A Bang-Up Graduation: A Balloon for Isabel by Deborah Underwood

"NO FAIR," SAID ISABEL.

"YEAH, NO FAIR!" SAID WALTER.

IT WAS TWO DAYS BEFORE GRADUATION.

IN TWO DAYS THE POSSUMS,THE RACCOONS, AND ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS WOULD GET BALLOONS.

BUT NOT THE PORCUPINES.

Porcupine preschoolers Isabel and Walter are tired of watching their classmates get holiday balloons while they get yet another bookmark. It's high time for a porcupine protest.

Ms. Quill, prickle-covered too, admits to a secret balloon yen herself, but points out patiently that balloons are definitely a bust around porcupines. They're just not safe for the pop prone, she adds. Someone could be frightened by the big bang, and a flying popped balloon could cause an eye injury. Walter and Isabel suggest graduation goggles for everyone, but Ms. Quill persists with her no-pop protocol.

Isabel, however, is not yet out of anti-pop plans. From a cardboard box she fashions a pop-stopping set of armor, but finds she has a definite doorway problem. Pillows strapped over their quills are easily perforated, leaving a trail of down everywhere they go. Wrapping Walter in plastic bubble wrap just sets their classmates off in a popping party around Walter's protective packing at school.

There's only one day left to come up with a pop-proofing plan. Then, at a cookout in his backyard, Isabel admires the table spread with candies from Walter's father's sweet shop. Her sharp eyes fall upon a jar of brightly colored gumdrops. "Poof!" Isabel spots a possible solution!

The next day Isabel, jelly candies impaled on the tip of every quill, bursts into the classroom.

"WE'RE POP-PROOFED!" SHOUTED ISABEL. "NOW MAY WE HAVE BALLOONS?"

Isabel and Walter reveal their graduation day pop-proof quill-dos--each quill prettily capped with a bright gumdrop, ready for their graduation balloons just like the rest of their class.

MS. QUILL BLINKED. SHE STARED. SHE TOUCHED ONE OF ISABEL'S GUMDROPS WITH HER PAW.

"I DON'T SEE WHY NOT," SHE SAID FINALLY.

"ARE THERE ANY GUMDROPS LEFT?" WHISPERED MS. QUILL.

Success is sweet, and Isabel, Walter, and even Ms. Quill join the pop-proof balloon-bearing parade at graduation.

Deborah Underwood's new A Balloon for Isabel (HarperCollins, 2010) is a great tribute to the powers of mind over matter as the persistent Isabel finds the perfect plan to realize her dream of marching with her own graduation balloon in hand. Laura Rankin helps out Underwood's deft foreshadowing (Walter eagerly swaps the ubiquitous gumdrops in his lunchbox for Isabel's broccoli) with her palette of jelly-bean colors, right down to Isabel's seemingly endless supply of pastel Mary Jane Jellies and Ms. Quill's bead necklaces which look like a string of gumdrops themselves. The final page, showing the happy Walter and Isabel--not to mention Ms. Quill, with her jelly-do, a huge pink balloon, and a very satisfied smile--will surely bring a smile to readers as well.

Counting Curmudgeon! 1 Grumpy Bruce: A Counting Book by Ryan T. Higgins

Take a pair of interloping skunk house sitters, and a trice of messy partying mice, four greedy goslings, five silly squirrels, and some six trudging turtles, and what do you get?

You might say a grumpy old geezer of a bear--except that Bruce the black bear is always crabbv, so how can you tell what peeves him?

It's doesn't help to add numbers of silly squirrels, peeping birdies, prickly porcupines, and even invading elephants! Hey! Wait! Elephants don't even live in the North Woods!

Nine porcupines, wanting hugs?

Really?

But if there's one thing you can count on to make Mother Goose Bruce even more cantankerous, it's more woodland critters invading his den when he's in the mood to hibernate, and author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins can be counted on to pull Bruce's chain with increasing numbers of little forest dwellers and one hopelessly out-of-place elephant in his brand-new board book, 1 Grumpy Bruce: A Counting Board Book (Mother Bruce Series) (Disney Hyperion Books, 2018).

