Are We There Yet?: Following Papa's Song by Giana Marino

AT DAWN LITTLE BLUE NUZZLED ALONGSIDE PAPA AND ASKED, "IS IT TIME?"

Papa says it is time to make their annual journey north to their seasonal territory. But Little Blue has never made that swim and can hardly conceive of what it means to go so far.

"PAPA, HOW WILL WE KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO?"

"WE'LL FOLLOW THE SOUND OF THE WHALES, LITTLE BLUE, JUST LIKE OUR FAMILY HAS FOR YEARS AND YEARS."

Little Blue hears the whale song, but the ocean seems so big and Papa swims so fast. What if he falls behind? Papa answers.

"IF YOU LISTEN CLOSELY, YOU WILL ALWAYS HEAR MY SONG."

Little Blue hears the song of the others ahead, and he sticks very close to Papa, swimming as hard as he can. But soon he begins to look around at all the new and fascinating sights as they pass--all sorts of fish, giant sea turtles, jellyfish, and kelp. And then Little Blue looks beneath him and Papa. It is a very dark blue and seems to go down forever. Papa tells him to look but stay near the surface with him.

Then Little blue glimpses just a flash of silvery light below. Could he just go a bit deeper and see what it is?

He dives down, toward the flicker of light.

EVERYTHING WAS MAGIC, JUST LIKE PAPA SAID.

Down, further in the deep, where few rays of sunlight filter, he sees beautiful creatures, dolpins, luminescent fish, and huge rays that seem to soar through the depths on giant, graceful wings.

But then Little Blue realizes that it is very silent in the deep and that he is feeling cold, very cold. He looks up to where Papa was just a minute ago, but he sees no bulky silhouette against the glittering surface. Little Blue calls for Papa. He calls and calls. All he hears are his own frightened sounds.

What was it that Papa had said for him to do?

Giana Marino's newest, Following Papa's Song (Viking Books, 2014), is a lovely and lyrical salute to fatherhood and to the wonders of the sea. Her exquisite double-page underwater scenes glow with silver, green, and then blue and her shifts in perspective show first the enormity of the humpback whale father and son and the vastness of the ocean depths in which they are indeed small, especially Little Blue, as alone in the dark depths, he listens for his father's song to show him the way, The premise of the young runaway and his safe return to the fold have never had a more moving or splendid setting, which ends, as all prodigal stories should, with the father and child soaring into the sunlight as they breach with joy at their reunion. A beautiful parable of parenthood and a splendid salute to the sea.

See also Giana Marino's noted earlier book, Meet Me at the Moon (Viking, 2012).

Up and Away! Elecopter by Michael Slack

HERE SHE COMES TO SAVE THE DAY!

ELECOPTER IS ON THE WAY!

Sorry! Wrong theme song. But if the tune fits, wear it, and Elecopter, the latest hybrid rescuer created by Michael Slack, is a robo-morphed elephant fitted out with 'copter rotors and skids on her feet, the better to protect and serve the animals of the preserve.

SHE SCANS THE SAVANNAH FROM HIGH ABOVE,

PATROLLING THE SKY, IT'S A LABOR OF LOVE!

And there's a lot of rescuing to be done! A rhino has to airlifted from a ravine! She has to drop her ladder to a marooned cheetah and a stranded baboon! And then there's that too-tall giraffe, surrounded by some hungry hyenas.

REV THOSE ROTORS! GO, ELECOPTER!

Preschoolers who like to think that help is always at hand will love cute blue Elecopter, who zooms to the rescue of hapless animals. Michael Slack has as much fun as a barrel full of monkeys with the digital illustrations for this jolly picture book, even using a vertical two-page spread to fit in the rescue of the long-necked giraffe, while a sudden forest fire is duly doused with a super spray from Ellie's handy hose nose, all in in Slack's community helper contraption series, Elecopter (Henry Holt, 2013). Publishers Weekly points out that this book is like a Little Golden Book on steroids, and the New York Times says, "Fierce in the face of danger and always kind, this motherly elephant gives parenting a good name."

This one pairs perfectly (and inevitably) with Slack's previously published Monkey Truck (Christy Ottaviano Books).

Both Sides Now: Inside Outside by Lizi Boyd

Lizi Boyd's Inside Outside (Chronicle Books, 2013) is a book that is much more than it seems at first glance.

