone reads a fiction book, he or she enters an alternate universe completely created by someone else and lives in it, and every time a person puts musical sounds together in a new way or has a novel idea, they are entering into that state just on the other side of known reality, and Jenny Duke's story of her little park-goer, Where Did You Go Today? (Child's Play Library) (Child's Play, 2019), celebrates that all-too-human power to conceive of what is not but perhaps could be. Duke's artwork depicts possibilities that are both recognizable and yet not quite concrete, just right for this daydream of a day in the park.

AD ASTRA! Shine! by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein

Some people are meant to shine.

Others are better off blending in.

Me? I'm a blender.

Piper has the world's worst voice, but she is backstage at the Municipal Auditorium to help her dad with the middle-school a capella choir competition, the Winter Singoff. Busy blending in in her black dress, she overhears an elderly man in a blazer asking for Mr. Glass, the director of the prestigious Chumley Preparatory School chorus. The preppy choristers continue talking and Ainsley's voice emerges from the scrum of loud chatter by the Chumley singers.

"I sent him to talk to the judges!" says. Ainsley. "We need to be first so we can set the bar so high that no one can top it!"

The old man narrows his eyes. "You, my friends are not the center of this or any other universe. Think hard about who you want to be, children!"

But it's a Pyrrhic victory for Piper when her dad's public school singers actually win. Her dad is offered the job replacing the disgraced Mr. Glass. Piper gets free tuition at the posh prep school, not exactly her Christmas wish, but she goes along because her dad is thrilled at the offer.

But while Piper is busy trying to blend in, Ainsley and her clique continue to vie for glory, competing for everything, from academics to extracurricular activities, and when the school announces a new competition, the Excelsior Award, to be given to one student at the end of the year, the war games are on.  When Piper wins the Science Fair, she and her new friends, Tim, Kwame, and Emily, kick their own efforts into high gear, determined to beat Ainsley and Co. if they can. 

At last it comes down to the Talent Show. Piper prepares a show on the constellations, complete with her new star projector, purchased with dog-walking dollars; Kwame is chosen to be comic master of ceremonies; and Tim, the Great Timdini, plans to end his magic show by sawing a "girl" (actually Kwame and Emily) in half.  It looks like they have a shot at besting the popular crowd yet! But on the day of the show Emily sprains her wrist, and Piper gallantly gives up her act to be the lower half of Tim's magic trick.

It's looking like Ainsley and her snooty cohorts are going to blitz the Excelsior Award competition. But that award turns out to be not what Ainsley expected, an award designed by the old man in the baggy Chumley blazer, the grandson of the founder, tailored to discover the  kindest and most unselfish student in cleverly staged fake disasters over the semester. Needless to say Ainsley is not the winner!

Middle school readers may not be surprised in the comeuppance of the in-group and their self-proclaimed most awesome leader, but perhaps it's not too much to hope that J.J. and Chris Grabenstein's latest best-selling school saga sets a great example in their thoughtful protagonist, Piper Milly. In their latest, Shine! (Random House, 2019), the nice guy does finish first, and for good reason.  Says Kirkus Reviews, "A crowd-pleasing reminder that kindness pays.”

Mateys! The Pirate Tree by Brigita Orel

Sam's ship may look like an old tree, but with a sheet for a sail and a rope for the anchor, she is The Captain.

But one day someone else appears and asks permission to come aboard.

Sam hoists the sheet up over a branch and glares.

"I don't know you. You're not from my street.

Beware, here come pirates! ARRRR!" Sam yells.

The boy looks sad, but he persists.

"I sailed on a ship. I can tell you about it."

Sam is intrigued and invites him to come aboard ship.

Together they are not strangers, but shipmates who sail to treasure islands, weather wild storms, and fight off pirates, and when Dad the Cook calls from the galley, they lower the anchor and go together to the mess cabin. And the tree waits, hoping for more sailing adventures.

