Total Immersion? How Do You Take a Bath? by Kate McMullan

Animals bathe in many ways that people don't want to imitate--like squirting water through our nose or rolling in the mud without our clothes!

ELEPHANT LIFTS HIS TRUNK AND GIVES HIMSELF A SHOWER.

Okay, that sounds like fun, but for kids, it just can't be done. But then there's Pig's idea of skin care.

Wallowing in mud hour after hour?

Licking ourselves clean like a cat?

Nobody wants to do THAT!

Chickens take a bath in dust! That certainly doesn't appeal to US!

Turtle lets minnows nibble algae from his back. The very thought of that makes a kid say AACKK!

Animals have many clever ways to stay clean, but when it comes to kids, there's a better scene.

DO YOU RUN WATER IN A TUB?

DO YOU CLIMB IN AND SCRUB-A-DUB?

DO YOU DRY OFF, RUB-A-DUB?

Given the options offered in nature, most preschoolers will definitely Say YES to the Bath, in Kate McMullen's jolly prelude to the suds, How Do You Take a Bath? (Alfred A Knopf, 2018).

With funny examples of animal hygiene, McMullan's easy-going but clever little rhymes slip in an easy segue to the bedtime bath that parents will appreciate. Illustrator Sydney Hansen's soft colors and appealing animals--mother bats, hens and chicks, mama monkeys and furry babies, dogs and ducks, and happy hippos at the bird spa--give this one quite a bit of appeal to preschoolers who may not always be ready to hit the suds. And don't forget the rubber ducky!

Kate McMullan is also the celebrated co-author (with Jim McMullan) of such preschool best-sellers as I'm Dirty! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan) and I'm Brave! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan) and their many other standouts for preschoolers (see reviews here).

Hedgie's Hibernation: The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett

Hedgie sniffed the chill wind. "Snow is on the way," he thought.

"I'll just take a last ramble around the farm."

He didn't want to miss a moment.

The season is changing, and little Hedgie knows what hedgehogs do in winter. His eyelids are heavy. But like most youngsters, he's just not quite ready to sleep.

Hibernation can wait.

Meanwhile, his farm friends are full of stories of the wonders of winter that they can't wait for.

"We'll think of you as we play slip-and-slide across the pond. It's starting to freeze," honked the geese.

Billy Goat boasts that he's going to get to see Lise build her snowmen. Pig wishes that he could save some snowflakes for Hedgie to see. Pony proclaims that he's going to pull the sleigh for everyone to take a ride to see the woods full of snow and decorated with icicles.

That was the last straw! "I don't want to sleep all winter!" Hedgie protested.

"I want to see icicles, snowmen, snowballs and sleigh bells!"

Kind little Lise takes pity on the half-frozen Hedgie, bringing him inside and placing him snugly inside a tea cozy in a basket by the window. Drowsily, the little hedgehog watches all the wonders of winder--snowstorms, icy trees, frost-painted windows, snowballs and sleigh bells.

The little hedgehog experiences it all before at last Lise decides that the happy but hibernating little Hedgie is ready for his his own beddie-bye in his burrow for a long winter's nap, in Jan Brett's latest picture book, The Snowy Nap (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018).

In this companion book to Brett's many winters' tales, the author again chooses an Scandinavian setting where winter is more than just a passing change of season, and again brings forth the beauty of the natural world in her iconic illustrative style. Unlike many of her wintry stories, in this one Brett abandons her usual bright red and green primary accents, for subtler soft and soothing secondary shades done in watercolors and gouache. Artist Brett does. however, offer her usual curvaceous frames, foreshadowing what happens with each page turn. This is a good change-of-season wintry story to share with Brett's The Hat or any of her several Christmas tales. And for another happy hibernation tale, pair this one with Karma Wilson's Bear Snores On (Storytown).