Come With Me! I'll Meet You In Your Dreams by Jessica Young

I'LL HITCH A RIDE ON MOONBEAMS,

AND MEET YOU IN YOUR DREAMS.

ADVENTURES WAIT FOR FOR YOU AND ME.

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE...

In a series of fantasy adventures between both mother and child and father and child, Jessica Young's lyrical poetry, parenthood is portrayed in gloriously lovely paintings by artist Rafael Lopez, swirling and flowing forward through the pictorial passage from infant in arms to full adulthood. In parallel verse a series of imaginative scenes show a parent leading the child, both a girl and a boy, as they mature and their parents grow older.

I'LL BE THE LIGHTHOUSE, AND YOU'LL BE THE SHIP...

WE'LL BE TWO STARS TWINKLING BRIGHT.

Author and illustrator combine to set up lovely metaphorical adventures as the child learns and grows and parents grow older. The parents promise to be there through it all, until...

"YOU'LL TRAVEL PLACES I CAN'T SEE--"

Young's I'll Meet You in Your Dreams (Little, Brown and Company, 2021) is an inspiring book for new parents and an imaginative story that reassures children that their parents are also on that long and important journey with them. Writes Publishers Weekly, "As the children strike out on their own, the text nods to differing life paths... in a bedtime fantasy of love, possibility, and acceptance."

Forever! Together by Charles Fuge

WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER, WE DON'T MIND THE COLD.

WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE EACH OTHER'S WARM HAND TO HOLD.

A spritely and jolly pair is this mother and baby polar bear. In a world of snow and ice sculpture that seems to go on forever, they slide down their own icy slopes and curl up in their snowy den. Everywhere they go they share as a pair.

Do they need tropical islands, warm breezes, silver sands, and palm trees? NOPE!

They build snow bears and throw snowballs by day and at night curl up in their cave, together, just right!

FOREVER!

In his warm and loving Together (Doubleday and Company, 2020), author-illustrator Charles Fuge offers the reassuring message to youngsters that they will always be loved. His arctic scene is rounded and friendly, done in lovely blues and whites, and closing in a cozy cuddle in the bears' snug ice cave. As Kirkus Reviews says, "Fuge remains unexcelled in depicting animal figures of extreme, relentless adorability!"

So... This Is Baby by Jimmy Fallon

Babies come with all kinds of parts.

But they all come ready for love in their hearts.

They have darling parts in all sorts of shapes.

Knees with sweet dimples and necks with cute napes.

And late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon has his third hit baby book to join his long-time best-selling Your Baby's First Word Will Be DADA and Everything Is Mama, (see reviews here) in his latest celebration of infant and the parents of same, This Is Baby (Feiwel and Friends, 2019) in which Fallon provides a rhyming catalog of each delightful little part:

THIS IS BABY'S TUMMY,
AND EACH TICKLE IS A PROBLEM.
JUST TURN BABY OVER,
AND THIS IS BABY'S BOTTOM.

From nose to toes, from top to bottom, this is another charming board book for new parents and new babies, in a series that is too much fun to miss.

Not What It Seems! The Thief Knot: A Greenglass House Story by Kate Milford

Marzana and Nialla are dissatisfied. Desperate for some excitement, they had lurked at a sidewalk table with their coffees, surveilling what they earnestly hoped was a robbery about to take place inside the jewelry store. Instead, it appeared to be the purchase of a surprise engagement ring for a happy young couple.

So the guy had looked a bit shifty. A high percentage of who lived within the city-within-the-city of Nagspeake called the Liberty were shifty--or had been to one degree or another in a previous life," thought Marzana.

"I should have known it was nothing...because... we live in the Liberty, and this is the place where nothing happens."

The neighborhood of the Liberty should be an intriguing environment, being the sanctuary city of former seafaring smugglers. And when talk spreads of the kidnapping of ten-year-old Peony Hyde, and Marzana's sometimes investigator parents receive a copy of the ransom note delivered by the mysterious Emmett, who brought up the possible involvement of someone called "Snakebird," Marzana seizes on solving the case as her remedy for ennui. With Nialla as co-sleuth, she organizes a group to help in their investigations, even calling their friend Milo, resident of the peculiar Greenglass House, where they had been previously involved in a puzzling Christmas enigma, for advice.

Marzana and Nialla recruit fans of fantasy fiction from Lucky's bookstore--Emilia, privy to many secrets of their school's historic building, Ciro, a self-declared born camoufleur, J. J., a magician, and Milo's offering, Meddie, a sometimes visible ghost resident at Greenglass House whose talents including invisibility, walking through walls, and supernatural sight and hearing. When the crew of six discover that their substitute math teacher is the great nephew of Andrew Cormorant, called "the Snakebird," they suspect that the kidnapped Peony may be hidden at the apartment of their real math teacher and indeed they find a little girl chained there--one who turns out to be a counterfeit Peony Hyde, whose real name is, interestingly, Tasha Cormorant.

