Stage Fright? Snowflake Day! by Becky Friedman, adaptor

TODAY IS SNOWFLAKE DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

"EVERY SNOWFLAKE IS DIFFERENT," SAYS DAD.

"IT'S SNOWING ON SNOWFLAKE DAY," DANIEL SINGS.

Daniel Tiger loves the snow, and he is excited about the decorations down in Enchanted Gardens park. It is a festive scene with music and special food and lots of sparkly lights. There are plenty of people, too, some of the youngest in snowflake costumes.

And then, there's that stage.

Daniel is a bit nervous. He has to get up on that stage with some of the kids in shiny costumes, and he has to say his LINES.

"I'M A SNOWFLAKE, AS SPECIAL AS CAN BE BE.

THERE'S NOBODY ELSE EXACTLY LIKE ME!"

I'M HERE TO SAY... LET'S START THE PLAY!

The pressure is on. Daniel is worried. He's on his mark, center stage. What if he forgets his lines?

And just as they begin the play, the lights go out!

Can Daniel save the Snowflake Day Play? In this new Daniel Tiger tale, Snowflake Day! (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) (Simon and Schuster, 2019), based on the popular Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood PBS program, Daniel manages to find a way to light up the stage. Becky Friedman's charming adaptation celebrates self-confidence and self-esteem in a shaped board book with lots of eye appeal and sparkle with a message that everyone is special in their own special way.

Save a place in the Christmas stocking also for Simon and Schuster's seasonal top seller, Merry Christmas, Daniel Tiger!: A Lift-the-Flap Book (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood).

What's Roamin' in the Gloamin'? Peppa Pig: Night Creatures by Neville Astley

Peppa and George were having a sleepover at Grammy and Grandpa Pig's house.

As it grows dark, Grandpa heads out to look for slugs on the plants in his garden. He tells Peppa and George that the slugs only come out at night, and the two begin to wonder what other critters roam only in the dark. Grandpa is only too happy to hold forth on the subject.

"Some are asleep all day and awake mostly at night. In fact, there's one night creature up in this tree.

HOOT!

Peppa and George's own eyes get almost as big as the owl's when they point their flashlight at those glowing eyes up in that tree, in Neville Astley's latest Peppa book, Night Creatures: A Lift-the-Flap Book (Peppa Pig) (Scholastic, 2018). And that's just the beginning in this light-the-night, lift-the-flap book with surprising creatures of the night under each flap and a tiny flashlight on the cover to add to the fun. Bats and hedgehogs are soon spotted, and Peppa and George are amazed at all the awesome animals to be seen, until Grandpa points out that, unlike these creatures, they can't stay awake all night, and Grandma Pig points them toward their own bedtime.

Fans of the Peppa Pig television program will enjoy discovering the varieties of night life under the sturdy flaps with the toy flashlight and will perhaps want to follow up with more night animals, as in Lizi Boyd's award-winning Flashlight (read review here) and Divya Srinivason's Little Owl's Night, see review here.)

X Marks the Spot! Find Spot at the Museum by Eric Hill

SPOT IS VISITING THE MUSEUM WITH MOM AND TOM.

LOOK AT THIS BIG DINOSAUR BONE!

THIS BONE IS NOT FOR YOU, SPOT!

Spot the puppy is not exactly in his element in the museum. He can't chew on the dino bones. He can't look behind the screen at the exhibit under construction. Oh, there's his chewy bone. Now, maybe he'll be good.

What's just through those big doors?

Oooh. A cave man and a big bear! Wow! There's a woolly mammoth. Now that's BIG!

WAIT! WHERE'S SPOT?

It's hard to find a little puppy in the huge museum! There's a saber-toothed tiger, but no Spot! What's inside this cave? Let's look.

Not Spot!

Let's see if Spot is hiding in that mummy case! King Tut? No pup!

How about the Oceans Exhibit? Is Spot inside this giant clam shell? No, he's not.

Where, oh, where has our little Spot gone? In Eric Hill's latest Find Spot at the Museum (Frederick Warne, 2017), readers have to look under a lot of museum stuff to spot that peripatetic pup. Along the way they'll learn about the many interesting things to be found in the natural history museum in this jolly and educational little board book with natural surprises under each flap. X marks the Spot!