In Brigitta Orgel's The Pirate Tree (Lantana Publishing Company, 2019), a simple story of an unexpected friendship shared is set forth in the lovely artwork of Jennie Poh, whose illustrations extend the story beyond its narration of imaginative play to a deeper theme of shared experiences and borders crossed and far seas sailed. School Library Journal says, "Readers will be rooting for the two, hopeful that they will conquer all obstacles, both imaginary and realistic."

Gotta Be Me! Fearless Mirabelle and Meg by Katie Haworth

Mirabelle and Meg Moffat are twins, and they look just the same.

But they are very different.

As soon as she could crawl, Mirabelle proved to be physically gifted--no surprise, since her parents were noted acrobats with the circus! She had perfect balance and agility and was soon climbing everything, from furniture to trees. She was a natural.

Meanwhile, Meg just made a whole lot of NOISE.

GAA GAA! GOO-GOO!

Her parents were proud of their daring daughter--Mirabelle.

Meanwhile, Meg was busy being a high communicator. She asked questions and talked about everything, from broccoli (She hated it) to books (She loved them!)

When the twins are old enough, Mother and Daddy Moffatt took the girls to work with them. Of course, their work was in the center ring of the circus, on the high wire and the trapeze. Mirabelle took right to the family business readily.

She did a backflip and cartwheeled across a tightrope seventeen times.

Meg is too terrified even to climb the ladder up to the trapeze.

Meg was afraid of heights!

And Meg fails at juggling and hits all the wrong notes at tuba-playing. What can she do?

Meanwhile Mirabelle is fast becoming a celebrity! But one day when Mirabelle is beset by a bunch of reporters, sticking microphones in her face and spouting rapid-fire questions at her. Mirabelle is not fearless--she's speechless and terrified. Suddenly, she hears a firm and fearless voice beside her, fielding all the press's questions with eloquence. It's her twin, Meg, doing what, for her, comes naturally!

It's a case of different strokes for different folks, in Katie Haworth's Fearless Mirabelle and Meg (Templar Books, 2019), a tale of twin sisters who look alike but are endowed with different but equally amazing abilities. Haworth's lively narrative points out that, while some talents emerge early and spectacularly, some are less obvious but just as necessary. Artist Nila Aye uses the big spaces on these big pages to portray the spectacle under the Big Top in lively line drawings that tell the story visually, in a salute to individuality and a plug for verbal skills.

An Unlikely Mountain Lion: Puma Dreams by Tony Johnston

My gram says everyone needs at least one dream.

Mine is to see a puma.

Gram calls that a dream that may not ever happen.

She says pumas are elusive as a handful of wind.

Her grandmother tells her that pumas are dwindling, wary of being hunted down, keeping to secret places and blending in with the landscape. But the girl has a plan.

I invest my allowance money in a salt lick.

Now I wait.

Time and seasons pass, and the girl watches. Many animals come to the lick, from elk to little birds with tiny beaks. One time the girl finds puma tracks--almost as big as her hand, but the golden shape eludes her. But she doesn't give up looking. And one morning while she's eating oatmeal, her back to the window, she feels it.

My skin begins to prickle.

And it happens. She sees her puma at last.

For me, the puma will always be there.

In her Puma Dreams (Simon and Schuster, 2019), notable author Tony Johnston's story encompasses wistful wishing, nature lore about endangered animals, the value of perseverance, and the awe inherent in being in the presence of a rare and beautiful wild animal in a satisfying story of hope fulfilled and lessons learned. The enchantingly expressive illustrations of Jim LeMarche capture the wide views of the western landscape and what the story calls the "long dreams" of its main character in a way that put the reader deep into the beauty of Johnston's sure-footed storytelling.

An informational section "About the Puma" and a list of sites devoted to puma preservation are appended.

Maybe A Rainbow: Henry and Bea by Jessixa Bagley

Henry and Bea were the best of friends.

It was as if they could tell what the other was thinking without saying a word.

But one day Henry has nothing to say, except that he wants to be alone.

It's hard for a friend to know what to do when a good friend suddenly withdraws.