Now, as Sherlock would say, "The case is afoot!" Marzana's crew, self-named the Thief Knot, discover an undercover conductor on the mostly abandoned Nagspeake subway system, the Belowground, who takes the young sleuths to a nightmarish abandoned station, overgrown with the ornamental ironwork which infests the Liberty, overgrowing buildings, walkways, and especially subway tunnels, where the real kidnap victim is perhaps to be found.

With a plot with as many convolutions as the enchanted ironwork of The Liberty, Kate Milford's forthcoming third book in series, The Thief Knot: A Greenglass House Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), nothing or no one is quite what it seems in a place where time and setting overlay each other. Like the Harry Potter series, the plot draws on the strengths of the young friends to solve a puzzle with many pieces, a band of unlikely mates--differently-abled in abilities, knowledge, and exceptional powers, but one in loyalty.

This is no quick-read Nancy Drew mystery, but one to be taken slowly, savored for its atmosphere, its murky clues, and shifting plot. In the Liberty, the haven for old secrets, Marzana not only helps solve the mystery of the missing student, but also some of the mysteries of her own parents' hidden histories. Milford's over-arching theme of connection, the links between people, places, and their joint history, provides a part-fantasy/mystery tale perfect for middle readers who like to solve puzzles that range from relationships to crimes of the past.

Previous books in this series are Greenglass House (read review here) and sequel Ghosts of Greenglass House (read review here).

A Little Night Music? Duck On A Disco Ball (A Duck in the Fridge Book) by Jeff Mack

Every night it's the same story. Kids ask the same old question.

"Why can't I stay up late like you?"

Parents give the same old answers.

"Because we're grown ups, kiddo.

Little guys need their sleep."

But this kid has pertinent what-ifs: what if his toy duck gets hungry? What if he misses a big party? What if a huge rock rolls into the house?

No luck! He's tucked in with his lovie Ducky and a kiss on the cheek. Same old same old! But why is there always a hint of something he's missing? Like why did he find Duck in the fridge one morning? Or on top of the disco ball? There's got to be another reason why he's always being given the bum's rush to bed!

So one night I listened.

But I couldn't believe what is saw...

It's a wild and crazy parent PAR-TEE! His pajama-clad parents jump on the couch, and Duck does cannonballs on the cushions, while dogs, monkeys, and cows crash the party, telling dumb jokes.

"I just ordered a pizza!"
"Great! Will it be long?"
"No. It'll be round."

The party-goers' noshing trashes the house, as Mom grabs a guitar and Dad shouts into the mike:

"I WANNA ROCK!"

Duck heads out, promising to procure one, and soon the living room is hit with a huge Rolling Stone!

"Heavy" says one hipster quipster.

"It doesn't get any boulder!" says the other.

At which point the parents drift out the window and fly through the moonlit sky with Duck, until they finally return just before dawn to bed down for some shuteye.

And when the kid wakes up, the house is just like he left it. Was it all just a crazy dream? But then...

Why is Duck conked out behind the sofa--with a guitar?

It's a wild and crazy night in Jeff Mack's Duck on a Disco Ball (A Duck in the Fridge Book) (Two Lions Books, 2018). Mack's narration is laugh-out-loud funny, and his comic digital illustrations fit the text, sometimes done in spot-art vignettes, sometimes in full-bleed pages or double-page spreads as the action zooms out or focuses in on the kid who can't wait for his turn to stay up late. It's a bedtime story that fits kids' dreams. Pair this wise-quacking tale with Mack's prequel. Says Booklist, "This goofy bedtime drama is a worthy sequel to Duck in the Fridge (A Duck in the Fridge Book).

Some Bunny Loves You! I Love You, Funny Bunny! by Sean Julian

Some Bunny loves Funny Bunny...

... from whiskers to toes...

And, goodness knows... all the way to that pinkish nose. This Funny Bunny has style and a winning smile...

All their time is hugging time and singing time, reading time, and especially at bedtime.

Some big Bunny loves all the times with Funny Bunny!

Sean Julian's sweet board book is filled with soft and fuzzy love in his I Love You, Funny Bunny (ZonderKidz, 2019) in a rollicking, frolicking rhyming book that any bunny and every bunny would love. Julian's softly textured big bunny and baby bunny are an endearing pair of parent and child who clearly enjoy being together, reading, wrestling, talking and singing through their day.

Bunnicula Returns? Big Bunny by Rowboat Watkins

Once upon a time, there was a BIG BUNNY.

