The Wonders of Weiner Dogs: Dozens of Dachshunds by Stephanie Calmenson

THE DACHSHUNDS ARE COMING! THEY ARE ON THE WAY.

WHERE WILL THEY GO ON THIS BEAUTIFUL DAY?

The first solo dachshund is dashing, dressed to the nines in top hat and tux, followed by a duo of weiner dogs in their buns, with all the trimmings! Then come a trio of ice cream cone dachsies with cherries on top, trailed by four regal dachshunds in ermine and crowns.

It's clearly a parade of all kinds of dachshunds, shiny black shorthairs, sleek as wet seals, classy long-hairs with wavy long locks, and game day pooches in helmets and caps, waving shakers and brandishing baseball bats.

EIGHT STYLISH DACHSHUNDS SASHEY THROUGH THE CITY.

IN ALL KINDS OF HATS, THEY'RE SO HANDSOME AND PRETTY.

Then come ten soaring superhero hounds, masked marvels and caped crusaders, followed by eleven prehistoric dino-hunds and a dozen racing dachsies, saddled and bridled to finish the race. Where are they all heading, you ask? For what do they all bark?

It's DACHSHUND DAY down in the park, in Stephanie Calmenson's latest Dozens of Dachshunds: A Counting, Woofing, Wagging Book (Bloomsbury Books, 2021).

In rhyming couplets as bouncy as their subject, and with jolly illustrations of every weiner dog imaginable by artist Zee Persico, this brand-new book has oodles of applications, from teaching counting from one to a dozen, to sorting varieties of adorable dachshunds and all sorts of people who love them for their small size and big personalities.

Young primary students will want to sing along with Calmenson's closing song: "We love dachshunds, short and long. / They are bold, and they are strong. / They are loyal. They are proud. / They may be small, but their barks are LOUD!" Adds Booklist, "Delightful dachshund facts round things off in the back matter".

Share this one with a couple of famous weiner dog picture books, such as Margret and H.A. Rey's evergreen Pretzel (Curious George) and Dav Pilkey's hilarious classic Halloween tale, The Hallo-Wiener.

Farm Musicale: Cock-a-doodle-do, Creak, Pop-Pop, Moo by Jim Aylesworth

Who needs a band, when you have a constant concerto in progress!

ROOSTER CROWS

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO

WAKE UP GIRLS, AND LITTLE BOYS, TOO!

It's a semi-rhythmical rehearsal as the kids clatter downstairs, with the frying ham in the skillet providing the percussion--POP POP! From the milking shed, a quartet of milk cows moo a melody. CLUCK go the laying hens looking to be fed. Sparrows peep and baby chicks cheep. Breakfast utensils clank and clink.

The day bring work and very little play, but you can always make music any day..

Pups yip; bees buzz. CAW! complains the crow, as the boys chop wood. Cow bells clink as they slowly let the crickets' chirp call them to line up to return to the barn again, as Ma and Pa rest and rock to the squeak of the porch rockers. Granma's needles click with the beat as the big old clock ticks.

CROW CALLS OUT, HOO HOO, HOO HOO!

GOOD NIGHT, BOYS... AND LITTLE GIRLS, TOO!

And every night on the farm is a nocturne, in Jim Aylesworth's fantasia of farm life, Cock-a-doodle-doo, Creak, Pop-pop, Moo. Every player performs his part in a symphony of sound, and artist Brad Sneed adds his charming illustrations to the performance to make perfect harmony of life.  For class animal sound fun or perhaps for a  soothing bedtime scherzo.

Sleep In, Mr. Sandman! The Nice Dream Truck by Beth Ferry

YOU MIGHT HEAR A TUNE, YOU MIGHT BE IN LUCK.

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YOU MIGHT GET A VISIT FROM THE NICE DREAM TRUCK....

GET READY FOR BED, SERVING UP DREAMS . . . IN YOUR HEAD.

Driven by an appropriately starry-eyed driver, the dream truck serves up sweet dreams about summer or snow time fun, plenty of puppies, gumdrop dragons or scary hairy monsters.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

HOLD OUT YOUR BOWL AND GET READY TO FIND

A DISH FULL OF DREAMS THAT WAS SCOOPED JUST FOR YOU

BY THIS MAGICAL PAIR WHO MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE.

In her latest, The Nice Dream Truck (Harper, 2021), best-selling author Beth Ferry likens going to sleep to meeting an ice cream truck with delicious sweet dreams for any taste, all done up in tasty rhyming text and inviting light and airy illustrations that float across delish double-page spreads by artist Brigette Barrager.

From Eugene Field's classic sleep-inducing sailing ship in Wynken, Blynken, and Nod to Sherry Duskey Rinker's Steam Train, Dream Train (Easy Reader Books, Reading Books for Children), the author serves up a yummy modern metaphor for a dish of sweet dreams from the bedtime frozen goodies truck--not just frozen treats but all the kinds of tempting future daring deeds and adventures for youngsters who board their favorite food truck for a glorious good night!

So take a break and sleep late, Mr. Sandman, and leave the driving to us! Sweet dreams to all and to all a good night!

Puns School Library Journal, "The Nice Dream Truck has something perfect to dish up for every dreamer."

Dino Etiquette: How Do Dinosaurs Show Good Manners by Jane Yolen

Some dinosaurs have manners--BAD MANNERS!