So when their teacher announces a field trip to a local farm, Bea hopes that the outing will help Henry feel better. But he's distant on the bus, and as the farmer takes the kids on a tour of farm animals and equipment, Henry withdraws and goes off on his own.

Seeing him go alone into the barn, Bea follows and finds Henry sitting in the loft on a bale of hay. Silently he shows her a worn cat collar, broken and dirty.

"Buddy died last week," said Henry.

"It's hard to lose a friend," said Bea.

A friend in need is a friend indeed, and Bea's understanding helps her friend deal with his loss, in Jessixa Bagley's Henry and Bea (Neal Porter/Holiday House, 2019). Bagley's gentle narration and soft, evocative spot art and full-page illustrations show readers how sharing sadness can help a friend get though it. Sometimes it is easier to show what to do than to say it. "Bagley's artwork creates an emotionally resonant experience," says Kirkus Reviews, and Horn Book adds, "A welcome addition to the shelf of books about grief."

"Good Both Going and Coming Back": Rabbit and the Motorbike by Kate Hoefler

Rabbit lived in a quiet field of wheat that he never left--not even once--even though there was a road. And even though he dreamed that he did every night.

But Rabbit has a friend, Dog, who has a motorbike and once followed that road everywhere, where he saw many wonderful things.

He loved telling Rabbit about the places he'd felt most alive.

Dog made Rabbit feel that he had been with him in all those places. But one day Dog was gone, leaving Rabbit with only remembered stories and his motorbike.

For a long time Rabbit stays home, but when he looks at the motorbike and remembers Dog's stories he realizes that he, too, can now go anywhere he wants as Dog did. Still, Rabbit is timid.

Yet one day Rabbit decides to ride the motorbike--

Just down the road....But roads are long.

Rabbit forgot that.

Like all roads, Rabbit's road is connected to all the roads in the world and he saw much of it--giant redwoods, the ocean, and the great desert....

And Rabbit felt Dog right there with him.

And full of stories that are his own, Rabbit returns and finds a young friend to share them with, in Kate Hoefler's Rabbit and the Motorbike: (Books about Friendship, Inspirational Books for Kids, Children's Adventure Books, Children's Emotion Books) (Chronicle Books, 2019). This is a quiet  book with beautiful illustrations, a layered metaphoric story about the courage to discover the world and yourself, well and simply told. Says Kirkus in their starred reviews, "Exhilarating... Graceful text and evocative illustrations combine in this story about ... facing fears and trying something new."

CATITUDE? Bad Dog by Mike Boldt

"Look what I got for my birthday! A pet DOG!

My dog has a cute little nose.

Her name is Rocky."

But Rocky isn't your usual dog. She won't come when called. She doesn't love to go outside for walks. She refuses to walk on her leash, but she loves to plays with it.

She claws the furniture. She won't come when she's called, or sit, or stay!

And she refuses to do tricks, but she likes to lick her owner's toes.

"EEWWWW! She's a BAD DOG!"

But Rocky is good at climbing trees. She never barks at the mail man. And she never lifts her leg to go potty on the fake ficus plant. She doesn't chew shoes (although she does like to play with the shoelaces). She likes to play with the water in the goldfish bowl, but she doesn't care for baths at all!

Hmmm!

"You know what? I think Rocky would make a pretty good CAT."

Of course, in Mike Boldt's Bad Dog (Doubleday and Company, 2019), Rocky is obviously a fluffy black-and-white cat, and despite her new owner's confusion, exhibiting clearly feline behavior throughout the story that will have kids first bemused, then amused, and finally giggling at Rocky's clearly atypical canine behavior. Mike Boldt's well-paced narration and cute and clever illustrations make this new book perfect for reading aloud and will leave youngsters rolling on the reading rug with hilarity. Not to be missed!

TOP THIS! Crock and Turtle: The Bestest Friends Ever! by Mike Wohnoutka

Croc and Turtle are best friends. But that doesn't mean that Croc is above showing off his prowess around little Turtle.

