Egg Time, Spring Time: The Happy Egg by Ruth Kraus

IT WAS JUST BORN.

IT WAS AN EGG.

A white bird regards the blue egg she has just laid with some surprise.

It can't do bird things--walk, sing, or fly.

IT COULD JUST BE SAT ON.

And the bird does her duty. She sits on the egg, and one day it surprises her with a CRACK!

Out comes a jaunty blue bird who greets her with a lusty PEEP! And it's ready for action.

It walks right off, page right! It sings like a bird. And then it flies away, right off the page, only to reappear, in the upper right corner, proud and happy.

And, as Ruth Kraus suggests in the new issue of her classic, the little blue bird may someday have her own egg to sit on, in the revised edition of her The Happy Egg (Harper, 2016) Kraus's narrative is beginning-reader simple, and the illustrations provided by her husband, Crockett Johnson (of Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books) fame) are minimalist, flat, blackline drawings with primary colors--blue and yellow--that tell the story wordlessly with iconic images. There is a flower blooming, so we know it's spring. The hatchling passes in a page turn through early nestling days, fledging and flying right away, in an instant of telescoped growing up. The final page promises a successful transition, with five blue eggs waiting for their turn to be sat on.

With the message that growing up is a hopeful thing, this is the stuff of classic picture book storytelling, and Krauss herself authored two Caldecott Honor books, the iconic The Carrot Seed, 60th Anniversary Edition illustrated by Crockett Johnson, The Happy Day, illustrated by Marc Simont, as well as A Hole Is to Dig, with pictures by Maurice Sendak.

Kirkus Reviews says simply "...deceptively simple and sweet."

[Expletive Deleted]: Little Bird's Bad Word by Jacob Grant

Little Bird and Papa are having lunch out together. Papa's picked up their food and they're flying to a good place to share their picnic.

"LUNCH IS EXTRA WIGGLY TODAY," NOTES PAPA.

Lunch is a big pink worm, who obviously does not wish to go to lunch with them. He wiggles so well that Papa drops him. And before he can think, that word pops out of Papa's beak!

"BLARK!"

Little Bird is intrigued. He's gotta say that word, too! In fact, he says it three times!

"THIS IS NOT A WORD FOR LITTLE BIRDS!" PAPA SAYS.

But despite the warning, Little Bird can't wait to try it out with his friends.

"Blark!"

His friend Frog is affronted. Moose is not amused. Ladybug and Fish are offended.

Turtle is so taken aback that he clams up inside his shell!

Maybe that interesting word is not a GOOD word!

Papa apologizes and points out that Little Bird has a lot to learn about words, especially words that may do some harm to others. And he teaches Little Bird a new word.

"SORRY!"

But author-illustrator Jacob Grant gives the LAST word about bad words to Little Bird's new catch for lunch, the worm, who is clearly having a very bad day, in his Little Bird's Bad Word (Feiwel and Friends, 2015). This is a fresh and funny introduction to the power of words and the use of certain words that little ones should not use.  Grant's illustrations are cute and comic, but reveal volumes in the facial expressions of his characters. Kirkus Reviews calls it "... a charming, tender and ever pertinent life lesson."

Location, Location, Location! Home Tweet Home by Courtney Dicmas

THERE WERE TEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS: EDGAR, MAUDE, RUPERT, HELENA, WINNIE, CECIL, BEATRIX, ROSALIE, PIPPA, AND BURT.

"THIS NEST IS TOO SMALL!" GRUMBLED PIPPA.

"WELL, THE WORLD IS BIG, AND SO ARE WE," CHIRPED BURT.

A couple of fidgety fledglings decide it's time they flew the coop and find a more commodious roost of their own.

Burt and Pippa don't get too far out over the sea when they spot a comfy, cozy island.

"PERFECT!" CHIRPED BURT.

"IT'S BIG AND STURDY."

No, it's not. Their personal island turns out to be a sea turtle's back, and he's about to submerge.

Pippa and Burt quickly decide to wing it. But they're young, too young to realize that finding the perfect home means location, location, location.

A cheetah's back is soft and furry, but it moves too fast! A sea crocodile's back is too pointy and so is his toothy smile that invites them to stay... for lunch!

