Playing in Harmony: Clarinet and Trumpet by Melanie Ellsberg

CLARINET AND TRUMPET WERE FRIENDS FROM THE FIRST NOTE.

"TRUMPET, YOU'RE A BLAST!"

"CLARINET, YOU'RE SHARP!"

The two made good music together--until a newcomer marched into the band room.

Suddenly Clarinet realized that she and Oboe had a lot in commen--silvery keys and a reed! Perhaps they should have their own section in the band and hang out together. Trumpet didn't belong with his friend any more, especially when Clarinet squeeked at the fanfare he wrote for her. Trumpet couldn't help but B flat! He started to play with Trombone. French horn tried to hit the right chord by joining with section. Then the Woodwinds invited Flute to play with them!

THAT EVENED THE SCORE!

There was no harmony in the band room until a new guy came swinging in.

It was SAXOPHONE!

He had a reed, but he was brass--a happy hybrid who smoothed the discord and jazzed up the band's sound right away!

"DIG IT!" CROONED SAX.

The percussion instruments, who had been afraid of striking the wrong beat, came out to join in, and all the band was harmoniously and melodiously in tune, in author Melanie Ellsberg's funny and punny, off-beat introduction to the instruments in the band, Clarinet and Trumpet (book with shaker) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), a picture-book parable with plenty of wordplay with musical terms and a pitch for cooperation in music and life. With the comic illustrations of artist John Herzog to lighten the mood, this small book offers both social and musical learning for young readers with the just the right rhythm for young readers. An added attraction is the built-in shaker in the book to help young readers join the band. Says School Library Journal, "A lyrical tour de force about individuality, friendship, and community...."

Little Spooky Stuff! Where's the Witch? by Ingela P. Arrhenius

Let's look for all the Halloween spooks!

The very youngest little book lovers now have a Halloween board book just for them. Inside on each double page spread there's a Halloween character hiding under an easy felt lift-the-flap just waiting for little fingers to view the big reveal.

Where is that SKELETON? Oh, lift the flap and.... there's one!

There is a SPIDER, inspecting a pumpkin with possibilities!

There is a VAMPIRE, complete with matching black sarcophagus for napping!

Is there a WITCH! Lift the flap to see her fly in front of the moon!

But where are YOU? I dare you to lift that curtain and see!

And there, behind the soft flap, is a mirror and ... Who is that looking back? Who's that you see?

It's YOU, in Angela P. Arrhenius' little toy-and-movable board book just right for the youngest Halloween-goers, Where's the Witch? (Nosy Crow Books, 2019). There's a little vocabulary lesson built into this first book, in which the usual suspects of the holiday are cute comic characters from the spooky season in this small, easy-for-small-fingers fun first Halloween book.

Among the several other beginner board books by Ingela P. Arrhenius are Where's the Duck? and Where's the Unicorn?

The Play's The Thing! Night Play: A Bedtime Story in Three Acts by Lizi Boyd

Little Arlo is already attired in his stripey pajamas and paper nightcap and is ready to head for bed. But his toy bedtime buddies are not!

"I'm so sleepy. Just one more play and off to bed." Arlo says.

"Oh, yay!" says Bunny.

"Hooray!" says Cat

"Yippee!" says 'Coon.

"Starring Arlo and Friends!" announces Bird.

It's ACT I. The curtain is pulled back, revealing a backdrop of a lake with sailboats and a small island in the center. Arlo's menagerie of stuffed animals get to work as stagehands and impromptu actors. Oars for the sailboat are located, and Bird scouts out the wind, but it seems their little audience, Arlo, is already dozing.

"Let him sleep! We'll do Act II!"

The curtain opens again upon a medieval scene, as Cat hands out the costumes, but rest of cast finds their knightly stage garb too itchy, too heavy, and too hard to see out of. The production seems to falling apart. Sets get haphazardly switched, with grumpy actors going off-script and getting downright rowdy.

At last, Arlo wakes up and takes charge of the production. The cast of characters fall in line and follow the director. The show must go on, and together they complete the play.

And in a dramatic final sweep of the curtain comes ACT III...

All sail away...

And cast and crew and Arlo, too, sail off to dreamland at last, in Lizi Boyd's latest, Night Play (Chronicle Books, 2018). Ever since Wynken and Blynken and Nod sailed off one night into a sea of dew, kids have been drifting off to dreamland with a bedtime story, and this beddie-bye tale showing toys and little sleeper Arlo cooperating to create their own backdrops (presumably painted by the stage crew between pages) allows them to perform the roles in their own play.