Do they belch loudly at the table and throw food at each other,or spit half-chewed broccoli on the floor?

At the library, do they yell and throw books around the stacks?

On the playground, do they push each other off the top of the tallest slide? Do they sass their mothers when they're caught making mudpies in the bathtub?

NO! THEY DON'T!

THEY'RE NEVER THAT CRUDE,

AND TRY NOT TO BE RUDE!

Dinosaurs are the very picture of politeness and the essence of etiquette.

They always say "Please" and "Can I help you with that?" "You can go first. I can wait till you're done." They share toys at play and when they go, say, "Thanks, everyone!"

GOOD MANNERS GALORE, MY POLITE DINOSAUR!

Heaven knows, dinosaurs and kids need to mind their manners wherever they go, in the latest in their best selling series, How Do Dinosaurs Show Good Manners? (Blue Sky Press, 2020). With the Caldecott-winning artist Mark Teague on board with his jolly illustrations of human parents and assorted recalcitrant dino offspring, kids are off for a rhyming good time from notable author Jane Yolen. As always, illustrator Teague uses a variety of esoteric dinosaur "children" just for those geeky youngsters who pride themselves as experts at spotting various species of large prehistoric beasts to add to their paleontological vocabularies. (See the backmatter for dinosaur names in order of appearance)

Puppy Love: Can I Sit With You? by Sarah Jacoby

People are out and about. The little dog is, too. He follows a girl and her mom walking briskly down the sidewalk lined with row houses, some with friendly neighbors waving from windows and porches. But the dog sees only the girl.

Could he be hers? Could she be his?

PARDON ME.

IF THE DAY IS STRANGE AND NEW,

I'LL BE FAMILIAR, LOYAL, TRUE.

They walk through a dog park, through an overgrown field of green and through a cold, purple twilight. The girl throws the pooch's stick. He seems to be thinking about fetching it, but then picks it up and runs away. Other dogs follow them as they make their way onward through the trees toward home.

I'VE WANDERED... AND SEEN SO MUCH NEW.

I WILL SIT WITH YOU.

And the dog follows her home to sit in her lap at last, but not without his fetching sticks, in Sarah Jacoby's just published Can I Sit with You? (Chronicle Books, 2021). In her gentle story of a girl and her dog, author Jacoby seems to say that there's an element of choice necessary in the concept of dog and "owner," and this pup chooses his girl freely and happily after all.

Author Jacoby leaves the question of stray or runaway to the reader, and her lovely mixed media illustrations and rhyming text give both of them room to roam through the idea of who "belongs" to or with whom in this lovely new picture book. Says Booklist, "The gently rhyming text and engaging pictures will appeal to youngsters who have or want a dog of their own."

Eat It And Be A Pirate, Too! Pirate Stew by Neil Gaiman

The night my mum and dad went out, I said, "We won't be babysat."

They said, "You must not grump or pout!

We're going out

and that is that!

Say hello to your babysitter!"

The brother and sister are not pleased to see their parents all decked out for a Saturday date night, but any further argument is quashed when they see their babysitter.

Right leg a peg, left arm a hook;

He grinned and said, "My card."

It read...

LONG JOHN McRON, SHIP'S COOK.

A cursory inventory of the family's fridge fails to meet Long John's approval, and, joined by a motley crew of assistants, Long John declares that nothing will do but that they make Pirate Stew.

"Pirate stew, pirate stew!

Eat it and you'll be a pirate, too!

All the hearty buccaneers add something to the pot--seeds from the parrot, a slice of plank that was walked, doubloons and haddock, leeks and limes and mermaids tears, all well stirred with a scimitar, and soon the crew and cook dip the steaming stew out into bowls for the maties. They all chow down, a merry crew. But the two kids eschew the magical brew. The brother takes a pass, and his sister nods, "Me, too."

But the crew is still peckish, so Long John McRon raises sails and they fly through the air freely toward a downtown donut shop. The owner says she's closing down for the night, but McRon and his marauders won't take no for an answer.

"Hand over your donuts, hearties. We'll have a donut party!"

And after the crew down their donuts, Long John drops them off at the pub for some grog and rum, and with the weary kids in tow Long Jon McRon flies right back home, just in time to make the kids' curfew. Their parents find them sadly sitting on the floor, surrounded by pirate detritis, crumbs, and an almost empty donut box. And beside them on the counter are the kids' two bowls of Pirate Stew, seemingly still steaming--and their parents, whose dinner was sadly lacking, can't resist some late-night snacking.

And so, my lads and lassies, call that a happy ending or a bad,

From that day on, a Pirate Mom and Dad was what these landlubbers had!

The Newbery Award-winning Neil Gaiman can be counted upon to come up with a fantastical story, told in jolly rhyme, and this one, Pirate Stew (Quill Tree Books, 2020), with its undertones of Peter Pan-style pirates, is certainly an offbeat story. Gaiman's wordsmithery is evident in his rhyming text with its unexpected turns, and illustrator Chris Riddell, winner of the Greenaway Medal, the British version of our Caldecott Award for picture book artistry, makes the most of Gaiman's imaginative setting and gloriously quirky characters in his fanciful drawings. Says Booklist, "Highly enjoyable, with Gaiman’s silly, singsong verses the perfect ingredient for a raucous read-aloud. Riddell’s predictably fabulous illustrations are ablaze with color and detail."