The flighty house hunters try out a kangaroo's pouch, a fox's tail, an octopus's, er, "head,"--but none of them quite meet their specifications. Where is their dream house?

In Courtney Dicmas' latest, Home Tweet Home (Doubleday Books, 2015), "there's no place like home "is the theme of this piquant reworking of the little runaway theme, as the young swallows decide that maybe Mom and Dad's house isn't so bad after all. Dicmas' tale may be familiar, but her illustrations are something special, with soft colored pencil lines and splotches of gouache and acrylic pastels, in a careful design that reveals with each page turn why Burt and Pippa's spur-of-the-moment choices are not so choice. This one is a natural to pair with P.D. Eastman's similarly themed classic, The Best Nest (Beginner Books(R)).

Taking Care: The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc

LION WAS WORKING IN HIS GARDEN ONE DAY WHEN HE HEARD A SOUND.

Lion looks around and sees a fallen bird, with a broken wing.

"OH, YOU POOR LITTLE THING!

LET'S BANDAGE YOU UP!"

As Lion gently picks him up, he follows the bird's anguished gaze and see his flock vanishing over the horizon.

Lion reassures the bird that he will be welcome to stay over the winter in his warm safe house, and he keeps his promise.

Bird's wing heals, but he remains with Lion, and slowly Lion's lonely life changes as he shares it with his new companion. Tucked warm and safe in little nest inside Lion's woolly winter cap, Bird looks out as Lion ventures outside in the strange, wintry snowscape.  Lion takes him on his toboggan, where they whiz down hills or stop for a bit of ice fishing at the lake. At night they enjoy the warmth of the fireplace, Bird tucked snugly inside one of Lion's slippers, and spend the long evenings in quiet companionship. Lion realizes that winter is not so hard and long with a friend.

But as the winter passes into early spring, as snowdrops poke their buds through the melting snow, Bird seems to grow restless with the fireside. And one day, when they are outside, he perches on a limb and looks up to see a flight of birds heading north, and he knows what he must do.

HE LOOKS DOWN AT LION.

"YES," LION SAYS. "I KNOW."

Bird flies away with the flock, looking back, as on the ground Lion grows smaller and smaller in view behind him.

"SOMETIMES LIFE IS LIKE THAT," SAYS LION SOFTLY.

Lion is alone again. He is sad to be without Bird, but he still watches the sky, in hope that his friend will not forget him.

Marianne Dubuc's The Lion and the Bird (Enchanted Lion Books, 2014) is a gently told parable that touches on many of the qualities of relationships--caring, sharing, and finding closeness, but also giving the other the freedom to do what he must. Like the prodigal, of course, Bird returns when the cold winds begin to blow, to share Lion's cozy house for the winter as their friendship continues. Although there are deep meanings in this story, Dubuc's easy narrative, combining humor, loss, longing, and love and her nuanced, evocative drawings make it easy for young readers to sense these truths. "... a remarkably moving, and—considering it features two animals—deeply human story," says Publishers Weekly in their starred review.

For slightly older primary students, this one makes a great compare-and-contrast read aloud along with Sergio Ruzzier's similar A Letter for Leo.

You've Got Mail! A Letter for Leo by Sergio Ruzzier

LEO IS THE MAILMAN OF A LITTLE OLD TOWN.

HE CARRIES ALL KINDS OF MAIL: BIG BOXES, SMALL PACKETS, ENVELOPES OF EVERY SIZE, CATALOGS, LOVE LETTERS, BIRTHDAY CARDS.

LEO HAS A PLEASANT LIFE, EXCEPT FOR ONE THING.

HE HAS NEVER RECEIVED A LETTER HIMSELF.

Every day Leo trudges through town, stopping sometimes for a game of bocce with the others, or sitting and sipping tea with a hospitable hen.

But Leo, a slightly stooped, mild-mannered weasel, is clearly lonely, and the letters he delivers only remind him that he is alone most of the time.

Then one morning, when he is about to open a mailbox, he hears something strange:

"Cheep!"

What could it be? He looks inside the box and sees a little bird who seems lost.

"YOU ARE TOO LITTLE TO FLY SOUTH BY YOURSELF," SAYS LEO.