Youngsters will love artist Boyd's text, with plenty of speech balloons delivered by the plushy performers, as well as her skillful manipulation of the toy-and-movable format which uses die-cut pages to provide the opening and closing stage curtain between scenes. It's a novel bedtime story, concluding in a showstopper of a double-page gatefold as the performers, their night play over, take their bows and toddle offstage to bed. This book is something of a tour-de-force for Lizi Boyd, whose earlier sleeping-out bedtime tale, Flashlight, similar in style if not in palette, was a hit in its clever use of black and white contrasts. (see review here).

Love's A-Poppin'! Love YOU: A Pop-Up Book by David A. Carter

What you are is...

THE COLORS OF THE RAINBOW.

David Carter's Valentine's Day treat, I Love You: A Pop-Up Book (Abrams, 2017), salutes the reader in a paragon of paper sculpture, a brief treatise on love illustrated by little masterpieces of pop-up book art that virtually explode with each page turn.

Among the pages there are spring branches adorned with blossoms and leaves, reaching out toward the reader, a rainbow with dangling hearts, a rolling, watery wave that ripples onto the shore, and an explosion of glittery hearts for the grand finale. It's like fireworks contained inside book covers.

Author-illustrator David Carter is a veteran of the toy-and-movable pop-up genre, and this creation is a work of art and a Valentine salute and inspiration to young readers and artists.

Gen G for Groovy! We Are the Groovicorns by Rosie Greening

Everyone LOVES unicorns!

But you know who should be famous?

GROOVICORNS! "That's us!"

Sure, unicorns are cool, with those crazy horns and their rainbows which curve all the way across the sky.

But Groovicorns? Their rainbows aren't perfect arches. In fact, they're kind of quirky, but they make great twisty slides!

Unicorns grant wishes, wear Eau de Cotton Candy, and hang out in castles made of marshmallows, but Groovicorns set up fancy tents for disco nights.

Unicorns create sunny days.

BORING!

Groovicorns prefer SNOW!

Unicorns work too hard. Groovicorns like to PLAY.

With their rainbow-striped horns and reversible sequins, these Groovicorns are what's up these days, in Rosie Greening's Story Book We are the Groovicorns! (Make Believe Ideas, 2018). It's a case of Vive la Difference, as the unicorns make a case for a more carefree kind of being, with illustrations of that lifestyle provides with plenty of stars, confetti, and some choice sight gags (Unicorns hang out in Buckinghorn Palace), and the book design provides those mega-popular two-way sequins so groovicorns can change their stripes at will.. Share this one with Greening's Do You Believe in Groovicorns? and Story Book We are the Groovicorns!

You Can Feed a Poodle a Noodle, But... Never Feed a Yeti Spaghetti! by Kali Stileman

No fajitas for cheetahs. Well, maybe a few--no more than two!

But no shrimps for chimps. And a whale will always fail to eat his kale. Don't even think about it!

And even his mama won't give a little llama a banana!

But how can a kid resist when every page features a big-mouthed critter (with soft felt teeth that never nip little fingers), non-verbally saying ...

"DO YOU DARE FEED ME??"

Kali Stileman's latest board book, Never Feed a Yeti Spaghetti (Make Believe Ideas, 2018), features charming rhyming advice that entice older tots (and adults) to try their own rhyming duos--(Never feed a horse borscht? Never bake a snake a cake?) and lets younger toddlers have some fun with every page fitted with a big mouth for force-feeding each critter. With some incidental learning opportunities in the way of animal and food naming, this die-cut toy-and-movable book can be a lot of fun for parent and child. Oh, and don't feed a fox your bagel with lox!

Spring Fling: Little Blue Truck's Springtime by Alice Schertle

Little Blue Truck is back and just in time to see what's new!

IT'S A YOO-HOO, SKY-BLUE, SPRING-SING DAY

WHAT DO THEY SEE ALONG THE WAY?

Little Blue Truck is on the road with his best friend Toad, and everywhere they look, Toad and Little Blue see something magically new, in Alice Schertle's latest, a lift-the-flap delight that reveals brand-new farm friends to meet.

Down at the barn, the stall door opens to reveal Mama Sheep's babies--twin white lambkins!

There's a new born calf in the cowshed, and in the sty Mrs. Pig has ten pink piglets. And and what do they see hidden in the clover?

A BUNNY SISTER AND A BUNNY BROTHER

AND ANOTHER... AND ANOTHER!

The birds and crickets are singing. Frogs in the pond are leaping. And Little Blue Truck can't keep from beeping!