Using brown butcher paper as her medium, Boyd opens with a plain house, a small boy seen through the window as a snowman stands guard just outside, while inside he works, intent upon planting seedlings for spring. Pictures on the wall show plants and trees which foreshadow the season to come.  The seasons change outside. as the boy moves out and then back into the house. Trees leaf out, flowers comes up and bloom, and birds appear in the trees, nesting and then feeding their babies.

Accompanied by his constant companions, a black dog and two mice who get on with their own parallel lives, unmindful of the events around them, the boy flies his kite in spring, finds a turtle in the warming pond, tends his garden, and fills his wading pool for the dog and cat to enjoy.

The scenes shift from inside to outside and back again, each move prefigured by the other, with the boy building a boat inside while sailboats float in pictures on the wall, and takes it outside to sail it on the pond while the turtle and dog watch from his beach towel. Fall comes, suggested first by the boy's paintings of autumn trees on the walls and carried outside as colored leaves float down from the trees and birds fly, fleeing south from approaching winter.

At last it is winter outside again, and the boy is seen through the windows, decorating a little evergreen inside, as snow falls on his snowman outside.

Cleverly placed die-cut rectanglar windows give little readers a chance to predict what comes next in this endlessly inventive essay on the seasons. It will take many look-throughs to take in all that is going on in Inside Outside. This seemingly simple little wordless story book has surprises and much to observe for youngsters just learning to "read" a picture book through its illustrations.

"... creative genius at work," says Kirkus Reviews.

Quirky Critters: Lazy Daisy, Cranky Frankie by Mary Ellen Jordan

THIS IS MY CHICKEN.

SHE'S CALLED LIZZIE.

SHE SHOULD LAY EGGS,

BUT SHE'S TOO BUSY.

INSTEAD SHE'S DANCING IN THE AIR.

IN HER PURPLE UNDERWEAR.

If you feel you've found the funny farm, you're right.

All the critters here seem somewhat crazed. In addition to dizzy Lizzie, there's Daisy the cow who's too lazy to graze, and Fancy Nancy the pig who spends her days gazing at herself in the mirror. Then there's sheepdog Frankie, too cranky to round up a slew of silly sheep that litter the landscape.

Fortunately, there is one thing that these deranged domesticated goof-offs do well--sleep!

And that's a good quality, at least for characters in a bedtime story, and Mary Ellen Jordan's Lazy Daisy, Cranky Frankie: Bedtime on the Farm (Albert Whitman, 2013) brings it home in a tickle box turnover tale that will encourage shut-eye in little listeners. Jordan's easy-reading rhyming text and artist Andrew Weldon's large cartoon animals, done up in black line and flat pastel watercolors on bright white pages, give kids scads of silliness, from Chicken Lizzie roosting in her purple tighties on the clothesline to a top-hatted, roller-skating sheep, as they work their way down to the right time to hit the hay on this hilarious funny farm.

Mine! Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney

OH, DISASTER! DOLLY DRAMA!
NELLY GNU HAS FUZZY LLAMA!

HE'S NOT HERS! THIS ISN'T FAIR!
LLAMA DOESN'T LIKE TO SHARE!

Author Anna Dewdney gets off a piquant pun to begin her newest llama drama, Llama Llama Time to Share (Viking, 2012). Mama Llama has a visitor, their new neighbors, little Nelly Gnu, Mrs. Gnu, and her baby brother.

Mama Llama is happy that her little Llama Llama has a neighbor playmate just his age, but she knows that cooperative play doesn't come easily to youngsters. As she shoos the two toddlers off to play in little Llama's room with his toys, she has some well-timed advice.

"DON'T FORGET TO SHARE" SHE REMINDS THE TWO.

Mama and Mrs. Gnu settle down for a cup of tea and a nice visit, while Llama Llama, with a worried look, escorts new Nelly to his toy box. After turning down several toys, Nelly chooses to build with Little Llama's giant blocks. Whew! There are lots of them, and Llama doesn't feel too attached to any one of them, and the two are soon cooperating nicely as they decide to build a castle together.

MOMS ARE TALKING. BABY CHEWING.
THAT NELLY GIRL! WHAT'S SHE DOING?

But then things take a tragic turn in the playroom. Nelly grabs Llama's beloved lovey, Fuzzy Llama, and seems to be making him her own part of the game. Llama is stricken. Fuzzy is his alone! He grabs. He pulls desperately. Nelly Gnu digs in and pulls right back. RIPPPPP!

