Sweet-Heart! Beecause I Love You by Sandra Magsamen

YOU SHINE LIKE A FIREFLY LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT!

Sandra Magsamen's little toy-and-movable book is a Valentine card with a cover--and antennae--just made for a favorite youngster.

Filled with similes to sweet ladybugs, glowing fireflies, dipping and dancing butterflies, and even a whale swimming delightedly, Magsamen's Beecause I Love You (Made With Love) (Scholastic Press, 2017) begins with a comparison to a bee who wears his heart on his vest, so to speak, and whose wings are heart-shaped, like hand-sewn appliques.

Each page in this smallish board book shows another lovable creature doing something winsome, but the final profession of love is saved just for THE ONE at the very end--

BEECAUSE YOU'RE YOU!

In the Swim: AlphaPrints: Fun In The Sun by Jo Ryan, et al

ELEPHANTS PLAYING IN THE POOL,

SPLASHING AROUND, KEEPING COOL.

Somewhere by the water is the place to be in summer, and in Jo Ryan's Alphaprints Fun in the Sun! (St. Martin's Press/Priddy Books, 2017), a whimsical crab with a thumbprint shell, feathery legs, and clothespin pincers is the guide to all the characters having fun in the sun.

Tactile illustrations based on touch-and-feel thumbprints, sandpapery castles, shiny, blue water splashes from elephant feet, and brown bear fur tempt little fingers to touch, as the elephants, bears, and crabs enjoy playing in the sand and water and a cookout on the beach.

Jolly rhymes reinforce vocabulary, and bright touch-and-feel illustrations fill the pages of this sturdy board book. Youngsters too young for surfing will have a chance to get in the swim of sand and sun fun in this latest in Roger Priddy's popular AlphaPrints series.

Move Over! Ten Monsters In The Bed by Katie Cotton

"WAIT!

BEFORE YOU START: THIS BOOK HAS MANY MONSTERS
FALLING TO THE GROUND.

PRESS EACH ONE THAT'S ON THE FLOOR TO HEAR A FUNNY SOUND!"

The bed's too small, and that's not all!

Ten monsters are jammed into the top bunk bed, and no one is happy! Too many freaky bodies and way too many noises!

Give 'em the boot!

THE BURPY ONE WAS WAS PRETTY PROUD.
HE THOUGHT HIS BURPS THE BEST.

THE OTHERS BUMPED HIM TO THE FLOOR,
THEY REALLY WEREN'T IMPRESSED.B-u-u-r-r-p!

And so it goes. The Snorer goes over, the Sneezer is out in the cold, and the itcher is scratched from the list, as all head overboard. Ditto for the Muncher, the Hiccupper, and the Slurper. And the rude noises are just getting started, as the next-to-last monster noise gets off the biggest guffaw of all....(and no, dear reader, I'm not tellin' with what) in Katie Cotton's boisterous counting book, Ten Monsters in the Bed (Little Bee Books, 2014), filled with wacky, quirky, and silly monsters, done up in riotous colors and squiggly shapes. This one is a fun and sugar-free surprise for the trick-or-treat bag for that special little giggler on your list.

Preschoolers who prefer a touch of the ribald will jump at a chance to push the magic button on this "toy and movable book." As Kirkus Review forthrightly puts it, "Setting new standards for gross sound effects, 10 monsters snore, scream, scratch, hiccup, belch, or worse."

Unflappable! Splat the Cat: Where's the Easter Bunny? by Rob Scotton

SPLAT CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

IT IS ALMOST EASTER AND HE STILL HASN'T TOLD THE EASTER BUNNY WHAT HE WANTS MOST!

Splat is back in another holiday adventure. This time he sets forth to find the Easter Bunny and make sure that he knows to bring him an extra large Easter egg.

Never mind that the day before Easter is E.B.'s busiest day of the year. Splat is an exuberant first-grader, and he's just sure he can uncover that undercover Bunny in time.

WHERE IS THE EASTER BUNNY? DO YOU KNOW?

Splat starts at home, looking behind his car. No Easter Bunny. He looks in his backyard shed. No Easter Bunny, just a lot of very strange-looking ducks! Hmmm!

The search continues through the town, with Splat repeating his question everywhere he goes--behind doors, behind the open front section of the town newspaper, THE SGRATGHING POST, with its headline EASTER BUNNY MISSING! where he disturbs a perturbed citizen reading, behind a sign proclaiming "Easter Parade Tomorrow" being put up by his teacher Mrs. Whimpydimple, behind umbrellas held by his buddies Spike and Kitten, and even in his own mailbox.

Nope. Just a package addressed cheerily to Splat the Cat.

There's a sturdy flap to be opened for each place Splat searches, and behind it a familiar character in this best-selling series, while in the background, of course, Splat overlooks the subject of his search, the Easter Bunny, partly visible on almost every page--his ears sticking up from the bathtub beside which Splat's sister has just donned her pink robe, in the store window displays he passes downtown, with his back turned in a phone booth, and just skedaddling over the hill ahead of Splat, leaving telltale colored eggs in his wake.

Kids will probably spot the evidence of the Easter Bunny way before grownups do in Rob Scotton's latest Splat the Cat: Where's the Easter Bunny? (Schwartz & Wade, 2011). Splat is an irresistible character, his fur bristling with energy and his jittery tail always a-wave, filled with the curiosity he shares with his young readers.

Scotton, author of the popular Russell the Sheep books, has a winner here. His series of lift-the-flap paperbacks for the preschool set are a welcome addition to the hardback Splat the Cat series, featuring sturdy flaps with jolly surprises hidden beneath and a repetitive text which youngsters can easily memorize, making this one an "I can read it all by myself" book even for the youngest non-readers, one with lots of visual humor, and an ending which ties the whole book together in a most satisfying way--in an Easter basket with a jaunty bow, some strange-looking ducks--and an EXTRA BIG Easter egg for Splat.