Alice Schertle's cheery rhyming Lift-the-Flap book reveals all the spring surprises in her latest Little Blue Truck's Springtime (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), a joyful way to introduce tots and preschoolers to the happy renewal of the springtime. Accompanied by his pal Toad, the famous anthropomorphic little farm pickup truck shows youngsters all the new life of spring, from ducklings swimming behind Mother Duck in a line to chicks exiting from their eggs in Mrs. Hen's nest. Schertle's happy rhymes are set off in lovely landscapes pictured by artist Jill McMurray, whose pastel watercolors speak sweetly of springtide.

Other books by this talented pair include the first in series, Little Blue Truck Board Book,, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way, Little Blue Truck's Halloween, and Little Blue Truck's Christmas, all preschool classics. (See reviews here)

He's SO Unique! That's Not My Unicorn....Its Mane is Too Fluffy! by Fiona Watt.

THAT'S NOT MY UNICORN!

HIS MANE IS TOO FLUFFY!

For a mythical mystery tour, a kid must have a unicorn, ye old horne'd steed of the magical creed.

But the discriminating tot has to find just the right sort of wondrous ride. Just any old unicorn will not do!

As the title specifies, its mane can't be too fluffy.

Its ears cannot be TOO soft, either. On the other hand, its hooves best not be that bumpy, either. And then the wings aren't feathery enough, either.

In Fiona Watt's latest in the Touchy-Feely series, That's Not My Unicorn... (Usborne, 2017), illustrated in simple black line drawings by Rachel Wells, the best mythical beast simply must have a horn that sparkles!

But the young reader does not have to be forlorn! Just look! There's MY unicorn! The best fantasy mount has a sparkly horn! Usborne's touchable and tactile series of tiny but virtually indestructable board books offers lots of feely finger fun for the very youngest unicorn fancier.

For more fantastical feely experiences, share this one with That's Not My Dragon...(Usborne Touchy-Feely Books).

Which Way? UP...DOWN...ACROSS by Corina Fletcher and Natalie Marshall

Everything's relative!

And when it comes to locating things in space, that's tricky! Human speech does it with special words that indicate relative position, words that are hard to explain except in concrete examples.

And that's where a preschool toy-and-movable book like Corina Fletcher's Up Down Across (Sterling Books, 2015) can come in handy. In a very appealing design and with striking use of color, this board book features charming illustrations of different sea creatures illustrating words like BELOW, BEHIND, BETWEEN, AND ACROSS, as well as the basic UP and DOWN.

A mother seal bear and young one are up on an ice bank, down on the ice floe, and below the sea as they swim away. One jellyfish is in front of another, behind the other, and in between two jellyfish. Four different colored fish take turns as they go inside the kelp and through it and out the other side.

To make the words expressing position change more concrete Fletcher and illustrator Natalie Marshall provide pull tabs which allow the sea creatures to move from one rectangular opening in the pages to another as they change position in space. And to begin the transition to reading, not only do the animals move, but also the words themselves, so that when the seals move below sea, the word below moves into view, making the concept of spatial position concrete.

This book is a fun way to teach relative position to the very young while also exposing tots to the concept of the book as a way of representing what goes on in the physical world as well.

Pair this one with Fletcher and Marshall's companion board book, Small Smaller Smallest.

BOO! Guess Who? Little Blue Truck's Halloween by Alice Schertle

Little Blue Truck
and his good friend Toad
are going to a party
just down the road.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

says Little Blue.

"It's Halloween! You come, too.

Brightly colored leaves are swirling in the breeze, and jack o'lanterns grin from gateposts and dooryards, as Toad drives Little Blue Truck down the road. Who's that ahead?

Who's this clown
with the big red nose?
and a cap that jingles
wherever he goes?

Under the mask,
who do you see?

"Baa!" says the sheep.
"It's me! It's me!"

One by one, the costumed animals are waiting by the road--Duck in a tutu, a queenly Cow in a crown, Pig with scraggly hair under a tall, pointed black hat, Hen in a feathered pirate hat, and Horse sporting a dragon's fiery breath, wings, and spiked tail. Little Blue Truck stops for each one to ask "Who do you see?" and each party-goer is found under the flap saying "It's me!" Soon Little Blue's loadbed is full of costumed friends who unload at the barn to sample the treats and dance to the music.

The barn is jumpin' and the party is in full swing. But where are Toad and Little Blue Truck?

And who is that looking like a giant ghost--with great big glassy glowing eyes?

Under that sheet it can only be...

It's you-know-who!

"Beep! Beep! BOO!"