So begins the purported bedtime story, as parent and child cuddle cozily together in bed under a carrot-printed coverlet. Time for little bunnies to settle down to beddy-bye?

Not exactly. This BIG BUNNY is not cut out to be a warm and fuzzy bedtime bunny. In this fractured bedtime story, the young one, seeking something scary, kidnaps the main character, the would-be centerpiece of this nighty-night tale. He interrupts....

A ginormously SCARY bunny?

The parent tries to continue the narration of a regular big bunny who lives, not on a gigantic carrot asteroid careening in space, but a regular, round planet and eats, not monstrous carrots, but just nice normal orange carrots, not too small, carrots that...

When do we get to the SCARY part?

The storyteller tries to beef up the tale, allowing his Big Bunny to have terrible manners, eating ten carrots at a time, swallowing them whole. Truckloads of carrots....

Does Big Bunny EAT the trucks?

The narrator nixes any suggestions that the trucks have more taste and crunch, but does allow a concession, giving them a horrible fate--stuck in traffic-- requiring the penguins who drive the trucks to construct bridges to give them a way out of the jam.

Penguins drive trucks? This story is WORSE than traffic!

By this time, this bedtime bunny story is well on its way to becoming the story of the Big Bunny Who Ate Cleveland, or whatever city it is that he wants to crunch! The beleaguered storyteller objects, speaking with the voice of reason....

BUILDINGS AREN'T EDIBLE!

I wouldn't tell Big Bunny that.

By this time, our young storyline pirate has totally taken over the whole plotline, in Rowboat Watkins' bizarre bedtime story, Big Bunny (Chronicle Books, 2018). And, sure enough, there's still a surprise in Watkins' next-to-last two-page spread where the, um, crunchy identity of the two storytellers is revealed and a really SCARY conclusion is, well, foreshadowed! Rowboat Watkins' picture books are cleverly conceived and illustrated with an iconic and ironic sense of humor that pleases young readers. "The infectious fun continues to the ending, which will be—trust me—a giant, hilarious surprise to both parents and kids," says The New York Times Book Review.

Share this one with Watkin's weird hit story, Rude Cakes (see review here) and do not miss this chance to read the Aaron Reynolds' Caldecott-winning Creepy Carrots! and Creepy Pair of Underwear! (reviews here).

Up and Away! Sometimes You Fly by Katherine Applegate

Before the cake....

A frazzled mom, still in her bathrobe, is stirring away on her second try at the cake for that first birthday. Smoke still trails from the oven behind her as a bag of flour spills, trickling down on the head of the toddler.

Will there be a cake for the birthday boy?

There's many a slip between cup and lip, but yes! There is at last a cake! And he loves his first birthday party.

There's many a spill and a squash and a smash before some of those green peas get spooned into the tot's mouth.

Before the preschooler bounds into the waves, there's the first chilly, splashy, plastic pool challenge.

Before the friend...

... there's that long distance at the lunchroom table before Sam makes the first move to befriend Ben.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, in Katherine Applegate's lovely book about beginnings, Sometimes You Fly (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2018). Sometimes it's hard work, learning to read all those letters and words before you can lose yourself in a book after bedtime. There's the ignominy of being the student driver with the bored instructor in the car plastered with dire warnings, but then comes the freedom of driving down the freeway... solo! There are all those nights of burning the midnight oil over textbooks and reports, but then comes the moment the graduate joyfully tosses that mortarboard high into the sky.

With every try,
Sometimes you fail,
Sometimes you fly.

It's win some, lose some, in Newberry Award winner Applegate's gently winsome and poignant rhymes, given life and humor in the charming illustrations of Jennifer Black Reinhardt who captures Applegate's theme perfectly, pictured in her telling paired vignettes of before and after. Artist Reinhardt depicts the aspiration, set spot-art style on white background on the recto page, and with a page turn, the accomplishment is shown in full color on the verso or double-page spread. In one pair a kid, hopefully wearing his just-bought tee shirt with the Dino-Tastic Roller Coaster on the back, droops as he discovers he's too short to make the cut to ride it, while the page turn shows him, grown taller, joyfully coming down that first big drop, arms high. This perfectly executed little recipe book for weathering ups and downs has life lessons for all ages, a fitting tale for those who've just failed or those who have found success. As Applegate advises, it's...

...what you take
from all you learn
before the cake.

Backstory! I Love Pete the Kitty by James Dean

Before he was Pete the Cat, before he ever went walking in his school shoes, he was little Pete the Kitty.

Pete is a very happy kitty.

He loves EVERYTHING!"