Higgin's humorous sight gags make even counting to ten for toddlers ticklebox material, not to mention educational. Certain silliness and good humor make this concept book a good way to introduce Higgins' jolly picture books (see reviews here) to lucky preschoolers, as well as Higgin's Mother Goose Bruce best sellers (reviews here).

Nature's Copycats! Shell Beak Tusk: Shared Traits and the Wonders of Adaptation by Bridget Heos.

Animals that are related often have similar traits which they inherited from a common ancestor. Rabbits and hares both have long ears.

However, some animals share traits but are not related. Why? Because they have adapted the same traits separately in order to survive in their environments.

This is called convergent evolution.

In the dry season on the African savanna, the grass grows coarse and parched and the best foods are the tender leaves on the trees. To survive over time, giraffes evolved an amazing adaptation--a very long neck to help reach all those juicy leaves, the longest among living mammals. On a much smaller scale, there is an insect called the giraffe weevil whose extended neck enables a long reach for a meal as well.

Mother Nature's toolkit of parts is filled with many parallel examples of convergent evolution--parallel adaptations for survival between different types of animals, found often in distant places. Porcupines, echidnas, and porcupine fish all share one defensive trait, protective spikes that that make would-be predators think twice. Turtles (reptiles) and snails (mollusks) both retreat from danger within sheltering shells. Birds and bats (mammals) share wings for flight, and the common firefly and the exotic anglerfish of the deeps both use their power to produce cool heat from body chemicals as a lure, sometimes for reproduction and sometimes for predation. Birds like the parrot have a specialized beak to crush shells of seeds and fruits, while octopuses (mollusks) have hard, sharp beaks to crush crabs.

Bridget Heos' intriguing new Shell, Beak, Tusk: Shared Traits and the Wonders of Adaptation (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) offers even more engaging examples of such parallel traits from nature's bag of tricks. Full- and double-page color photographs of such wildly different animal pairs as the mallard duck and the platypus or walrus and elephant illustrate the major premise of nature's logical and lovable diversity in an eye-catching and inviting narration that may inspire young readers to come up with their own examples of unlikely animals with similar traits. In the manner of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's other superb science books, author Heos offers an ample bibliography and index to lead young nature scientists to further thinking and reading.

Pointed Wordplay: Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story by Kara LaReau

MR. PRICKLES WAS NOT A PARTICULARLY FRIENDLY FELLOW.

MUCH OF HIS UNFRIENDLINESS WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT MR. PRICKLES WAS A PORCUPINE.

AT FIRST MR. PRICKLES TRIED TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE OTHER FOREST ANIMALS.

But it's tricky to make a close friend when you're hard to get, er, close to.

And the cliquishness of those fur-weather friends in the forest is not much help either.

"YOU'RE NOT CUTE LIKE US!" SAID RACCOON. "OR CUDDLY LIKE US!" SAID CHIPMUNK.

"OR PLAYFUL LIKE US!" SAID SKUNK.

"I AM INSIDE," SAID MR. PRICKLES.

But the would-be playmates can't get past his prickly persona, and being excluded from the group doesn't do Mr. Prickles' personality any favors either. Their pointed quips pierce his soul, and Mr. Prickles feels he'll always be a quilled outcast, unfriended by his particular social network.

But it's a big world out there in the forest, and one day Mr. Prickles bumps into a similarly equipped and be-quilled personage, in the form of Miss Pointypants, and it seems that Cupid's arrow may have made its way to his heart. Even though their would-be pals nickname the quilled couple "Spike and Barb," it seems that love will find a way and the two prickly personalities may find a way to each others' hearts in a quill-fated friendship.

Author Kara LaReau is lookin' sharp with pointed puns in her latest, Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story (Roaring Brook, 2011), her wordplay ably portrayed in Scott Magoon's playful pictures. As they suggest, everybody has some prickles sometimes, and the trick is learning how to get close enough to see the non-prickliness on the inside.

