NO HELP WANTED! Peter Easter Frog by Erin Dealey

"HERE COMES PETER EASTER FROG,

HOPPING DOWN HIS FAVORITE LOG.

"HIPPITY HOPPITY, EASTER'S ON ITS"--

CRASH! Peter Frog smacks into Turtle, who points out the obvious, that the worst bunny in the woods is more warm and cuddly than even the most enthusiastic ectothermic amphibian!

"HEY! YOU'RE NOT THE EASTER BUNNY!!!"

But Peter Frog insists that he has qualifications. For one thing, he can hop as far as the Easter Bunny. Unabashedly he begins to compose his own theme song about an Easter frog slogging through the bog, squishity-squashity--well, you get the idea!

"WHY SHOULD BUNNY HAVE ALL THE FUN?"

And the other animals seem fired up about getting into the egg-delivery gig. Cow offers to carry the Easter basket, hooked on one horn, and Turtle takes a ride on Cow's wide back. Sheep Dog and a few of his followers flock to join the procession, along with a ground squirrel who claims he specializes in hiding things. Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It's down the road they go behind Peter Easter Frog until they come to an underpass, where at the end of the dark tunnel they see.... a burly Easter Rabbit with a basket and a big scowl!

"PETER WHO-DEE WHATTTT??"

"I am THE BUNNY!"

But all's well that ends with a happy expansion of the Easter-egg delivery franchise, in Erin Dealey's Peter Easter Frog, with one unusual but successful Easter Rabbit apprenticeship program successfully completed. Award-winning artist G. Brian Karas provides the comical mixed media illustrations which portray a finally happy Easter Day and give kids some giggles along the way in this unusual Easter Rabbit tale. Says School Library Journal, "A great addition to Easter book collections for the youngest readers."

Wind Song! Biscuit Flies A Kite by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

It's MARCH! The Earth has come a long way since the fall solstice signaled the advent of cold days, but now the days are creeping close to the spring equinox with longer--and warmer--days. Spring cometh soon, but first--March winds do blow! What should kids do?

Right! GO FLY A KITE! And Biscuit and his fellow pet Puddles are taking their girls outside to give it a try. They have bright-colored kites with long, long strings wrapped around a stick to hold them by, that is, if they can get their kites UP.

But first the pets have to try to play with the sticks and run away with them. Biscuit and Puddles get the kite strings all tangled up.

The girls are patient with their pets, and when the strings are untangled, it is time to try to get their kites to catch the wind.

READY?

HERE COMES THE WIND!

But the two kites are stuck on the launching pad. (Well, actually--stuck on a bush!) Time to try again. Hopefully, the girls jump to toss their kites high to catch the wind.

WOOF!

BOW WOW!

But their strings snap in a gust of wind and only the fast moves of Puddles and Biscuit save the day--with historic leaps to catch the trailing strings!

PUDDLES CAN JUMP HIGH!

But the girls give it one more try... And the third time is the charm for the two girls and their pets. They have LIFT OFF, in Alyssa Satin Cupucilli's salute to March winds in her Biscuit Flies a Kite (My First I Can Read), (HarperCollins) with the help of her artistic partner, Pat Schories, in this breezy seasonal My First I-Can-Read book for young dog and book lovers. It's time for the two plucky girls and their pets to lean back on a park bench and admire their kites flying high in the spring breeze. As always, Biscuit is there for memorable childhood occasions for young beginning readers.

Signs of Spring! Happy Springtime by Kate McMullan

At about this time year, on the sidewalks around primary and elementary schools, less-than-perfectly straight lines of warmly-dressed young scholars may be seen trudging behind teachers on a slow-moving walk, interrupted often by someone pointing or darting out of line to pick up unknown objects and scanning the skies and trees nearby. They are re-enacting one of the oldest rites of human life, the expectant search for SIGNS OF SPRING!

HERE'S A MESSAGE FOR SCHOOL BUS RIDERS, HEADING OUT ON A DARK COLD MORNING...

FOR THOSE WITH STUCK SNOWSUIT ZIPPERS...

WEARING EARMUFFS AND TWO PAIRS OF MITTENS...

DO NOT LOSE HEART!

For beneath their very feet the earth is continuing its annual circuit of the sun. Each day is longer than the one before, and the chilly, muddy earth under their boots is preparing for its really big show of the year!

Primary scholars are not the only ones waiting for Mother Earth's biggest EXTRAVAGANZA...

GROGGY FROGS WAKING FROM THEIR WINTER SLEEP, TREES UNFURLING LEAVES, PINK WORMS POKING UP...

WINTER-BORN BABIES WHO'VE NEVER SEEN A SPRING....

Everyone celebrates that time that ancient astronomers watched for, that EQUINOX, that time when days begin to grow longer than nights, when grass grows so fast you can almost see it doing it, little birds take their first flight, bikes, shorts, and running sneakers appear along with the crack of the baseball bat, and spring peepers in the pond where picnickers watch, and birdsongs begin provide the background music until...the big day arrives--SUMMER SOLSTICE.

SO LONG SPRINGTIME,

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Spring never fails to delight us, no matter how many we've seen, and noted author Kate McMullan joyfully traces in lyrical language its progress through the landscape and into our consciousness every year. Watch and ... Wait for it!

Illustrated exuberantly by artist Sujean Rim, this is a great book to get youngsters observing the signs of Earth's heralded big production each year, in Kate McMullan's Happy Springtime! (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2021). In a perfect melding of narration and illustration, it's a breath of fresh air for the winter-weary brain. Says School Library Journal, "Rim's watercolor, pencil, crayon, and collage illustrations are lush and fluid like snow melting into the new growth taking its place. These blend beautifully with McMullan's springtime celebration, warming the fingers, toes, and hearts of readers."