In a delightfully designed board book edition, it's Alice Schertle's Little Blue Truck's Halloween (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), all ready to introduce preschoolers to the custom of dressing up to celebrate Halloween. There are clues for the youngest toddlers visible under each disguise, and a lift of each super-sturdy flap reveals the animal's distinctive sound (Quack! Moo! Cluck!) as he or she unmasks and offers an ID. Author Alice Schertle is a past master of of jolly-metered quatrains and predictable rhymes which offer pre-reading skills for tots which also help the emergent reader solo on this story, and with the familiar illustrations of Jill McElmurry, this new one, out in plenty of time to have on hand for the spooky season, adds to the admirable list of books in the Little Blue Truck series.

Sorry to end on an old cliche'.
But there's only one thing I can say!

Little Blue Truck's Halloween is adorable!

Shake It Up! Let's Play! by Herve' Tullet

HEY, THERE! I'M GETTING A LITTLE BORED IN HERE.

WANNA PLAY?

Let's Roll! is the invitation from a playful yellow circle who invites young readers to rock and roll with him through the pages.

NOW, OKAY, TRY THE CORNER.

YUP. DOWN THERE ON THE RIGHT!

Rollercoasting, circling and loop-the-looping, Herve' Tullet's latest interactive book, Let's Play! (Chronicle Books, 2016), gives the old imagination a vigorous workout, following the exhortations to follow the bouncing yellow ball with each page turn. Sometimes the yellow disc goes solo, and sometimes he is joined by friends in red and blue. Sometimes he follows the dotted black line, and sometimes he freelances all over the page. Sometimes he hides, and at one point, he is obscured by some strange force which wants to scribble in black marker all over the page. But he rises to the occasion, as promised.

I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS. . .!

QUICK! TURN THE PAGE!

It's a visual trip for the inventive reader, as kids follow the challenge to see what's next, in this companion book to Tullet's blockbuster hits, Press Here and Mix It Up! (see reviews of Herve's out-of-the-box books here), as this ground-breaking metafiction comes to preschool-primary book lovers. Tullet joins other authors in removing the "fourth-wall" between reader and page with striking, kid-friendly page design, making this new one a worthy member of the recent trio of imaginative pilates-for-the-mind picture books.

WHAT A TRIP!

WANT TO COME BACK AND PLAY SOME MORE?

"Another digital (in the original sense of the term) adventure from the reigning grand master of no-tech gaming," says Kirkus Reviews.

Rig Riddles: Whose Truck? by Toni Buzzeo

WHEN SOMEONE HURTS
LIGHTS FLASH AND GLOW.

WHOSE TRUCK IS THIS?
DO YOU KNOW?

Noted author Toni Buzzeo's Whose Truck? (Whose Tools?) (Abrams Appleseed Books, 2015) has all the right stuff for young truck fanciers, whose numbers are legion! Buzzeo builds into this picture book staple an engaging design which works as a basic identification book for toddlers and a vocabulary-building nonfiction entry for older readers.

Each of the six featured service vehicles has a literal three-fold exposition. The verso (left-hand) page features a rhyming riddle with clues to the identify of each truck, while the recto (right-hand) page shows artist Jim Datz' realistic but stylized drawing of each one on the job. Then the eye-catching gatefold opens to show the workers associated with the vehicle, each performing his or her particular role with the appropriate equipment or tool. The electric utility truck gatefold shows the workers repairing fallen power lines with the help of their aerial bucket and boom, and the ever-popular firetruck pages show the hydrant intake hose, the deluge gun, and the fire fighters with their ladders and axes on the job. EMT technicians block traffic, examine patients, and load them into their first-response facility for the trip to the ER.

Also featured are highway maintenance vehicles--scapers, asphalt trucks, concrete spreaders, and all; the construction vehicles include all the usual heavy-duty equipment--cranes and levelers, and even the broadcast trucks and their news hounds show off their antennas, cameras, and cable teams.

Even toy trucks are given their due, in this outstanding salute to those community services and equipment that kids love to watch on the job. Male and female workers of both genders and various ethnic groups are featured by illustrator Datz plying their trades with zest, making this book one that even young readers will enjoy perusing closely all on their own. "A must for toddlers and preschoolers," says Kirkus in its starred review.

Cyber-Saucy! Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin

[WARNING! THIS BOOK TURNS INTO A ROBOT!]

Naw! That couldn't happen. But if a cool robot costume lets a kid get into the persona of a robot, well, go for it!

Grown-ups have no idea how much fun it can be to play like you are a robot! So how can they even imagine how much fun it would be to BE a robot!

ROBO-POKE! ROBO-GRAB! ROBO-STOMP!

EVERYONE WOULD WANT TO BE A ROBOT!

What if there was robot machine that processed kids into robots? Or even better--

ROBO-SAUCE?

It's no taste treat, but if you pour on just enough, well--ZAP! you will become a GIANT ROBOT!

