Good Intentions Go a Long WAY! Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug by Jonathan Stutzman

Little T. Rex is feeling blue, and not just because his skin is naturally baby blue. He's blue because his friend Pointy is very sad and needs a hug, and Tiny T. Rex's arms are way too short to deliver a big hug.

POINTY NEEDS ME!

Tiny T. Rex asks his family for help. But his dad, as mathematicians often do, turns his question into a mathematical equation!

POINTY DOESN'T LIKE MATH.

Mother counsels that it's not how long his arms are, but what's in his heart.

AUNTIE SUGGESTS CUCUMBER JUICE.

Tiny T. Rex's brother and sister say he needs to practice more.

.

"I WILL PLAN MY STRATEGY," TINY T. SAID. "I WILL PRACTICE MY HUGS."

Tiny T. Rex looked around for something to practice hugging. Perhaps a tree would work. He spots something tall and green with big arms.

It is a...

CACTUS!

Not a smart strategy, considering that the spines are quite sharp!

Tiny T. decides he need some altitude to spot a more suitable tree for hugging, so he hops on a flying dinosaur, but soon slides off, sailing down, down, down, until...

CONK! He lands right on top of Pointy's head and holds on tight.

"THAT WAS THE BIGGEST HUG EVER!"" SAYS POINTY.

It seems Mother was right. It's not the size of the hugger, but the size of his heart, in Jonathan Stutzman's Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug (Chronicle Books).

As illustrated sweetly by artist Jay Fleck, Tiny T., this diminutive dinosaur certainly has plenty of heart, in author Jonathan Stutzman's book in his popular Tiny T. Rex series, starring as its undeniably charming and cuddly little hero. Other books in this series are Tiny T. Rex and the Perfect Valentine, Tiny T. Rex and the Very Dark Dark: (Read-Aloud Family Books, Dinosaurs Kids Book About Fear of Darkness), and Tiny T. Rex and the Tricks of Treating.

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.