Snow Avatars: Mouse and Mole: A Winter Wonderland by Wong Herbert Yee

"OPEN UP, MOLE. IT'S ME, MOUSE," CALLED MOUSE.

"RAT!" MUTTERED MOLE. HE ROLLED OUT OF BED LIKE A COCOON, STILL WRAPPED IN HIS BLANKETS....

HE OPENED THE DOOR A CRACK--WHOOOSH! A GUST OF FROSTY AIR NIPPED HIS SNOUT.

"MORNING, MOLE!" SAID MOUSE.

"MORNING, MOUSE," GRUMPED MOLE.
"WHATEVER ARE YOU DOING OUT ON A DAY LIKE THIS?"

Mouse can't wait to sled and skate in the new-fallen snow. To her it is a winter wonderland of trees trimmed with icicles and bushes frosted like cupcakes.

But for Mole it's no dice on the ice! Mole crabbily warns her that she will turn into a mouse-cicle if she is crazy enough to wander around in that frosty wonderland and grumps off to bed again. But Mouse has new boots and a warm coat, and she forges on to fly down the hills and glide over the ice all by herself.

Still, it's lonely without Mole, so she builds a snowman and christens him Sno-Mole. Sneaking back into the snoozing Mole's entryway closet, she chooses one of his warm hats, a scarf, and a pair of mittens, and with a long, pointy icicle for a nose, her Sno-Mole is soon a frosty likeness of Mole himself. With her new snow-friend in tow on her sled, she gives him a tour of her winter wonderland.

Back at home, Mole awakens at last. Bored with his bed, he sneaks a peak outside to see if Mouse is still around. In the distance he spots her skating on the pond and giving a smiling stranger a nice ride on the sled behind her. Mole is suddenly jealous.

"THAT IS NO STRANGER!" HE GULPED.

"MOUSE IS WITH A FRIEND...

AND THAT FRIEND IS NOT ME!"

But best friends have a way of working out such problems, and in Wong Herbert Yee's newest title Mouse and Mole, A Winter Wonderland (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2010) Mole decides that two can play that game, and when Sno-Mouse meets Sno-Mole, it's a friendship just made for a winter wonderland. Author-illustrator Yee has created another cozy seasonal tale of the hyperactive mouse and the sleepy, slow mole, two unlikely friends who find fun and friendship in each addition to the Mouse and Mole series. The author's artwork has a certain quaint appeal, and his homey odd couple stories, reminiscent of Arnold Lobel's classic Frog and Toad series, are just right for the early beginning chapter book reader.

Previous titles in this series are Upstairs Mouse, Downstairs Mole paperback (Mouse and Mole), Abracadabra! Magic with Mouse and Mole, A Brand-New Day with Mouse and Mole (A Mouse and Mole Story), and Mouse and Mole, Fine Feathered Friends.

Handy Farmhand: Farm Dog Martha (Martha Speaks) by Susan Meddaugh

"I am going to LOVE the farm." says Martha.

"I think."

Visiting the farm, Martha imagines herself driving the big red tractor and becoming farmer C.K's all-star farmhand.

But city slicker Martha has a way to go to become a full-fledged farm dog. For openers, she doesn't realize that farm work begins way before the sun does. And she doesn't figure on sharpster sheep, who convince her that the woods (and farmhouse) are all part of their pasture, and conman clucksters in the henhouse who convince her to take a turn sitting on their eggs while they do a bit of free-range R 'n' R elsewhere.

But then a mean-looking gray "dog" drawn by the roaming roosters appears in the pasture with a challenging "Wrooo-oooo-oooooo-oooo!" and it's up to the brave Martha to dispatch the marauding coyote with a few well-chosen Martha moves.

"You're a good farm dog, Martha," says C.K.

As in all of her easy reading books, Susan Meddaugh's Martha Speaks: Farm Dog Martha (Reader) (Green Light Readers; Level 2) (HMH Books, 2010) provides plenty of fun for fans of the PBSKids MARTHA series, based on Susan Meddaugh's ultra-popular Martha picture books. There are some follow-up vocabulary activities included, as well as a link to the PBS web site for more entertaining as well as educational games. For more advanced Martha readers, see also Martha Speaks: Shelter Dog Blues (Chapter Book), in which a lost collar leads our favorite talking dog to an unfortunate incarceration in the pooch slammer, where with typical elan, she organizes a dog rescue of tail-wagging proportions. As always, our Martha speaks for herself!