Stylin'! Little Owl's Orange Scarf by Tatyana Feeney

LITTLE OWL LOVED SURPRISES.

When Little Owl comes home from riding his scooter through the park, his mommy has a surprise--a handknit, lovingly made, nice warm scarf!

HE DIDN'T LOVE THE ORANGE SCARF.

IT WAS ITCHY.

IT WAS TOO LONG.

IT WAS TOO ORANGE.

Mommy loves him in that scarf. She loves the idea of keeping him nice and warm when he playing outside.

Little Owl hates that scarf. It trails behind him and tangles on everything.  It scratches his neck. And besides, it's so... ORANGE!   Little Owl decides that the kindest thing he can do is to LOSE the thing. Accidentally, of course. He tries slipping it into a mailing box being shipped off to Peru, where they surely must need orange scarfs worse than he does. Mommy notices. Then he surreptitiously leaves it behind on his field trip to the zoo.

Is Mommy mad? No. In fact, she seems to have sleuthed out the motive behind the mystery of the missing scarf.

"THIS TIME WE WILL MAKE IT TOGETHER," SHE SAYS.

And this time Little Owl picks out a nice, soft (non-itchy) yarn in a nice, cool shade of aqua, and this time Mommy makes it just the right length to keep him warm, in Tatyana Feeney's brand-new Little Owl's Orange Scarf (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), a story which parallels the plot of Gene Zion's classic No Roses for Harry! Feeney's charming faux naif illustrations using blackline drawings with astutely placed color are totally unlike Zion's comic style, but sharp kids will pick up the common elements of these two well-knit tales. Pair these yarns of lovingly made but unlovable knit goods with two similar stories that'll have little listeners in stitches!

Three-Alarm Dragon! Oh, No, Little Dragon! by Jim Averbeck

Little Dragon is clearly coming into his fiery powers. Thanks to that spark in his heart, he can huff and puff up a pretty impressive PHOOOSH! and push out an impressive plume of flame, earning a congratulatory kiss from Mommy.

But like most youngsters, he just can't resist upping the ante.

PHOO-PHOOSH! PHOO-PHOOSH! PHOO-PHOOOSH!!!

"Oh, Little Dragon," says Mama.

"I love your flame! But look how sooty you are. Time for a bath!"

Like most youngsters, Little Dragon also hates a bath--until he's in it. Then he loves it. He brings along his little Viking boat and begins to see what he can do to pester its imaginary crew. He tries out a little flame, and then a bigger one, and then a final Phoooosh scorches his ship to a fiery crisp. Luckily, Little Dragon knows what it takes to cope with his overheated pyrotechnics--and he's sitting in a full tub of it!

CANNONBAAALL!

Little Dragon's dive generates a mini-tsunami in the tub, one that not only sinks his boat, but inundates him as well. GLUG! Oh, no!

The fire on board ship is quenched, but unfortunately, so is his own internal flame. A phooosh! produces nothing but a tiny puff of smoke! Little Dragon tries all the "draconian" home remedies--dressing warmly, rubbing his tummy till it's pink, and finally gobbling hot chili peppers. That one is counterproductive, producing only watery eyes! Who can help Little Dragon re-kindle the spark in his heart?

Jim Averbeck's jolly latest, Oh No, Little Dragon! (Atheneum, 2012) knows that mamas have the remedy for 'most everything when it comes to their youngsters. Averbeck's simple comic illustrations of a dragon family and their appropriately furnished castle are fine chuckle-bait for a preschool storytime, with its well-paced text and refrain of "Oh, NO!" as Little Dragon's incendiary powers blow hot and cold.  While Publishers Weekly dutifully points out that this theme is a bit,  well, warmed over, its reviewer adds "this endearingly impish hero should find fans."