The two stare in horror as they see one of Fuzzy Llama's arms in Little Llama's hands.

But it's least said, soonest mended, as Mama Llama steps in, quickly sews back Fuzzy's arm, and put him off limits until the two youngsters apologize and agree on how to share when they play.

Anna Dewdney's one-of-a-kind illustrations, deftly mated to her comfortable rhyme and rhythm scheme tell the all-too-familiar story well. Sharing things is hard to do, especially when the thing shared is a dearest possession, but Llama Llama and Nelly Gnu seem to have begun the transition in Dewdney's latest in her outstanding series. Llama Llama Time to Share is a welcome brand-new llama drama not to be missed.

Night Life: Red and Yellow's Noisy Night by Josh Selig

ONE NIGHT YELLOW WAS GETTING READY FOR BED WHEN THERE WAS A VERY LOUD NOISE.

IT WAS RED, PLAYING HIS STRUMMY.

Yellow and Red are as different as, well, daylight and dark. Yellow is plump and placid; Red is fit and frenetic; Yellow is a morning person; Red is obviously a night owl. Yellow just wants to sleep; Red wants to swing and play the night away.

It's an impasse, a standoff in the olive tree.

Yellow pulls his pillow over his head to muffle Red's music, while Red just pumps up the tempo, jacking up the volume to entice his friend to join in. It's LOUD! Yellow can't sleep with all that noise, and Red just has to jazz it up on his strummy! Can this conflict be resolved?

It can and is, in Josh Selig's Red & Yellow's Noisy Night (The Olive Branch) (Sterling, 2012) as Red figures out that strummies can swing both ways: he can play more mellow music, a lulling lullaby that gently floats Yellow off to his desired dreamland. All's well in Olive Tree land, as Yellow snores while Red strums softly. Selig's illustrations, based on the international cartoon show, have the necessary verve and energy to extend the super simple text, deftly delineating these two very different characters and their rational compromis to keep the peace in their tree. Not a bad thought with which to fall asleep!

Mermaid Magic: Three Little Mermaids by Mara Van Fleet

THREE LITTLE MERMAIDS
WHO LIVED IN THE SEA...

When adorable little mermaids--a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette--decide to invite friends for tea, it's a party that youngsters aren't going to want to miss.

Veteran author Mara Van Fleet's Three Little Mermaids (Paula Wiseman Books) (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 2011) has everything a board book needs to delight tots--very sturdy covers and pages, tear-resistant flaps which inspire guessing what's beneath, glowing colors, sparkly adornments, touchy-feely surprises for young fingers to find, a rubbery octopus with sticky treats, for example, and even a movable tab page in which four seahorses appear and disappear again in a kelp forest.

Add to these visual and tactile pleasures a set of rhythmic rhymes and a counting text which goes all the way up to ten sparkly jelly fish, and it's a seaside hands-on tale for tots. Pair this book with Van Fleet's equally delightful Little Color Fairies for merry mermaid and fairy fun.

Odd Couple: Ribbit Rabbit by Candace Regan

Frog and Bunny are what you might call inseparable friends. In fact, you might as well call them Ribbit Rabbit.

THEY GO SWIMMING TOGETHER.

DIP IT, DAB IT.

THEY FIGHT MONSTERS TOGETHER.

ZIP IT! ZAP IT!

But like all good friends, they sometimes get out of sorts with each other. Bunny wants to play with Frog's robot but Frog nixes the switch, so Bunny grabs the all-important key which makes the toy run.

NIP IT. NAB IT.

It's a standoff. Things are at an impasse between the best friends, each clutching their prize defiantly.

Except... a key is no good without a robot to wind up. A robot is no good if it won't move. Now no one can have fun!

It's time to negotiate a truce and pool their assets!

RIB-BOT. RAB-BOT!

In Candace Ryan's brand-new Ribbit Rabbit (Walker, 2011), it's finally one for all and all for one in this classic tale of friendship, told cleverly in Ryan's sophisticated but simple rhyming wordplay, and artist Mike Lowery's just-right wry illustrations. Done up in a subdued but appealing palette, with each of the protagonists given their signature color, Lowery's stylized characters' body language and droll facial expressions tell the story in parallel with the fun-to-hear text. There are lots of possibilities for using this one with the youngest of possible friends, despite their occasional differences.