Quills and porcupines are quite popular these days, making it easy to pair this one with other porcupine picture books that make the same point--Paul Schmid's Hugs from Pearl (see my review here) and Laurie Isop's How Do You Hug a Porcupine?, (reviewed here), two tales that make the point that getting close means learning to see the person inside the prickles.

A Quark of Rhetorical Questions? An Ambush of Tigers: A Wild Gathering of Collective Nouns by Betsy R. Rosenthal

Does an ambush of tigers
quietly creep
past a bed of oysters
that snores in its sleep?

Word lovers delight in coming up with clever names for groups of living things, and many of them are already familiar....

A bevy of beauties? A gaggle of geese? A pride of lions? Sure.

But what about all those lesser-known group names?

In Betsy R. Rosenthal's catalog of collective terms, An Ambush of Tigers: A Wild Gathering of Collective Nouns (Millbrook Picture Books) (Lerner/Millbrook Press, 2015), there are all kinds of names of like things. Some are familiar, like a bed of oysters or a team of oxen. Some are more arcane, such as a a parcel of penguins. Some are quite clever and fittingly comic--an intrusion of icky cockroaches, a stench of stinky skunks, and a lounge of lizards lazing in the sun. Some are simply mystifying: why is a bunch of mallards a flush? Why not a flight or a flotilla? An ambush of tigers fits the hunting style of those big cats, a stand of flamingos fits their famous one-footed stance, and a prickle of porcupines is perfect for those quill-covered critters. But who came up with a bouquet of pheasants? Isn't that supposed to be a brace... or are they a brace only when freshly dispatched by a sport shooter? And a business of flies? Go figure!

Author Betsy R. Rosenthal, ably assisted by artist Jago, has a lot of fun with all of them in her quaint and quirky quatrains with jolly meter and unpredictable but eminently pleasing rhymes, all framed as humorous rhetorical questions.

Does a pack of wolves
load up bags for vacation?
Does a cast of hawks
get a standing ovation?

When a murder of crows
leaves barely a trace,
is a sleuth of bears
hot on the case?

Jago's illustrations--a sleuth of bears with Sherlock-like magnifying glasses and a troop of kangaroos selling Girl Scout cookies--are as whimsical as Rosenthal's verses, shown in atmospheric double-page spreads which entertain and engage young readers. Rosenthal follows up with a scholarly glossary of definitions of the collective terms used in the book.

"This crash course in juxtaposition and imagination should be celebrated with a peal of bells. An inspiring addition to any poetry collection", says School Library Journal in its starred review, and the other reviewers also awarded this one a veritable firmament of stars.

Defense Mechanisms! Playing Possum by Jennifer Black Reinhardt

ALFRED WAS A POSSUM, AND WHEN A POSSUM FEELS NERVOUS, IT FREEZES AND PLAYS DEAD.

The well-known defense mechanism of freezing in place among possums is a real problem for Alfred in school. Taking tests and answering questions out loud leave him stiff as a board. To try to make friends is unthinkable. But one day he discovers he is not alone.

Sofia is an armadillo. When an armadillo feels anxious, it rolls into a ball. And when Sofia sees Alfred looking at her in the the library, she curls up, nose to tail and stays that way for a while. That makes Alfred so nervous that he falls down flat and still, too. But in the quiet of the library, no one notices, and when the two shrinking violets grow calmer, they relax.

THEY REALIZED THAT THEY HAD SOMETHING IN COMMON.

SO! Alfred and Sofia realize that they are not the only ones who become immobilized by anxiety! Little by little, they get used to each other's strange behaviors. Of course, it take a lot of patience to be friends, but they make the best of it. Sofia uses Alfred's stiff, outstretched arms to hold her yarn while she knits. Alfred doodles on his drawing pad while Sofia curls into a ball beside him.

And then they make a real discovery. Other animals use the same defense to react to anxious feelings. Fainting goats flop over flat when frightened. Tortoises withdraw all their moving parts into their shells. Hedgehogs go all roly-poly, and blowfish puff up into prickle-ish globes with fins. Porcupines sling spines and skunks shoot stink. Chameleons and octopi change their skins into camouflage colors!