Now it's time for Rampaging Robots! What if even your parents can become robots? Your dog? Everyone?

The robots take over the story, and then in a gatefold that just keeps on keeping on, the robots take over the book itself, in Adam Rubin's Robo-Sauce (Dial Books, 2015), in which a many-faceted gatefold opens up and can be refolded into a new cover for a book which even can be "read" backwards. And why not? Daniel Palmieri's illustrations are up to the challenge and his (and his readers') imaginations are extended in novel ways to there and back again. "Is there an award for best gatefold ever? Then tell Rubin and Salmieri to get out their tuxes, because this book has the one to beat," says Kirkus Review.

Beep Along! Little Blue Truck's Beep-Along Book by Alice Schertle

If the cow is in the corn,

give a wave and honk your horn!

Alice Schertle's beloved picture book hero, Little Blue Truck, is back in what even a curmudgeon would call an adorable toy and movable book for toddlers.

Through a die-cut hole in the cover and each page, Little Blue Truck peers forth, with Frog at the wheel, saying I Beep! And with a squeeze of Little Truck's plush hood, he does!

On a sunlit toodle through the farmlands, Schertle's text describes the farm animals in the scenery and invites the little reader to give a beep and a wave to friends. There are cows in the corn, pigs in the clover, and also horses, chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, geese, and another frog to greet along the way. Beep as much as you like! It's a soft, sweet sound for young ears, and an interactive book that even infants can begin to enjoy as parents read along.

Veteran author Alice Schertle provides her characteristically rhythmic verses and artist Jill McElmurry's jolly, rounded illustrations have made their Little Blue Truck series current classics for preschoolers, and their Little Blue Truck's Beep-Along Book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) is a great way to introduce little ones (and new parents) to these endearing books.

Schertle's larger format pictures books in this series are Little Blue Truck Board Book, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way board book and Little Blue Truck's Christmas, as well as the spin-off activity book Little Blue Truck Farm Sticker Fun! (see reviews here.)

Hide-and-Peek? Is There a Dog in This Book? by Viviane Schwarz

"OH! HELLO!

YOU OPENED OUR BOOK!

Right away, in her latest finger-friendly flap book, Is There a Dog in This Book? (Candlewick Press, 2014), Viviane Schwarz's three comic cats let us know that this is no ordinary missing puppy tale. Her cats, Moonpie, Andre', and Tiny, let us know that we are visitors in a metabook, where the characters interact with whomever is off page. It's no problem for this practiced three, however, and right away the reader is invited to join in on their search for the dog they just know, with the mysterious intuition of cats, is hiding in their house.

"WAIT! IS THERE SOMEBODY ELSE IN THIS BOOK?

SOMEBODY DRANK ALL MY MILK!"

The last thing these felines want in their domicile is a yappish, snappish dog, so they mount a vigorous search. Could he be hiding behind the purple sofa? Can somebody help them look?

"CAN YOU MOVE THIS SOFA?" they implore the reader.

Bingo! There, behind the sofa flap, is a long-eared purple canine who looks like he's there to stay! The cats flee!

"PSSST! FRIEND.

NOW WE'RE HIDING IN THE PIANO."

The reader is enjoined NOT to lift the piano lid, but who could resist?

You can see where this one is going, as an extensive dog, er, cat hunt follows, with the three kitties eager to seek the perfect hiding place all over the house--the closet, the suitcase (Very Boring! says their sign), and even the kitchen cabinet, which opens to reveal a small but possibly smokey dragon! But finally, Tiny, the littlest and least dog-averse cat has an intriguing speculation.

"WHAT IF THE DOG LIKES CATS?"

Curiosity overtakes the cautious cats. Would it be nice to touch his furry coat? Would he be fun to play with?

There many a slip between lift-the-flaps and friendship, but it looks like when the cats finally find their doggy, there are going to be some changes made around their house in this interactive game of hide-and-seek. Viviane Schwarz's inventive flaps, so well integrated with the interior of the house, make for some surprises and lots of giggles, and her deft page-turn design keeps human curiosity as keen as the cats'. She throws in a bit of dogs drool visual humor by portraying the pup's thought balloons in the simplest of stick figures, while the cats speak only in artful language. There definitely is a dog in this book, and it looks like he's there to stay.

Schwarz's three likeable cats also star in her previous companion books, There Are No Cats in this Book and
There Are Cats in This Book, all filled with interactive feline fun. "Along with a hand-lettered text, animal figures rendered in vigorous daubs of black and colored inks give the episode an endearing, informal energy reminiscent of Chris Raschka's Daisy outings," says Kirkus.