Yes! Even when Pete was but a little slip of a kitty, he loved playing on the playground with his buddies. He loved his skateboard, and he already knew how to tune and strum his guitar.

He loved school even when he went in just his plain little paws, without his red shoes.

He loves funny books, bedtime books, and books about tomorrow.

Pete the Kitty loved art class and eating ice cream in the lunchroom. He loved playing in the sand at the beach. And of course he loved his mom, his dad, and Bob, his big brother ...

... Even when he tickled his tummy, in James Dean's newest story,Pete the Kitty: I Love Pete the Kitty (Pete the Cat) (Harper Festival, 2017)."It's All Good!" was Pete's mantra even way back then in his Pete the tot days, and very young readers will get a hoot out of sharing little kitty Pete's backstory and watching him grow, in what looks like a promising new series for author-illustrator James Dean.

Porcine Espionage! Olivia The Spy by Ian Falconer

ONE AFTERNOON OLIVIA HEARD HER MOTHER TALKING TO HER AUNT.

"I HAD JUST FINISHED CLEANING THE KITCHEN WHEN OLIVIA DECIDED TO MAKE HERSELF A SMOOTHIE--A BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE," HER MOTHER WAS SAYING.

Olivia remembers that episode all too well. Her mother warned her not to fill the container all the way to the top and Olivia had responded with a smart-alecky comeback.

"MOMMY, I KNOW HOW TO USE THE BLENDER!"

RRRRRR! SPLAT! SPLAT! There goes Mommy's clean kitchen!

But when Mommy tries to give her some advice about loading the washing machine, she gets the same line.

"I KNOW HOW TO USE THE WASHING MACHINE."

Uh-huh. Daddy's white underwear is washed with Olivia's socks and comes out pink. Experience keeps a dear school, as Ben Franklin said, but Olivia refuses to learn to listen to Mommy.

That's when Olivia's covert eavesdropping on Mommy's conversation brings her up short.

"OH, I WISH THERE WAS SOME PLACE I COULD SEND HER UNTIL SHE LEARNS SOME SENSE," MOMMY LAMENTS, "LIKE A MILITARY SCHOOL..."

Olivia's supersized ears stand straight up! What is Mommy planning? Olivia instantly goes into secret agent mode, sneakily listening in at keyholes, disguising herself under a lampshade and camouflaging herself as a zebra rug, even poking her snout out of a mousehole to listen in on her parents. And what she hears puts her on red alert. A military school? An institution? Is Mommy really considering incarceration for her wayward daughter?

And then Olivia overhears something that pins her overactive ears back.

"OH, THAT'S THE PERFECT PLACE TO TAKE HER!" DADDY IS SAYING.

Is Olivia headed for the hoosegow? Sadly she begins packing, expecting to be sent packing to boarding school, or worse, prison, in Ian Falconer's new book, Olivia the Spy (Atheneum Press, 2017), filled with Falconer's trademark artwork, dark charcoaled outlines filled with contrastingly bright colors set, spot-art style, against white pages, showing off his character's silly surveillance capers in illustrations that will keep readers giggling, right down to what Olivia fears is her long last ride to the lockup.

Olivia is back, after her long and various stay in the easy reader/paperback genre, still her famously self-absorbed self in this new, full-format picture book. As usual, it's all about her, as her intensive spell of surveillance causes a misunderstanding that gives Olivia a well-earned comeuppance, followed by a happy ending arranged by her long-suffering but kind parents, but one with Olivia still up to her usual tricks. In a final, unforeseen twist, Falconer gives his readers the last laugh at his self-important pig. As Kirkus Reviews puts it piquantly, "That irrepressible porker is back." Yay!

How Did This Happen? Uh, Oh, Bunny! by Pamela Kennedy

BUNNY COLORED ON THE WALL.

UH-OH, BUNNY!

Bunny also knocked over Mama's plant. Broken pottery, plant, and potting soil were everywhere. Uh-oh!

Bunny got excited about seeing what was on the next page of his book and ripped it quite out of the book. UH-OH!

Little ones often get caught up in the moment and do things that later look like a big mistake. Learning to stop and think first is not easy, especially for little bunnies who are excited about the possibilities of everything.

That is when Mama steps in to find out who did it.

Luckily, Little Bunny confesses to the truth of his deeds, and his mother praises him for owning up. Next time, perhaps he'll stop and think first.

Pamela Kennerly's little board book Uh-Oh, Bunny (Worthy Kids/Ideals, 2017) follows her adorable Bunny as he gets himself into some childish transgressions.  Walls look just perfect for drawing and scribbling, but they are costly messes that Mama has to fix. Broken plants can't always be saved, and a book missing a page can be sad, but Mama shows her little one that she appreciates his confessions and hopes he'll do better in the future. Clare Key's bunny tot is lovable, even when caught in the act of drawing himself on the wall, and kids will no doubt recall times--long ago, of course, back when they were really little-- when they did thoughtless things. This simple and charming book offers a moment for thinking about the things we do!