"HEY, TURTLE. DO YOU WANT TO SEE ME LIFT THIS HEAVY ROCK?

"UMM... SURE, CROC.

The rock is heavier than it looks. But with a grunt, Croc manages to get it a little way off the ground.

"PRETTY GOOD, CROC!" ADMITS TURTLE.

"I'M CROC, AND I'M THE STRONGEST!" CROCK BRAGS.

Elephant strolls up and asks what they're up to, and of course he hoists the rock and even tosses it high into the air. But Croc doesn't want to lose face in front of his friend Turtle, so he asks Turtle if he'd like to see him leap over the rock.

"WHOA!" SAYS TURTLE.

Turtle is duly impressed until Rabbit comes by and asks for a try. He hops high over the rock and declares it easy-peasy. Croc tries to redeem his reputation by running fast, but little Cheetah breezes right by him.

"I'M NOT THE BEST AT ANYTHING," CROC SNIFFS.

But Turtle has the best comeback ever.

"CROC, YOU ARE THE BEST FRIEND!"

It's a big world out there and there's always someone who is better at something, except for being your best friend's best friend, in Mike Wohnoutka's just published Croc And Turtle! The Bestest Friends Ever! (Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2020). In a sweet story of Best Friends Forever, Wohnoutka's perky, googly-eyed characters, done in black line and light gouache, take a light-hearted look at competition which proves again that there are different strokes for different folks. It's all relative, but best friends just can't be beat, in the latest sequel to author-illustrator Mike Whonoutka's earlier Croc 'n' Turtle tale, Croc And Turtle: Snow Fun!

No Changes! Anxious Charlie to the Rescue by Terry Milne

Charlie is nervous. After all, bad things COULD happen any day.

But Charlie's got it all figured out. He does everything the same way every day, and so far, everything is okay.

He hops on his hind legs when he gets out of bed.

Every day, Charlie walked once around the fire hydrant on his way to the market. And he always walked on the same side of the old oak tree.

Every night he arranges his toy animals in the same order before he goes to bed. And it must work--nothing bad has happened yet!

But one morning Charlie is startled out of sleep by his phone, ringing anxiously. There's no time for protective hops! Duck is on the line, quacking frantically.

Their friend Hans was stuck.

There's no time for protective routines. Charlie runs straight to the scene, where he finds his friends looking worried and only terrier Hans' rear end and tail sticking out of a long pipe. Charlie is the only one who can get into the pipe to help Hans.

And Charlie knows what to do!

Grabbing one of Duck's feathers in his mouth, he pushes his way down into the other end of the pipe.

Charlie tickled,

and Hans giggled.

And Poof! Hans exhales and POPs out of the pipe!

Charlie can't believe it. Something bad happened and he handled it!

On the way home, Charlie didn't think about which way he passed the oak tree.

Real life is just one long ad-lib, as the Charlie learns, in Terry Milne's funny tale of an obsessive-compulsive weiner dog, Anxious Charlie to the Rescue (Candlewick Press, 2018). Charlie is an adorable dachshund hero who discovers that a little improvisation in his life can be life-changing. All of author-illustrator's Milne's animal characters are charming--Bruce the droopy-jowled hound and Hans the ring-eyed bull terrier especially--done spot-art style on each page, along with a couple of double-page spreads, in which Charlie and all his toy animals snooze in abandon, spread-eagled all over the bed. Solid storytelling and delightfully funny illustrations make this one a lighthearted look at OCD that might nudge some young worrywarts out of their routines.

Snow Friend: Little Mole's Wish by Sang Keun Kim

It's the first snow of the winter, and Little Mole is waiting for the bus home from school. Lonely, he builds a big snowball to keep him company.

"Can I tell you something?" whispered Little Mole. "I just moved here. I don't have any friends."

But when the Mr. Bear's bus arrives, he tells Little Mole in no uncertain terms that he can't bring a big snowball on board.

"Snow's just snow. It'll melt."

Hmmm. Maybe if he sculpts his snowball into a bear, the next bus driver will let him on. But driver Fox scoffs at the idea of a snow bear on a bus and drives on.