Leo gently takes the little bird home and feeds him his emergency supply of dried crickets. He beds him down in an old mail-sorting box, and soon the two settle in for the winter. They prepare and eat their meals together and sit by the fire together, and when it snows, they build a snowman together. Cheep borrows Leo's mailman's cap for their snowman and gives him birdlike feet made from twigs.

But spring comes. Cheep learns to fly, and soon they both know that it is time for him to take flight with the flocks of birds passing over and heading for their nesting territory. They wave, and with a last "cheep," Leo's friend leaves. Now Leo is even more lonely as he goes back to his solitary life.

But one day there is something in his mailbox. It's a letter--for him.

Hopefully, he opens it to read:

Cheep cheep cheep cheep. Cheep cheep cheep cheep!
--CHEEP.

Does this mean that Cheep will be back when autumn comes?

Sergio Ruzzier's latest, A Letter for Leo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion Books, 2014). is a sweetly simple story of loneliness, longing, and friendship found that finds it way straight to the heart. Stylized and spare, Ruzzier's art speaks through his simple line drawings and expressive faces, with something of the sensibility of Dr. Seuss, with comfortably curved lines for his characters and grassy hills colored in pale yellows, lavenders, and greens, spare, almost surreal flowers and weeds, and tiled-roof houses a la Tomie dePaola's that give a hint of an Italian setting. Kids too young to have ever been alone for more than a minute will feel the pathos of Leo's loneliness, the mailman who delivers daily but never receives, and will empathize at the happiness that just one letter can bring.

See some of Ruzzier's earlier work, as author-illustrator himself or providing the artwork for the noted Eve Bunting's text, right here.

I Vant to Be Alone! Pardon Me! by Daniel Miyares

It's roosting time, and an odd yellow bird apparently has had a bad day. Cruising over the swamp, he lands on a small hummock and settles his feathers grumpily to rest.

But some other creatures have the same idea. A big white crane soon plops down beside him. The yellow bird is peeved.

A friendly frog hops ashore and politely asks permission to join them. The yellow bird is aggrieved. A turtle crawls up and asks politely for space. Yellow bird replies sarcastically:

"PARDON ME?"

"SURE, THE ENTIRE SWAMP'S HERE ALREADY.

WHY SHOULDN'T YOU BE?"

Yellow bird's feathers are ruffled, and he's spoiling for a fight, when a fox jumps over and speaks with some urgency.

"PARDON ME, BUT YOU'RE SITTING ON A ..."

Yellow bird has had it with the interlopers, the whole lot of them!

"WELL, PARDON ME! THIS IS MY PERCH! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Suddenly the whole lot of them fly, swim, and leap away. Yellow Bird settles down, self-satisfied at the way he dispatched the squatters. Alone at last.

Or not. What did the fox want to say? Just that that hummock in the swamp isn't what it seems. With an artful page turn we see that it's... an alligator, one who also wants to be alone. Right after dinner.

BURP!

PARDON ME!

There's safety in numbers is the wry premise of Daniel Miyares' Pardon Me! (Simon and Schuster, 2014). His main character's end comes ironically, but not regrettably, in this tart little swamp fable that will surprise and tickle the funny bones of kids who loved Jon Klaasen's notable I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat. Miyares' illustrations are equally spare and effective and display an artful use of color to set off this story of a just comeuppance... and a lot more.

Birdy V. Worm: Early Birdy Gets the Worm by Bruce Lansky

A baby bird, the only one awake, peers over the edge of the nest. What is Mama doing down there? She's pulling a delicious-looking worm out of a worm hole!  Hey!  Is it breakfast time?

Birdy has to try that for himself. He hops over the edge of the nest and flutters perilously down to the ground. Now, where are the worms?

He spots something long and skinny and grabs it in his beak and pulls. But this worm is not cooperating. It pulls back. In fact, it is pulling him into the air. Wait! That's not a worm. It's a kite string!

Early Birdy is not ready to be airborne just yet, so he lets go. Now, where is a real worm?

He sees something long and pink in the hollow at the bottom of a tree trunk. Birdy is on it in a flash! Unfortunately, the long pink thing turns out to have a rather angry mouse at the other end, one now with a sore tail.  Uh, sorry!  Have a good day!