Do The Right Thing: Sticks and Stones by Lisa Fowler.

Daddy don't say a word. The bumping up and down of the wagon jolts me back to the problem at hand. He's mad, all right, but what he's not got a clue of is that I'm fuming, too. I don't like the lying Daddy wants me to do, but what's worse is that he's making me do it in front of the triplets. I know by the looks of things we've crossed over the county line from Chattanooga. Words I can't suck back come spewing from my mouth.

"This wouldn't be happening if Mama was here. Huh! She wouldn't let me or the triplets help you tell lies in the first place. I fold my arms across my chest sort of proud and haughty-like. "The way I see it you was too busy snatching up money, jumping around like a chimpanzee in a tree, and passing out lies to--"
"Whoa!" Daddy pulls hard on the reins and Old Stump clip-clops to a halt. "Get down!" he whispers.

"GET. DOWN." He motions me off the wagon. From the corner of my eye, I see the wagon wobble. Filbert, Macadamia, and Hazelnut are moving close, so they can hear.

Then he does it. I mean he really does it. He takes off, leaving me standing on the dirt road, alone in the dark.

Working in the Kentucky coal mines isn't buying Mama that big house she wants, and one day Daddy takes twelve-year-old Chestnut and the triplets off in a traveling medicine show wagon, telling them that he going to make a pot of money and make Mama happy again, but from the short rations he's keeping them all on, Chestnut doesn't believe he's making much money at all. The triplets are getting ragged and skinny and Chestnut never gets quite enough to eat. Old Stump is pretty worn out, and the wagon is crowded, and it just kills Chestnut to pretend to be from every single town, bragging about how that traveling man's elixir cured her granny of everything that ails her, just to fool the customers into buying the stuff. She knows Daddy's elixir is "snake oil" tonic, made of grass clippings and flavorings, and that he's taking them all farther and farther away from Mama.

Daddy stops and waits for her to catch up a ways down the road, but Chestnut is still angry, angry enough to take matters into her own hands. She starts drawing up and posting advertising signs showing their wagon and telling all and sundry the next town they're heading for, so that Mama can know where to look for her missing kids. But it's been nigh onto two years, and Mama hasn't come for them. And as they travel across Mississippi, Chestnut is losing hope.

They meet up with an old black man, Abraham, Daddy knows from the coal mine back home, and he joins up with them to play his banjo as the triplets sing. The crowds do get a little bigger, but Chestnut notices that their meals aren't getting any bigger. Abraham tells her it was not her Daddy's choice to take them off from home with him, but Chestnut believes Daddy is just using the triplets to sing and look cute and her to work the crowd of suckers for him. And if it looks like if Mama can't find them, Chestnut herself is going to have to run away and go find her.

And then, in a general store in Beaumont, just west of the Texas line, Chestnut gets her chance to get enough money for a bus ticket back to Kentucky.

I tag along as usual, and when we get to the general store, I scatter. Abraham and Daddy are loading up on supplies. "Excuse me, sir," Daddy babbles on to the man behind the counter. "Where do you keep your nails?"

The man takes money from the customer beside Daddy and slides the bills into the cash drawer. He leaves the cash register wide open and moves off, showing Daddy to the nails. I take a quick look around. There's not a soul in sight. I move quick. Paper money! I reach for it, quick as a flash.

Stealing's wrong--but only if you don't have a good enough reason.

But when the law catches up with them, Daddy goes to jail for stealing the money, and the sheriff calls Mama to come down on the next train, Chestnut realizes that she can't leave Daddy in jail, and she confesses taking the money. And when her pretty, well-dressed mama arrives and says her piece, Chestnut realizes that she's had it all wrong from the git-go, and her opinion of Daddy takes a turn for the better.

Set in the rural South in 1921, Lisa Fowler's Snakes and Stones (Sky Pony Press, 2016) features a hard-headed, funny, and spirited narrator with plenty of spunk and ginger in her, as she takes care of her little sister and brothers and does what's right in the face of much she does not understand. It's hard for our young heroine to accept that it's Daddy who's been trying to do the right thing all along, and as she finds out for herself, it's not always so easy to know what that right thing is. With a feisty and plucky heroine and the sights and sounds of a traveling medicine show along the road, this is a novel that engages readers right away and takes them along for a ride they'll never forget.

Best Wishes! I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

I WISH YOU MORE UPS THAN DOWNS.