Dig and Delve: On the Construction Site by Carron Brown

For construction crazy kids, diggers on duty are the best sight on the building site!

In Carron Brown's newest addition to the Shine-A-Light series, On the Construction Site (Shine-A Light Books) (The Ivy Press, 2015) there's a special feature added to this study of heavy equipment involved building a skyscraper. Areas with a flashlight icon can be held up to a light to see what lies underneath the scene on the page: for example, what's inside the dump track headed away?

ROCKS AND RUBBLE!

Meanwhile diggers are revealed constructing the foundation, and whooshing cement mixers are shown squirting out the concrete footings, while concrete scrapers are waiting in the wings to do their thing, leveling the concrete so that it can dry nice and smooth.

Then here comes the crane operator, followed by iron workers, high steel workers, acetylene torch welders, and glaziers ready to put in the giant sheets of glass in those oh-so-high windows. And finally the less glamorous plumbers, flooring specialists, and electricians take over to finish up an apartment for the family just waiting to move in.

Author Carron Brown tells the whole story, with breaks to peer at just what's just under the surface, and Bee Johnson provides the stylized but realistic illustrations of equipment and workers as the skyscraper rises.  This one is non-fiction fun for youngsters who love heavy equipment, all identified in the appended picture dictionary.

Tree Time! Dream Snow by Eric Carle

A rotund farmer does his evening chores, feeding his five farm animals--Horse, Cow, Sheep, Pig, and Rooster--and heading gratefully back to his cottage. There he spreads some honey on bread, and with a cup of peppermint tea, plops heavily into his favorite chair.

Soon he's resting in front of the fire!

"HEAVENS!" HE SAID. "IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS AND IT HASN'T SNOWED YET!"

Soon he's dozing and dreaming of snow.

In his dream he imagines his farm animals, called One, Two, Three, Four, and Five, sleeping in the snow-blanketed shed.

Suddenly, the farmer wakes and sees the snow outside.

"OH, ME! OH, MY! I ALMOST FORGOT!"

He suits up for an expedition outside--boots, fur lined cap, red coat and green gloves, and tossing a sack over his shoulders, he soldiers through the snow to the barn, where he unpacks his sack and assembles--a small Christmas tree with sparkling lights, colored balls and tinsel, under which he places gifts for One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In what may be his only Christmas story, Eric Carle's Dream Snow (Philomel Books, 2015) is out in a revised new edition as a board book. The acetate overlays of nightfall and falling snow in the original full-sized picture book are replaced here with sturdy flaps for younger fingers which open to reveal the animals sleeping in their stalls and what is hidden inside the farmer's pack. Although the white-whiskered farmer bears a striking resemblance to St. Nick, there's no hint of a sleigh trip ahead, just the simple gifts of the holiday. This one is perfect for preschoolers to share during Yuletide.

Hoisting High! Curious George's Crane by Carol Chu

ONE DAY GEORGE LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW AND SEES...
A BRIGHT SHINY CRANE

AS HIGH AS A TREE.

Of course, George is curious. "Well, who wouldn't be?" as creator H. A. Rey famously said.

And this day George is up for an uplifting experience! He zooms downstairs and soon is standing in front of an unusual, big yellow truck, with a friendly looking man in a hard hat at the controls. And there's a long lift arm which can hoist heavy loads way up high. Big logs are being lifted as if they were feathers and put in place to make... WHAT?

Curious George climbs into the cab and suddenly he realizes what the crane is constructing. Something he can't wait to slide down!

In Carol Chu's Curious George's Crane (mini movers shaped board books) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), not only does this "toy and movable book" show how playground equipment is assembled from the ground up, it also provides its lucky owner with a chance to try his or her hand at the project.

The lift arm folds out, complete with hook, and among the final pages of this inventive little shape book are press-out versions of the construction materials so that the book's owner can re-enact the whole process. Press-out stands for the completed job enable the young builder to prepare his or her own construction site piece by piece. Illustrations by Alessandro Prezini provide spot-on likenesses of H.A. Rey's ever-popular picture book hero, Curious George.

Other books in this series include Curious George's Train (mini movers shaped board books), Curious George's Dump Truck (mini movers shaped board books), and Curious George's Fire Truck (mini movers shaped board books).