Finally Early Birdy spots a real worm crawling across the ground. Unfortunately, a BIG bluejay spots it at the same time. There's a brief tug-of-war over the stretchy worm, with the inevitable result. Bluejay flys away with his worm, and Early Birdy flops into a faceful of dirt.

Things only get worse when Birdy sees a boy with a can of worms. The little fisherman takes one out and does something with some string, and Early Birdy makes his move for the worm, only to find himself sailing out over the pond holding fast to the worm on a fish hook.

What's a guy got to do to get some grub around here?

In his latest Picture Reading Book for Young Children, Early Birdy Gets the Worm: A PictureReading Book for Young Children (Meadowbrook Press, 2014), author Bruce Lansky and artist Bill Bolton have a wordless story with just enough slapstick humor and tension to take little ones through the story on their own after an initial parental run-through.  Bolton's comic watercolor illustrations are charming, while clearly "telling" the story through his characters' facial expressions and body language. Available in board book and e-book format, this one offers the youngest "readers" the chance to create their own narration each time they open the book.

Lansky's other tales for tots include his fractured nursery verse collections, Mary Had a Little Jam and Other Silly Rhymes and Peter, Peter, Pizza-Eater: And Other Silly Rhymes, and his Baby Genius board book series.

Ah, Brave New World! I Hatched by Jill Esbaum

CRACK!

TA-DA!

WHAT'S NEW?

ME!

An ebullient baby bird wastes no time on transitions. He stretches as he emerges from his too-tight shell, checks out his gangly long legs and his very far-away feet, and, Hoo-boy, he's ready to go and go and go.

ONCE MY DOWN IS FLUFFED AND DRY,

I TAKE OFF RUNNING DON'T KNOW WHY.

Clearly he's a killdeer, born to run, and run he does, this way and that. Everything is new and wonderful. He studies his reflection in the pond and pronounces himself handsome, as a big green frog goggles up at this new critter. Wait! There's Mom, with lunch! Bugs and worms (a bunch!) Yum!

KIL-DEE, KIL-DEE DEEEEE-DEE!

This exuberant, peripatetic baby plover is full of life, full of himself, full of that joie de vivre that makes him sing out, run about, and inspect a part of himself he didn't know he had.

I STOP BECAUSE... LOOK OUT BELOW!

SOMETHING'S FALLING FROM MY... OH.

HERE'S A SHOCKER. PLEASE DON'T STARE,

BUT TAKE A LOOK! I'M ORANGE UNDER THERE!

This bird can't resist exloring everywhere, until he hears a familiar CRACK! It's a shell, just like his, and there's--his sister just peeping out of it. Hoo-boy, the things he's got to show her!

SISTER DEAR! LUCKY YOU,
I BEAT YOU HERE!

Jill Esbaum's just-emerged new I Hatched! (Dial, 2014) is the perfect picture of any baby just coming into his own, human or bird, full of enthusiasm and energy, exploring everything he sees before him, filled with the exuberance of living in a wondrous world. With joyous, evocative rhymes and Jen Corace's splendid illustrations which portray the heady, headlong urge to experience it ALL at once, this story captures the essence of youth, as invigorating as spring itself. This book is a bouncy bundle of energy just like its boisterous downy protagonist, one not to be missed this season.

Now You See Him, Now You Don't! A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes

ONCE THERE WAS A FUNNY LITTLE BIRD.

MOST OF THE TIME IT WAS AS IF HE WAS INVISIBLE.

And except for his pointy orange beak, his black button eyes, and his long dark legs, he is. Invisible, that is.

It is only when he stands in front of something colorful that his shape can be discerned, white against the background. Being nearly invisible is hard. Other birds shun him as just too weird.

So the little bird gets busy, plucking up a colorful feather, flowers, spiraling tendrils, and shapely foliage from the area around him with which to adorn (and delineate) himself.  Now he is more visible and he attracts attention.  A stealthy mouse passing by is amazed!

Unfortunately, the little bird is now visible to a feral fox and a wandering weasel, and to them he now looks like dinner!

Luckily the little bird enlists the help of the mouse to solve his problem. When he wants to be seen, he stands in front of the mouse, and when he wants to hide from hungry predators, the mouse runs to hide and leaves the funny little bird blending with the background and virtually invisible again.

