Sea Monsters? Pirates? Shipwrecks? Oh, MY! The Quiet Boat Ride by Sergio Ruzzier

Under a bright morning sky, Fox launches his little rowboat into the tranquil pond. But before he can row away, Chick appears, full of questions, as usual.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, FOX?"

"I'M GOING FOR A QUIET BOAT RIDE."

"CAN I COME, TOO?" ASKED CHICK.

"I GUESS IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE QUIET..." SAYS FOX, NOT WITHOUT REGRET.

And Fox is right about that. As soon as they shove off, Chick begins asking questions. Can he be captain? Are there sea monsters down there under the water? Are there scary pirates on this pond? What about shipwrecks?

"I DON'T KNOW, FOX. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A QUIET BOAT RIDE!" LAMENTS CHICK.

"A QUIET BOAT RIDE WAS MY PLAN!" MUTTERS FOX.

Fox reluctantly rows the boat to the shore, and as they disembark, Chick kisses the ground. Safe at last.

And as Fox ruefully remarks, no encounter is quiet with Chick around, in Sergio Ruzzier's latest super easy beginning chapter book, Fox and Chick: The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories (Chronicle Books, 2019).

In a classic example of the folklorish "noodle" tale, Chick is the perfect "noodlehead," and Fox is the unlikely and patient "straight man," who tries to bring the clueless little chick up to speed in three gentle stories in which Fox is forced to explain how things work to his inquisitive little buddy. In the second story, "The Chocolate Cake" and the third, "The Sunrise," there's a laugh on every page for both adults or older kids who share this book with younger children just beginning to read on their own. With a cogent little tale of innocence and caretaking told in comic book-format, four frames to the page, this latest from author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier is a little gem. Ruzzier's other Fox and Chick stories and other picture books include Fox & Chick: The Party: Book 1 and Fox & Chick: The Sleepover: and Other Stories. (See reviews here:)

Chicks Just Want to Have Fun! A Friend for Bentley by Paige Keiser

Bently was the only pig on Sunset Farm.

And when you're the only, it can get a bit lonely.

Bently has no one who wants to wallow in the mud with him.

The sheep found it too dirty for their clean white wool.

The chickens gagged at the sight of his gloppy slop.

They preferred seeds and worms.

And NO ONE wanted to do Crossword Puzzles! BO-RING!

But one day lonely Bentley hears something that sounds like a distinctive OINK.

The source turns out to be a baby chick taking a dust bath in the dirt and oinking as loudly as she can.

"I thought I heard another pig!" Bently said, noticeably disappointed.

Daisy the Chick excitedly explains that she wants to be a pig, but wallowing in mud is too hard for her, so she is working up to it by taking dust baths. Bently offers her some of his slop. Sadly she isn't as great at gobbling slop as she is at oinking. But she's already a whiz at crossword puzzles.

It's a friendship made in heaven and for a while Bently is never lonely with Daisy to share all his favorite things. But as Daisy begins to grow into a chicken, she comes to dislike mud baths and drops slop for earthworms, and she's no longer so fond of crossword games. But before she completely loses all her crossword chops, she enters and wins a contest, and the grand prize is--

A PIG!

Now Daisy is happily at home in the hen house, and thanks to her friendship, Bently has a porcine pal with whom to take a wallow, in Paige Keiser's A Friend for Bently (Harper, 2019), told cheerily and filled with charmingly Disneyesque farm animals doing their thing (except for the occasional all-nighter crossword contest). Handling differences that develop between friends is here handled with the sort of insightful and kind understanding that keeps a long-term friendship shipshape.