As two small children race across a meadow, their high-flying red kite faithfully follows their path, in Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld's I Wish You More (Chronicle Books, 2015), and what parent doesn't wish for those moments for their children?

But there are more than simple best wishes going on in Rosenthal's simple list. Of course, what goes up must come down, at least for favorite kites, but what the writer really wishes is that the memory of that gloriously rising kite is what will remain with the child, as the celebrated Tom Lichtenheld's illustrations show. There is a depth of meaning in some of Rosenthal's blessings that extends beyond the pictures: I wish you more umbrella than rain is more than advice to buy really big umbrellas; it is also a wish for resiliency to deal with whatever life brings. Another wish, for more treasures than pockets is illustrated by a frustrated kid, his pockets already stuffed with shells, looking woefully at the all the wonderful beach riches he can't take back with him, but the hope also suggests that there will be an real embarrassment of such experiential riches in the child's future.

Rosenthal also offers some humorous wordplay with a bit of a double-entendre:

I WISH YOU MORE CAN THAN KNOT.

Lichtenheld's facing page portrays a girl, one shoe already tied, struggling with the second shoelace which seems hopelessly in a knot, while the chosen homophone hints at a wider wish for more successes than failures.

Rosenthal and Lichtenheld's newest collaboration can be read on several levels: preschoolers will enjoy the repetition and the humor on each two-page spread (hugs vs. ughs!), while some older graders and certainly parents will sense the subtle meanings implied in the author's carefully crafted text. It's also a twofer, suitable for Mothers and Fathers Day gifts. Kirkus Reviews adds, "The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic."

Family Is Forever: Always by Emma Dodd

SOMETIMES YOU'RE GOOD.

SOMETIMES YOU'RE BAD!

No little child is always perfect. They may be happy, sad, brave, or maybe misbehave They may get dirty or get clean; they might be thoughtful, or even mean!

But no matter what they are, Mom and Dad are always there to provide a big hug and plenty of love.

In what is perhaps Emma Dodd's most beautiful picture book, the new American edition of Always (Emma Dodd's Love You Books) (Templar Books, 2014), her simple rhyming quatrains show all the ways a little one sometimes can be, simple language that very young children can grasp. But it is in her illustrations that Dodd's premise shines forth, Dodd's up-close and personal African mother and baby move through the savannah scene in spare black line and stunning sky scenes, midnight blue sky setting off silver-foil, showing the plains and river, as mother and child swim and play in the sands. Baby gets dirty in the mudhole, is frightened by a mouse, and and recycles the fright by prankishly scaring a flamingo into flight, with mom always there to provide words of guidance and a guiding trunk. A perfect bedtime book for parent and child to share with a big hug.

Barely There! NAKED! by Michael Ian Black

LOOK AT ME, EVERYONE!

WHOOOOOHOOO!

A small boy bounces out of a bubblebath and suddenly is beset with the desire to streak the house.

His hair still wet and wild and stray bubblets trailing him, he runs through the house, as slippery as a wet seal, giving his bemused parents and startled baby brother a travelogue of his nude progress.  Racing through the rooms, sliding down the stairs, he even contemplates where else he might go in the... altogether!

I COULD GO TO SCHOOL NAKED!

His parents have that how-long-is-this-going-to-last look, but opt for ignoring the show. Mom goes on with the laundry, and Dad, with sidelong looks, pretends to be unimpressed as his bare boy does a demo of the Hokey Pokey's moves, cleverly shown on page in a birds-eye view.

And then our boy spots his beloved cape in the laundry basked, and putting it on over his bare skin inspires him to create a new superhero, Captain Naked, the nemesis of evildoers everywhere!

BEING NAKED IS GREAT!

BEING NAKED AND CAPED IS ... BETTER!

But just when Mom and Dad seem to have about had it with their in-house exhibitionist, the natural order asserts itself.

COLD!!!

Our impromptu nature boy discovers on his own why people don't go around naked as he reaches for his warm jammies and slippers in Michael Ian Black's Naked! (Simon & Schuster Books, 2014). Debbie Ridpath's exuberant comic illustrations show the joy of our au natural boy, all the while cleverly managing her point of view to figleaf those private zones most artfully with a leg, foot, or, in the schoolroom scene, with a scrupulously placed piece of paper. This is, of course, one of those books which youngsters will find truly funny: if the mere mention of the word "underwear" sets off giggles, this one will engender gales of laughter. (Don't say I didn't warn you! Parents, read this one after the kids are in their pajamas! Teachers: schedule this one right before recess or just before the buses appear.)

Black and Ridpath also collaborated on their popular I'm Bored.

A Mind of Her Own: Sophie's Terrible Twos by Rosemary Wells

"HOW OLD IS MY SOPHIE THIS MORNING?" ASKED SOPHIE'S MOM.