An invisible protagonist is an odd premise for a picture book, but in Jennifer Yerkes' A Funny Little Bird (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2013), the author's minimalist and modish  illustrations provide a fascinating study of what it means  really to be seen for what you are. A quirky, sophisticated story which is a fascinating treat for the eyes. As School Library Journal says, ""Sophisticated vocabulary and elegantly understated art...a sweet and lovely package."

On the Tail of a Shaggy Dog Tale: Chick 'n' Pug Meet the Dude by Jennifer Sattler

CHICK 'N' PUG WERE AN UNSTOPPABLE TEAM. THEY SPENT MOST OF THEIR TIME LOOKING FOR EXCITING ADVENTURES AND SAVING ORDINARY CITIZENS.

At least, that's the way Chick tells it. Chick has a thing for hyperbole, and to her this somnolent  pooch is Wonder Pug, definitely a super-hero ready to spring into action to the right wrongs of the world. But Pug is no action figure. In fact, his main action appears to be finding times and places for naps, with great success.

But when a ginormous shaggy white dog makes off with their favorite toy, Squeaky Hamburger, Chick thinks it's time for some caped crusading.

"JUST LOOK AT THOSE CLAWS! AND THOSE SHARP FANGS! THE EVIL LOOK IN HIS EYES!" SAID CHICK.

"WHO IS THIS MONSTER?"

Underwhelmed, Pug opens one droopy eyelid just as the beast makes off with the toy, page right.

"THE DUDE," HE SAYS DROWSILY.

"DON'T WORRY, WONDER PUG!" CHICK BOASTS. "I WILL NOT LET THE VILLAIN ESCAPE."

Pug, on the other hand, dozes off again, only rousing himself when a nice woman offers him a treat.

"DOES MY PUGGY WUGGY WANNA NUMMY BONE?"

Chick is on her own sleuthing out the theft of Squeaky Hamburger in this one, but now Wonder Pug has a trick or two under his blankie to soothe the savage beast, in Jennifer Sattler's sequel to her 2010 hit, Chick 'n' Pug, (see review here), Chick 'n' Pug Meet the Dude (Bloomsbury, 2013). Chick, a sort of hyper-frenetic Tweetie Bird, is the real mover and shaker here;  nobody draws comic pugs like Jennifer Sattler, with her heavy-lidded pooch playing the perfect straight man to the over-caffeinated Chick. While silliness is the main order of the day, Sattler's simple premise--that good friends are sometime wildly dissimilar--comes through as loud and clear as Chick's histrionics.

Fear of Flying: Let's Go, Hugo! by Angela Dominguez

HUGO WAS A BIT DIFFERENT.

HE PREFERRED WALKING TO FLYING.

The sidewalks of Paris are said to be delightful. Being a boulevardier has its charms. But Hugo is a bird, and strolling around his verdant park is, after all, rather strange for for a bird.

Although he admires the distant Eiffel Tower, Hugo seems content to build models of it on the grass under a tree, near his burrow. (Yes, Hugo is a burrowing bird!)

And then one day Lulu notices him. Lulu is a lovely little bird who can see the famous landmark from the treetop and invites him to fly with her to the Eiffel Tower .

Hugo cannot admit that he is afraid to try to fly, so instead he invites Lulu for a stroll through the park.  The two hit if off, but Hugh is hard put to come up with reasons why he cannot fly with Lulu to the Tower. His ploys work at first: his feathers need to dry, he says, and then he points out, that it seems to be getting too dark to fly. Lulu seems disappointed and takes her leave as she takes to her wings.

HUGO'S HEART SANK. HE'D NEVER SEE THE EIFFEL TOWER NOW!

WHAT IF HE NEVER SAW LULU AGAIN EITHER!

Luckily, Hugo meets a mentor, an night owl named Bernard, and confesses his fears of flying.

"EVERYONE IS AFRAID OF SOMETHING," Bernard said.

Hugh is encouraged by Bernard's offer to help him practice his liftoff, and when Lulu returns, he's still a bit fearful, but ready to try his wings in a flight to the Tower.

