Whozzat? Smick by Doreen Cronin

GOOD, SMICK!

STICK?

Smick's off-page owner points out a stick (surprisingly, a digitally offered image of a real stick) and big, droopy-eared Smick is up for a game of throw-and-fetch--until a small Cluck is heard.

What? It's ... a CHICK?

What should Smick do with that? Fetch it like the stick? His human nixes that move quick!

There is a better way to play with a chick, and Smick and Chick soon figure that out, as Chick rides along on Smick's head as he fetches the stick. Chick is more fun than a stick. Chick is a sidechick! No, wait! He's a...

SIDEKICK!

And Smick's little sidekick chick sticks it out and earns a lick from Smick's long tongue in the latest preschool pleaser from Doreen Cronin (of Click Clack Moo fame).

Veteran wordsmith Cronin's Smick (Viking Press, 2015) shows again why she's a best-selling writer who knows how to use simple text to charm readers and to inspire illustrators to remarkable heights. Juana Medina's Smick is big, goofy white dog, outlined in thick, amorphous blackline, ready for anything, and his new friend is a bright-hued collaged leaf-shape with minimalist features and skinny bird legs, whose expressions extend Cronin's equally spare text. Dogs just wanna have fun, and with this playful pair, the author's slick rhyming vocabulary will have preschoolers "reading" their way through this delightful romp in the park. "This clever and appealing glimpse into the start of some delightful friendships is one doggone good time," says School Library Journal's starred review.

For more odd-couple pairings, share this one with Jennifer Sattler's Chick 'n' Pug or sequels. (See reviews here.)

Different Strokes: Jasper & Joop by Olivier Dunrea

Jasper and Joop are two very different goslings.

Jasper's white feathers are pristine and smooth as silk. He never leaves the nest without tidying it up and putting on his little rep tie and striped cap.

Joop's grey feathers are spiky and messy. In fact, he musses them up carefully before he leaves his disreputable nest.

Nevertheless, this odd couple of goslings are friends. While the fastidious Jasper holds back from interacting with the wet, dusty, muddy outdoors and shrinks from interacting with people of the pig persuasion, Joop embraces it all!

"MUDDY MUD!!" HONKS JOOP.

As Jasper shrinks in distaste, Joop splashes in puddles, plops into the mud with the piglets, and cheers when the chicks invite him for a frolic in the musty, dusty straw. It is not until he ignores the buzzzzzzzing of the bees near their hive, that Joop runs a-fowl of his environment. Jasper looks on aghast as Joop follows the bees right up to their hive. And then, horror of horrors---

JOOP STICKS HIS BILL INTO THE BEEHIVE.

This time the judicious Jasper takes the lead and they both RUN from the angry bees--into the tall grass, rolling in the mud, and waddling wildly until they SPLASH into the safety of the pond. When they bob up, they find themselves in agreement for the first time that day:

"WHAT FUN!"

Olivier Dunrea's latest in his Gossie and Friends series, the just-out Jasper & Joop (Gossie & Friends) (Houghton Mifflin, 2013) shows a pair of fine feathered friends who find that their differences don't stop them from finding fun. Olivier Dunrea's oh-so-inviting illustrations, blackline drawings, in strong pastels against a bright white pages, give his books a plenty of eye appeal, and his stories of exuberant young geese and ducks are fine preschool fare. For Easter baskets pair this one with Dunrea's seasonal treat, Ollie's Easter Eggs (a Gossie & Friends book) (see my review here). What fun indeed!!

It Takes Two: Polar Bear Morning by Lauren Thompson

THE LITTLE POLAR BEAR HEARS THE SEAGULLS CALLING.

What Little Polar Bear sees is a new morning, the sky still a midnight blue against the white snow. Then the golden sun shows over the ice and with the promise of new adventures out there, he sets forth to explore his new world. As the sky shows pink with the sunrise, he plays in the snow.

And then he sees something intriguing at the top of a snowdrift. It seems to have a face. And it is looking at him with great interest.

It is another baby bear, and the two of them begin to learn to play together, tumbling down the snow hill and finally taking the plunge into the blue waters to swim deep down and then up into the light, where they climb up upon a friendly ice floe to rest.

It's a simple little story, illuminated by the artist Stephen Savage in a striking palette of blue, black, and white in eye-cating block prints. Lauren Thompson's latest, Polar Bear Morning (Scholastic, 2013) is a companion piece to the earlier heralded Polar Bear Night (New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books (Awards)), reminding us that one is the loneliest number, but two can do it all.

Egg-stravaganza! Duck & Goose: Here Comes the Easter Bunny by Tad Hills

It's Easter Eve, and Duck and Goose listen to the voice of experience:

YOU'D BETTER FIND A GOOD HIDING SPOT

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE EASTER BUNNY!

Duck and Goose put on their thinking caps. How can they spy on the Easter Rabbit?

Duck wades in and suggests that they hide in the pond.

But spring ponds are cold for standing all night, even for water fowl.

Goose struggles to climb into a tiny tree. Duck pronounces it too scary high.

Then the two decide to go undercover. Duck and Goose make themselves disguises with leafy twigs--a garland around their little heads and tiny branches under each wing. That busy Bunny will never notice them now. They settle down to stay awake for the no-doze duration as the moon rises and the stars come out. But soon nature takes its course and the two wee mock trees slip into a snooze.

But not to worry. In Tad Hills' new holiday tale, Duck & Goose, Here Comes the Easter Bunny! (Schwartz & Wade, 2012), (Scgwartz & Wade, 2012) the two may miss the Easter Bunny, but when they awake, their twig headdresses all wilted and their eyelids droopy, they find his pastel products all around. As a fine sugar-free Easter basket treat, this little board book, with its charming little fowl and glittery decorated Easter egg-stravaganza on the cover, will surely brighten an Easter morn.

Rounding Up A Friend: Roly Poly Pangolin by Anna Dewdney

ROLY POLY, VERY SMALL,

DOESN'T LIKE NEW THINGS AT ALL!

Roly Poly is a very young pangolin, and the farthest he gets from Mama is to ride around on her tail while she rustles up her dinner. Not that Roly Poly is having any of those strange ants and slugs she likes, though. And when a curious little monkey peeps from behind a bush, hoping to play, Roly Poly shyly covers his face with his paws.

But then Mama moves out of sight and Roly is alone. And then he hears a new sound--one he's never heard before.

SCARY MONSTER SOUND? OH, NO!
ROLY POLY, GO GO GO!

A very small Roly tries to run, but he trips and rolls tail over head downhill. But wait! Pangolins do have one trick, and Roly Poly knows how to do it! He rolls himself into a tight ball, tail over head, and lets his large leathery scales protect him.

Safe at last.

But Roly is a bit curious. Is that the same teensy, tiny sound again? He moves his tail, just a tiny bit, to make a Roly Poly peephole. And what he sees is a happy surprise.

ROLY POLY VERY SMALL,
HEARS ANOTHER TINY CALL.

OPENS EYES A TEENSY CRACK...
ANOTHER BALL IS PEEPING BACK!

It's a pretty little blue pangolin, peeping shyly back at him, and Roly Poly sees one new thing he's going to like getting to know.

Anna Dewdney, author-illustrator of the beloved Llama, Llama books, has shown that she knows how to get inside the mindset of the average little preschooler as he or she navigates the milestones of early life, as in her best-selling Llama Llama Red Pajama and its sequels. And in her brand-new Roly Poly Pangolin (Viking, 2010) Dewdney has an appealing new character whose youthful curiosity helps him finally come out of his shell!

An afterword by the author even offers a few interesting facts about the endangered pangolin.