Cretaceous Caretaker: Rex Finds An Egg! Egg! Egg! by Sten Weinberg

When this goofy-looking baby dino finds a large spotted ovoid, he assumes it's an egg. He's quite taken with it and carries it carefully toward his own nesting area.

But prehistoric times are fraught with danger. A nearby volcano begins to rumble and spout, and Rex realizes he has to do something to save himself--and his egg.

"RUN! RUN! RUN!"

Rex makes a run for it, unfortunately right over a cliff and into the cretaceous sea, swimming with a variety prehistoric critters. Luckily, Rex lands on the back of one sea monster and seems temporarily safe.

But, NO! A pterodactyl swoops to scoop up Rex and egg. Rex slides down the sea monster's back and scurries back to the safety of his own nest. Whew!

But when the volcano again begins to shake the earth, spewing steam and lava, little Rex drops his prize. It cracks open, and Rex realizes that he's been nurturing, not an egg at all, but a rock! Rex is briefly brokenhearted. Is this the sad end to a possible lovely friendship?

Little Rex is an appealing little predator in Steven Weinberg's jolly T. Rex romp, Rex Finds an Egg! Egg! Egg! (Margaret K. Elderry Books, 2015. Weinberg's easy text will have tots chiming in on the thrice-repeated refrain and older preschoolers will soon be "reading" this one themselves, while his bright palette shows off his cute little T. Rex character with plenty of charm and verve.

But Nature will out, as caretaker turns carnivore when Rex gets a bit rumbly in his tumbly and spots potential herbivorous prey:

"LUNCH! LUNCH! LUNCH!"

As Kirkus Reviews adds waggishly, "Young dinosaur fans will like this solo debut for Weinberg a bunch, bunch, bunch."

Laddies and Ladies, Hare They Are! The Bunny Rabbit Show! by Sandra Boynton

WE'RE TEN TERRIFIC RABBITS

AND WE LOVE TO DANCE AND SING!

Bunnies hop on stage, and sashay through their routine.
They tap dance, high kick, twirl; then they all start to sing.

Hares can be real hams in Sandra Boynton's latest board book box office blockbuster, The Bunny Rabbit Show! (Workman Press, 2014).

With a downloadable song waiting in the wings, and a chorus line of cute cottontail chorines, all star-struck tots, whether they are hoofers, crooners, or divas, can take their turns in the spotlight, belting it out along with the cast of Boynton's rabbit revue.

So shuffle on down to Buffalo
And take your seats right in the front row.
With Boynton's All-Bunny Chorus Line,
They're bound to stop the show!

IT'S HALLOWEEN NIGHT.
A NIGHT TO BEWARE.
GOSLINGS ARE ON THE PROWL.

OLLIE STALKS IN THE CORNFIELD.

The gosling gang goes out to scare somebody and grab for treats everywhere. Gossie goes as a wizard, and it's fowl play for Gertie, costumed as a chicken. BooBoo is a fuzzy bunny rabbit, and Peedie does his darndest to be a dragon.

Little Ollie, the odd man out, trails along behind, wrapped as a mummy, while the rest of the gaggle find treats in the pumpkin patch, the beehive, the haystacks, and the standing cornstalks. Ollie falls even farther behind as the other goslings hoot and howl and stop to bob in a bucket of apples.

But wee Ollie spots a ghost just hanging around in barn door and greets him in his own language-- BOO!-- and gaggles at a gang of grinning jack-o'-lanterns.

Whooooo! The wind rises, thunder crackles, and a spooky scarecrow sways in the breeze, and Gossie, Gertie, BooBoo, and Peedie sprint for the shelter of their barn to scarf down their remaining treats.

But Ollie has gotten into the autumn ambiance and takes his time hiking home, so that the other little goslings are already zoned out on candy and dozing by the time he arrives. But when he piles his share of goodies between them, the goslings wake and go for Ollie's offerings, ready to share his haul. It's an outstanding Halloween outing for all!

Oliver Dunrea's trick-or-treat tale, Ollie's Halloween (Gossie & Friends) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), is all ready for Halloween, dressed up this year as a new board book edition which boasts all of the goslings in a group adventure, with all the trappings--fake ghosts, pumpkins galore, wind-borne leaves flying, and a dark and stormy night for the setting, all done up in his trademark cute-as-a-button illustrations, set against bright white mid-page in a wash of watercolor. A fine first Halloween story which introduces the traditions of the scary season without the scare to young spooks.

For a pair of fine fowl stories, pair this one with Tad Hill's Halloween adventure, Duck & Goose, Find a Pumpkin (Oversized Board Book) (see my review here.)

Boo! Ten Trick or Treaters: A Halloween Counting Book by Janet Schulman

10 TRICK-OR-TREATERS

ON A DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT,

OUT TO GET SOME CANDY

OR GIVE SOMEONE A FRIGHT.

It's the night for fun and fright, and the ten little merry makers are all suited up for the job--as a firefighter, pirate, dragon, fairy, monster, and the rest of the usual suspects--and with their treat bags in hand, they set out to get the goodies.

There's just one problem. They keep meeting up with others who are scarier than they are:

SEVEN TRICK OR TREATERS

FILLING BAGS WITH PARTY MIX,

ALONG CAME A GHOST...

AND THEN THERE WERE SIX.

The costumes are awesome, and the effect is attrition in the the ranks, as the number of jolly treat seekers drops (dropping their treats as well for the others to claim)--until there are just two left. Their rounds done and their bags full, they head back to their apartment building. But as the elevator opens, out pops a well-turned mummy, and one of the two remaining kids decides it's definitely time to split the scene.

One intrepid girl is left to take home the Halloween haul of her life. Back home she empties all the goodies all over her bedroom rug and bed and begins to count count up her collection of treats.

Veteran illustrator and author Janet Schulman's 10 Trick-or-Treaters (Dragonfly, 2008) has become one of the classic counting books of the Halloween season. Although the little Halloween goers manage to scare each other, the pictured ghosts and mummies are far from frightening, and the countdown in the story is augmented by a little appendix with plenty of holiday treats lined up for counting up at the end.

Schulman continues the fun in two like-themed little holiday counting books, 10 Trim-the-Tree'ers and 10 Easter Egg Hunters: A Holiday Counting Book.

More Movin' an' Groovin': Stretch by Doreen Cronin

Stretch with me.
Hands in the air!
Count to three.
Hold it right there!

With the publication of her brand-new-this-week Stretch (Atheneum, 2009) Caldecott author Doreen Cronin has completed her popular trilogy of preschool movement books, beginning with Wiggle (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) and continued with Bounce, (see my earlier review here) all led enthusiastically by an long-eared exercise hound decked out in bright digitally-colored illustrations by Scott Menchin which almost stretch right off the page.

Cronin and Menchin provide plenty of bouncy rhymes and witty illustrations to keep kids laughing through their latest collaboration:

Can you stretch to the ceiling?
Can you stretch to the floor?
Can you stretch with a whisper?
Can you stretch with a ROAR?

I stretch my lungs to take a breath,
Then blow out nice and slow.
A bubble will stretch and stretch...
Until there's no room left to grow. POP!
(Pink bubble gum splatters decorate our exercise guru's face!)

If you stretch me and I stretch you,
Who knows how far we can go!

These three short and sassy little books provide parents and preschool teachers with a built-in opportunity for movement--a welcome way to give kids a bouncing, wiggling, stretching break and a jolly rhyming storytime to boot!