In her first book, Let's Go, Hugo! (Dial Books, 2013), artist-illustrator Angela Dominguez illuminates this light story of first-time fears conquered with lovely, light-as-a-feather tissue-paper collage illustrations, as Hugo and Lulu lift off together for their next adventure. "What sets this story apart...is Dominguez's delightful ink and tissue paper collages....A charming little ode to overcoming fear," says Booklist.

Flap! Flap! Flaps! UP! TALL! and HIGH! by Ethan Long

"I AM TALL!"

A clearly self-important green bird proudly boasts about his height until an even taller lavender bird walks on page, towers over him, and tells him so.

But both birds seem to have been topped by a third set of long bird legs. The two birds stare up and up and up, and the page turns to reveal a half-page gatefold revealing the third bird, actually quite squat in stature, standing on a very long pair of stilts. AHA! But before the tall two can protest, the short bird hops down, admits that he's not actually tall, but gets the last word as he spreads his very impressive tail to prove that he's can best them both in the horizontal department:

"I AM NOT SMALL!"

Artist-animator Ethan Long's 2013 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winning book, (for beginning reader books) Up, Tall and High (Putnam, 2013) takes on the task of explaining the difference between the related but not synonymous concepts of "up," "high," and "tall." You can be small and high, or tall and up, but not necessarily high (or at least not the highest!) and Long's three short stories, which add up to only 34 words in total, demonstrate these slightly different concepts through the use of opinionated birds and the use of half-page gatefold flaps which demonstrate the concept while provoking some chuckles at these boastful birds who are obviously high on themselves.

Great for toddlers just learning the fine points of language or for older emergent readers who will proudly read this book to themselves, Long's little linguistic lesson offers youngsters the sort of silly slapstick story preschoolers love. Or, as Publishers Weekly puts it ... "borscht-belt clowning by the birds provides plenty of visual humor."

Hitchin' A Ride: Bee & Bird by Craig Frazier

The more you see--the more you understand.

What begins as simple glowing shapes in bright yellow and shiny black stripes with an accent of red is NOT an abstract color-block painting. In reverse magnification accomplished with the turn of a page, the view we see (from a sky view) is that the picture is actually a bee hitchhiking a ride on the top of a red bird's head.

As we continue to zoom out, we see the two atop a field of green which upon further zoom becomes a small tree being transported in the bed of a yellow truck. When the truck stops to deliver its load, the hitchhikers shift to a black-and-white background, which zooms out to show them riding bareback on the wide back of a cow.

A patch of white surrounded by blue becomes the sail of a boat as the two hitch a ride across a pond, where bird and bee then bum a boost in the basket of a boy's bike, headed for--well, where would a bee be bound at the end of a busy day?

Craig Frazier's Bee & Bird (Roaring Brook, 2011) does not disappoint, as the final spread shows bars of color with an arc of black which zooms out to reveal--a symmetrical beehive, with Bird perched on top and Bee finding his day's destination as he buzzes into the hive.

Besides its obvious virtues of design, enticing eye-candy art, this book provides youngsters the opportunity to predict what each successive image will be when zoomed out--a sort of mental exercise in a novel wordless book with an old premise--that of finding the truth in a wider world view. As Kirkus Reviews tweets, "an interesting and urbane read."

Hey, Mom! When's Dinner? Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming

SEVEN HUNGRY BABIES OPEN THEIR BEAKS WIDE. "FEED US, FEED US!" THE LITTLE ONES CRIED.

"OF COURSE, MY PRECIOUS CUDDLE FLUFFS," MAMA BIRD COOED.
"I'LL FLY TO THE TALL GRASS TO FIND YOU SOME FOOD!!

FLAPPA-FLAP, SWOOP, SWOOP, ZOOM ZOOM. YUM!

G-U-U-U-LP!

But mothers' work is never done, and as Mama Bird returns with a different beakful of bird chow from every foraging place she knows--meadow, orchard, and schoolyard--she manages to satisfy just one chick, only to find another wide awake and with beak wide open, begging. So when she at last concludes the countdown and satisfies the seventh nestling and all are dozing off at last, she heaves a sign of well-deserved relief. Her work here is done--for the moment.

SEVEN QUIET BABIES FINALLY NAP IN THE NEST.