SOPHIE KNEW...

BUT SHE WOULDN'T SAY.

"MAMA HAS A BEAUTIFUL DRESS FOR HER SOPHIE!" SAID MOM.

"NO PINK!" SAID SOPHIE.

It's her birthday. You'd think Sophie would be in a good mood.  But nothing pleases her--not a new dress, not Daddy's blueberry birthday pancakes, not new pink fairy wings to match the dress, not the new talking alphabet blocks that Granny has for her in pretty birthday wrappings. Clearly, as Mama observes, Sophie has gotten up on the wrong side of her crib and taken a turn down Grumpy Street.

Granny sees that things are not going well at Sophie's house.

"LET'S HIT THE ROAD!"

Granny pops Sophie into her motorcycle stroller and zooms off toward town before Sophie can protest, but even a stop at the usually exciting Learning Curve Toy Store for a better birthday present doesn't please Sophie. She's having none of the educational toys on their shelves either!

Then Granny has a different idea, one suited to Sophie's mood.

"HOW ABOUT A TIGER SUIT?" SAID GRANNY.

That's big YES (five of them, actually) from Sophie, the first positive thing she's said all day. And this time fortune smiles, as Zeke's Palace of Costumes has one size two tiger costume still in stock. Sophie growls, roars, and waves her clawed paws all the way home.

Like Maurice Sendak's Max, playing a scary something seems to be just what Sophie needs to get the wild thing within out, just in time for a happy second birthday party at last at Sophie's house, in Rosemary Wells' latest Sophie saga, Sophie's Terrible Twos (Viking Books, 2014). Wells' grumpy little gray mouse toddler is as endearing as she is exasperating, and Granny is just the right gal to figure out how banish the two-year-old grumpies, at least temporarily. Pair this one with Wells' delightful first story, Time-Out for Sophie (see review here) for a twosome of terrible two tales.

Downfall! No Jumping on the Bed by Tedd Arnold

IN HIS ROOM ON THE TOP FLOOR OF A TALL APARTMENT BUILDING, WALTER WAS GETTING READY FOR BED.

HIS FATHER SAID, "IF I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE, I TOLD YOU A MILLION TIMES:

NO JUMPING ON THE BED.

SOMEDAY IT'S GOING TO CRASH RIGHT THROUGH THE FLOOR!"

HMMMPPHH! An order like that is practically a dare to a mischievous little boy, and when Walter hears thumps from upstairs, he knows it's his friend Delbert, jumping on his bed.

"IF DELBERT CAN JUMP ON HIS BED, SO CAN I!"

But Walter has pushed his luck once too often. It seems that Dad was right!

With an horrendous crack, Walter finds himself and his broken bed crashing through the floor, right into Miss Hattie's spaghetti. In a wild domino effect, the impact sends Walter and the astonished Miss Hattie, meatballs and all, through the floor and the ceiling of the Mr. Matty, watching TV, and in an ever-increasing calamity, the three go into freefall into Aunt Batty and Fatty Cat's cozy evening, Mr. Hanratty's painting project, and on top of Maestro Ferlinghatti's string quartet rehearsal.

His eyes closed in horror, Walter falls down into the sub-basement of the building, when...

HE LANDED ON SOMETHING SOFT.

HE OPENED HIS EYES. EVERYTHING WAS IN PLACE.

"WHEW!" THOUGHT WALTER.

Safe in his own intact bed, Walter settles back down for what he hopes is an uninterrupted, dreamless sleep this time, when suddenly he hears an ominous CREAK from the room above his, where Delbert, it seems, is still jumping on his bed.

In this re-illustrated 25th anniversary edition of Tedd Arnold's first book and first runaway hit, No Jumping on the Bed 25th Anniversary Edition (Dial Books, 2012), there's still a surprise ending to this cumulative cautionary tale about a fantastical bedtime adventure. It seems Delbert gets both his comeuppance and well-deserved downfall in this totally rib-tickling tale that has always been a guaranteed read-aloud killer diller, especially with little boys. I'll leave it to you to decide whether you prefer Arnold's new remix, with more exaggerated cartoon-style, digitally colorized illustrations, to those in his classic 1987 version, but the story remains solid bedtime or storytime fare full of chuckles and visual humor for primary readers.

Upping the Ante: Splat the Cat: The Perfect Present for Mom and Dad by Rob Scotton

SPLAT'S TAIL WIGGLED WILDLY.

HE WANTED TO MAKE THE BEST PRESENT FOR HIS MOM AND DAD TO SHOW THEM HOW MUCH HE LOVED THEM.

BUT SPLAT'S SISTER AND BROTHER WERE MAKING PRESENTS, TOO.