Little Mole tries to make his bear look more like him. He sculpts a snow backpack and puts his own knitted cap on his snow bear's head. As it grows dark, the two stand hopefully together at the bus stop. Little Mole makes a wish on a falling star. Finally a kindly driver stops to pick them up.

"Look at you two! You must be freezing."

On the warm bus, Little Mole falls asleep,and when he wakes, he is alone. The driver says he thinks his friend already got off. Sadly Little Mole walks to his house and tells his grandmother about his friend's disappearance.

"I wish I could help," she says.

But in the morning there is a surprise waiting outside for Little Mole, in Sang Keun Kim's tender and sweet story of a snowy day and friendship lost and found, Little Mole's Wish (Schwartz and Wade, 2019).  Kim's soft, muted, and lovely illustrations offer a touch of the magic that friendship brings.

Definitely share this one with Raymond Briggs' magical snow fantasy story, The Snowman.

For Everything There Is a Season: Almost Time by Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney

When Ethan had to eat his pancakes with applesauce instead of maple syrup one Sunday morning, he knew it was almost sugaring time.

"Is the sap running yet?" he asked.

Dad shook his head. "Not until the days get warmer."

But the days stay cold and the nights remain long. Dad tries buttered cornbread and oatmeal with raisins and walnuts, and at least one thing changes. Ethan chomps a walnut and discovers a loose tooth.

Still the weather stays cold and his tooth stays loose.

Now Ethan had two things to wait for.

Ethan notices that the sun seems to come up a little bit earlier, but his tooth is still loose--

until--

At lunchtime his tooth comes out and now he's got a surprise for his dad... and there is a surprise for Ethan when he gets off the school bus....

The sap is running. The maple trees are tapped and buckets are filling up, and it's sugaring off time for sure. Dad and Ethan carry in enough sap to boil up a batch of sweet syrup together.

And soon there's maple syrup for Ethan's Sunday pancakes, in Gary D. Schmidt's and Elizabeth Stickney's beautiful tale of the fullness of time, Almost Time (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion Books, 2020). Spring and maple syrup come in their own sweet time in this gentle tale of patience, wisdom, and pleasure in the cycles of the seasons and the enduring warmth of family life.

Newbery and Printz Award-winning author Schmidt paces this story perfectly for preschool and primary readers who are often impatient as they wait for good things to happen, and in his endearing mixed-media illustrations, artist G. Brian Karas slyly portrays the subtle changes in the turning of the season toward spring which young readers will no doubt spot before Ethan does. A perfect book about waiting for good things to happen and the cycle of the seasons of life.

Bunny in a Tree? Hi, Jack! by Mac Barnett and Greg Pizzola

Jack is a bunny who hops to a different drummer. He has a thing for living, not in bunny burrows, but in a tree--a tree house of his own.

But Jack gets tired of the "high" life, or perhaps he gets lonely, so he climbs down and goes out to find a friend. He meets an old lady Hare, and, er, borrows her purse.

JACK! GIVE THAT BACK!

Inside Jack finds some lipstick, which he tries on his own lips before returning the purloined purse, but he keeps the lipstick and leaves a trail of bright red graffiti behind himself until at last he meets his friend, a big white rabbit named Rex.

In the best-selling author, Mac Barnett's comic title in his easy reading pre-primer-level books, Hi, Jack! (A Jack Book) (Viking Books, 2019), author Barnett has his co-creator, the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winning illustrator Greg Pizzoli, along to document Jack's snacks and acts in this super-simple series of silly stories for beginners. As Publishers Weekly puts it in a starred review, "Barnett works wonders with a limited vocabulary, packing the stories with humor, tension—and admonishments of Jack. Pizzoli’s scruffy-edged, emotive cartoons are just as funny, and he carries the comedy into drawing lessons and closing endpapers.”

Other books in the Jack series are Jack at Bat (A Jack Book) and Jack Goes West. (A Jack Book)