"AH," COOED MAMA BIRD, "NOW I GET TO--

"PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!" SEVEN HUNGRY CHICKS OPEN THEIR BEAKS WIDE.

"OH, NO, NOT THIS TIME!" MAMA CHIRPS... "IT'S DADDY'S TURN TO FLY!"

Filled with humor and playful wordplay, Candace Fleming's latest, Seven Hungry Babies (Atheneum, 2010) sets off its bright, witty illustrations with delightful text design. The words soar, sweep, swoop, and flap across the pages like, well, Mama Bird on the wing, while Eugene Yelchin gives his bird family witty expressions--the babies' confident demands, Mama's loving and finally exhausted determination, and Daddy Bird's quizzical look when he realizes that he is now on duty--which will elicit chuckles. This one works on several levels--as a simple funny story, as a counting up and down book, as a tribute to mothers, and as a subtle statement on the value of both Mama and Daddy in a real two-parent family.

Mouse House: A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole

With a tip of his hat to Robert Lawson and his classic Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos, illustrious illustrator Henry Cole's first novel, A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home (HarperCollins, 2010) tells the story of another mouse who, befriended by a famous person, becomes closely involved in history.

It is 1821, and Celeste, an independent young mouse, lives beneath the floorboards of Oakley Plantation in Louisiana. Happy among her artisanal paw-crafted baskets, Celeste has only two concerns: Illiana and Trixie, cantankerous rats who order her to forage in the upstairs dining room floor for their treats, and Miss Eliza's cat, Puss, who snoozes fitfully as she guards that domain against rodent incursions. On one unwanted foray, Celeste hears the master of the house welcoming two visitors, Monsieur John James Audubon, hired to tutor young Eliza in art and dance, and his thirteen-year-old apprentice Joseph, an art student who is to do the backgrounds for the bird portraits Audubon plans to complete while at Oakley.

But Celeste's food-gathering mission is interrupted by Puss, who chases her upstairs, where the little mouse scoots under a closed door and finds refuge in a boot pushed far under a cot in the small bedroom. That boot turns out to belong to young Joseph, who is lonely and adopts the little field mouse as his pet, carrying her about in his shirt pocket and letting her watch as he struggles with his art assignments. Then one day Celeste is appalled to see the determined Audubon killing a bird to use as his model, directing Joseph to pin it to a board in a lifelike pose for the portrait he is painting. And when a young wood thrush named Cornelius is captured and stuffed into a small cage, Celeste is sure the friendly bird will meet the same fate unless she can intervene. Later, when she hears Cornelius warble his thanks for her gift of a sprig of dogwood berries, she has an inspiration:

"Do that for Joseph!" she says. "Sing just like that. Promise me."

Celeste coaches Cornelius in just how to sing and strike live poses to please the two artists, and his life is spared until Celeste is able to help him escape. And when Lafayette, an osprey who rescued and flew Celeste home when she was lost in the woods, is captured, Celeste teaches him how to model for Audubon and saves his life as well. Lafayette is quite a character, returning the favor by managing to rid the plantation house of the disagreeable Trixie, who orders him to take her for a flight in the woven basket gondola Celeste designs. As the bossy rat enjoys the scenery, Lafayette pays his debt during the tour by dropping her off "accidentally" for an extended holiday.

"Oh, Holy Crawdad," says Lafayette. "I'm afraid Miss Trixie won't be coming back."

Henry Cole, whose notable illustrations have enlivened many a picture book, rises to a new level with soft, pencil drawings which become the heart of his first novel. Cole's work, subtle yet evocative, flows seamlessly from page to page, changing focus and perspective, now taking in the whole plantation house from above, now focusing in on Celeste's tiny artisan's paws, and supports his graceful storytelling elegantly. Celeste is a wonderful little heroine, a mouse who inspires art and friendship while dodging a determined mouser and who, with the help of her feathered friends, finds her own perfect attic refuge at last. Cole has given elementary readers memorable illustrations and a wonderful cast of characters headed by a mouse who can stand tall with such company as Stuart Little and Despereaux.

As the writer for Kirkus Reviews says, this book is "a rare gift: a novel with artwork as whole and vital as a picture book's."