Splat fashions a really cute clown fish for a mobile. He's proud of it--until he sees his brother's 3-D model of a tower and his sister's hand-strung necklace with beads that spell out M-O-M in the center.

"I CAN DO BETTER!" SPLAT SAID.

"SO CAN I!" SAID HIS BROTHER.

"ME, TOO!" SAID HIS SISTER.

It's a sibling rivalry which quickly turns into an arms race of product development. Splat adds an artistic octopus to his mobile. His sister adds a matching bracelet to her set. His brother designs an elaborate castle around his initial tower.

"I THINK I CAN DO BETTER!" THEY ALL AGREE.

It's back to the drawing board for Splat and his siblings as they all make their individual projects grander and grander. Finally reason prevails, and the three kitty competitors decide it is time to stop the escalation and pool their efforts.

And the three little cats come up with the perfect gift--one that makes use of ALL of their presents in one--a faux fish tank populated with plenty of mobile critters, with a sunken treasure chest of hand-made beaded jewelry, and a castle for Splat's sea creatures to swim around in. It's the perfect present from the three cooperating kids, in Splat the Cat: The Perfect Present for Mom & Dad (HarperFestival, 2012) in this latest story with a surprise ending that even the three kitties couldn't have predicted. Rob Scotton's able crew of co-author Annie Auerbach and artists Rick Farley and Joe Markel combine their talents as did Splat & Company in this new Splat adventure.

What Time Is It? Time for a Hug by Phillis Gershator and Mim Green

WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
THE CLOCK SAYS EIGHT.
WHAT SHALL WE DO?

EAT FROM A BOWL.
DRINK FROM A MUG.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
TIME FOR A HUG!

Phillis Gershator's and Mim Green's little book of hours, Time for a Hug (Sterling, 2012) keeps track of the time throughout the day as a charming Big Bunny and Little Bunny go through the day, punctuated by hourly hugs. With a clock visible on most pages, this parent and child premise tells, in charming rhymes, what they do all day--bake a pie, bounce a ball, take a hike, make and play with sock puppets--and soon it's getting late. What time is it now? That late? The clock says "Eight?"

PULL UP THE COVERS!
WARM AND SNUG!
WHAT TIME IS IT?
TIME FOR A HUG!

Soft acrylic illustrations in primary colors and pastels by David Walker lend the right touch of cozy warmth between parent and child, with just a hint of the concept book in its subtle telling-time lessons along the way. Pair this one with Felicia Bond's latest, Big Hugs Little Hugs, for a sweet goodnight treat.

Wild Thing! Petunia Goes Wild by Paul Schmid

BEING HUMAN WAS JUST...
TOO... CLEAN. TOO CAREFUL.

TOO CLOTHED. TOO COMBED.

TOO QUIET.      TOO...HAFTA!

Preschooler Petunia knows that she was meant to be a wild animal. She's had it with scratchy clothes, hairdos, and too much... order. It's time for a walk on the wild side for our girl!

On Monday morning Petunia issues her manifesto. She eats her breakfast from the floor, runs around outside, roaring at anyone or anything who goes by. She rolls around in a mud puddle--without benefit of swimsuit! She declares that she is her parents' pet and even offers them a collar and leash for her. Her parents have a meltdown.  They have no intentions of trading their daughter for a pet Petunia!

"NO! YOU MAY NOT!

THAT IS NOT HOW A NICE LITTLE GIRL BEHAVES!

Petunia is sent to the corner to think about why humans have rules, and as she peers through the bars on the back of the kitchen chair, she has a wild idea.

Carefully she sneaks off to find a marker and gathers all the postage stamps she can find. Petunia prints an address on the outside of a large, comfortable box.

MAIL TO AFRICA.

Petunia crawls inside her mailer and waits to be transported to where the wild things are. It's a long wait.

Then Petunia hears her mother singing softly and suspects that she's making cookies in the kitchen. Hmmmm!

"TIGERS DON'T SING," THOUGHT PETUNIA.

Life on the wild side requires a bit of re-thinking in Paul Schmid's latest, Petunia Goes Wild (Harper, 2012). Illustrated in Schmid's evocative but minimalist style, Petunia, wearing her trademark lavender-striped dress with safety-pinned tiger tail (when she's not wearing mud), is a character most kids will understand, one who tires of all the rules no matter how many good reasons there are for them. Schmid and his character come to a comfortable compromise, with Petunia's big escape box carefully put away in her room for future need, while she decides to accept the perks--including fresh cookies and a tickle and hug at bedtime--of being a nice little girl--for the moment.

Schmid's other noted picture books include A Pet for Petunia and Hugs from Pearl (see my review here.)