Coping with Change! The Thing about Spring by Daniel Kirk

"THE WORLD LOOKS A LITTLE DIFFERENT TODAY," MOUSE SAID ONE BRIGHT MORNING.

Ah! The first signs of spring!

Everybody loves them, right?

Apparently not in this forest. Mouse and Bird are rhapsodizing about budding trees and warmth in the air, but Rabbit is not at all pleased. With a sour expression, he is going about the meadow, scooping up the vestiges of melting snowdrifts into his pail. Mouse inquires about Rabbit's curious behavior.

"SAVING SNOW WHILE I CAN!" SAID RABBIT. "WE WON'T SEE ANY MORE OF THAT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!"

Some of us have problems with transitions, and Rabbit seems to be the only one in the woods who is going to miss snow. Ever the contrarian, he points out that snow helps him track down his friends, and it is useful for snow forts and snowball fights.

Bird points out that Rabbit won't be cold when spring comes, and besides, he and Mouse are not going anywhere anyway.

But Rabbit has another complaint.

"THE THING ABOUT SPRING IS THAT BEAR IS WAKING UP. I KNOW HOW BAD HE SMELLS AT THE END OF A LONG WINTER, AND I'M SURE HE'LL WANT A HUG."

And right on cue, a disheveled Bear appears, and Rabbit, holding his nose, suffers through a stinky embrace, just as a warm vernal drizzle begins to fall.

"THE THING ABOUT SPRING IS THAT IT RAINS WHEN YOU'RE NOT EXPECTING IT," RABBIT WHINGES.

But Bear replies that the falling rain is right on time to give him a good wash, as he pointedly scrubs his armpits.

But nothing about the change of the seasons pleases Rabbit. It's too noisy. Birds peep and squirrels chatter! It's all so annoying. Rabbit is all hot and bothered from the whole conversation.

And now he is thirsty!

Bear agrees that all this palaver is making him thirsty, too, giving Rabbit a chance to have the last word:

"WELL, THEN," SAID RABBIT, "YOU SHOULD BE GLAD I SAVED SOME SNOW. LOOK INSIDE MY PAIL!"

Daniel Kirk's newest tale, The Thing About Spring (Abrams Books, 2016), gives the curmudgeon in all of us a chance to complain about change. Story books are full of joyful rabbits and bouncy bunnies as the harbinger of spring, but Kirk turns the tables on our expectations with a truly funny bunny who takes a cranky stand in favor of snow. With delightfully wry dialog, he gives his Rabbit his moment in the sun, whether he likes it or not. Kirk's signature style of illustration, with his characters mostly full frontal or profiled, has a look all his own, giving this novel seasonal story a new twist.

Kirk's earlier books include his popular Library Mouse
series and Ten Thank-You Letters.

Ah, Brave New World! I Hatched by Jill Esbaum

CRACK!

TA-DA!

WHAT'S NEW?

ME!

An ebullient baby bird wastes no time on transitions. He stretches as he emerges from his too-tight shell, checks out his gangly long legs and his very far-away feet, and, Hoo-boy, he's ready to go and go and go.

ONCE MY DOWN IS FLUFFED AND DRY,

I TAKE OFF RUNNING DON'T KNOW WHY.

Clearly he's a killdeer, born to run, and run he does, this way and that. Everything is new and wonderful. He studies his reflection in the pond and pronounces himself handsome, as a big green frog goggles up at this new critter. Wait! There's Mom, with lunch! Bugs and worms (a bunch!) Yum!

KIL-DEE, KIL-DEE DEEEEE-DEE!

This exuberant, peripatetic baby plover is full of life, full of himself, full of that joie de vivre that makes him sing out, run about, and inspect a part of himself he didn't know he had.

I STOP BECAUSE... LOOK OUT BELOW!

SOMETHING'S FALLING FROM MY... OH.

HERE'S A SHOCKER. PLEASE DON'T STARE,

BUT TAKE A LOOK! I'M ORANGE UNDER THERE!

This bird can't resist exloring everywhere, until he hears a familiar CRACK! It's a shell, just like his, and there's--his sister just peeping out of it. Hoo-boy, the things he's got to show her!

SISTER DEAR! LUCKY YOU,
I BEAT YOU HERE!

Jill Esbaum's just-emerged new I Hatched! (Dial, 2014) is the perfect picture of any baby just coming into his own, human or bird, full of enthusiasm and energy, exploring everything he sees before him, filled with the exuberance of living in a wondrous world. With joyous, evocative rhymes and Jen Corace's splendid illustrations which portray the heady, headlong urge to experience it ALL at once, this story captures the essence of youth, as invigorating as spring itself. This book is a bouncy bundle of energy just like its boisterous downy protagonist, one not to be missed this season.

April Showers Bring... Split! Splat! by Amy Gibson

I SING A LITTLE RAIN SONG,
A SIMPLE SONG, A PLAIN SONG.
A PITTER-PATTER-TIP-TAP
ON THE WINDOWPANE SONG.

April showers bring... raindrops, rain puddles, muddy puddles...and mudpies.

Spring is here, and our little girl sees her friends outside in bright yellow slickers and with red umbrellas,playing in the rain, and she just has to get on her gear and get out there, too. It's sopping, splashy, squooshy, and splooshy out there, and soon the frolicking kids kick off their rainboots, and slip out of their slickers and let the raindrops split on the tops of their heads to run down their faces, into their open mouths, and drizzle down to their toes, which are soon mucketing and splucketing in the puddles.

From splashing in puddles to puddling in muddles, the kids soon get down and dirty in the mud and then it's mudpies all around for the wet set. And when the clouds roll away and the sun returns, rain fun is done for today, and it's time to trade those mud puddles for tubs of suds, leaving an unfortunate trail of earthy tracks all the the way to the waiting bath.

Amy Gibson's text is filled with both well-known and freshly created onomatopoetic words that, despite their tongue-teasing qualities, flow lightly and smoothly through this simple story like raindrops down a windowpane. Artist Steve Bjorkman provides the freewheeling, kinetically colored illustrations of kids and dog having altogether as much fun as possible as they run through the warm raindrops. Gibson and Bjorkman offer their just published Split! Splat! (Scholastic, 2012) just in time for an April shower story hour.