And then--what if others who feel anxious just don't show it on the outside, but feel it very much on the inside? That's a comforting thought that makes new situations easier to manage.

Handling fears and social anxieties that come with going to school and a lot of other life situations is the serious subject of Jennifer Black Reinhardt's latest,  Playing Possum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion), 2020). Author-illustrator Reinhardt's low-keyed narration is set off beautifully and with humor in her charmingly comic but lovely mixed media  illustrations in this reassuring story for youngsters who find the mixing and mingling of life intimidating. Reinhardt rounds out this lively read-aloud with an informational picture glossary of her featured supporting cast of scaredy-cat critters. 

Says Publishers Weekly, "The author’s minimal text leaves the primary storytelling role to her gently dappled, luminous mixed-media art, which features springtime hues and an anthropomorphized cast. Notes on the spotlighted animals’ self-protective behaviors cap this sensitive tale." 

On the Rocky Road to Love: Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper

HORACE AND HATTIE ARE THE VERY BEST OF FRIENDS.

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THEY LIKE TO DO TOGETHER.

They do duo daisy chains, splash in rain puddles, and research the four-leaf clovers by the river.

In fact, there's just one joint venture in which they don't succeed--HUGS!

Hugs are hard for hedgehogs.

THEY ARE JUST TOO SPIKY!

Not that they haven't tried several approaches. Rolling in fresh snow results in snow cover, but they are too frozen to enjoy their snowy hugs. They squeeze inside sections of hollow log, and try to embrace, but logs are just too lumpy.

They try spearing strawberries on each of their prickles, but attempting to embrace simply results in the makings for a strawberry smoothie.

Finally they stumble upon a solution--thick woolly stockings! They nibble out a hole for their heads in the heels and with a bit of a struggle, pull the socks over their prickles. AH! Comfy and completely non-abrasive body stockings! Now for...

... A PERFECT HEDGE-HUG!

Love conquers all, in Steve Wilson's and Lucy Tapper's Hedgehugs (Henry Holt and Company, 2015), a sweet tale of a too-spiky pair who find a way to show their affection. Tapper's soft-colored collaged backgrounds are pleasantly pretty and do not distract from the lovable digitally-produced main characters, and author Wilson offers a closing joke that the old problem of missing socks in the wash are a sure sign of hedge-hugs happening somewhere. For a Valentine's Day read, this one sticks to the theme that love always finds a way!

Other tales of of hard-to-hug American porcupines and British hedgehogs include Kara LeReau's and Scott Magoon's Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story and Benn Sutton's Hedgehug: A Sharp Lesson in Love. For more tales of the propinquity-challenged prickly people, see reviews here.

Finding Fall! Autumn--A Pop-Up Book by David A. Carter

FALL BRINGS A CHILL IN THE AIR.

COLORFUL LEAVES FLOAT GENTLY FROM TREES.

Autumn is a lively time. The trees are bright and animals are everywhere, stocking up food for wintertime. Birds flock to fly away to their winter habitats, and some can be seen in formation high in the autumn sky.

David A. Carter makes the most of this lively and colorful scene in his newest creation, Autumn: A Pop-Up Book (Seasons Pop-up) (Abrams Appleseed Books, 2017). There are pop-up books and there are pop-up books, and Carter's creations are quality art, done without spurious cuteness, and with design and construction that is a wonder to the eye and mind. The author-illustrator works in the many plants and creatures to be seen in the fall by the watchful eye--from blue jays to bald eagles, quail to porcupines, kestrels to meadowlarks; from corn stalks to shocks of wheat, pomegranates to persimmons, all the lovely things that ease the transition to winter and more are to be found in Carter's fine art illustrations. A

This latest one is a highly recommended purchase for preschoolers just learning about the cycle of the seasons, joining Carter's earlier salute to the season pop-up board books, Winter: A Pop-up Book (Seasons Pop-up), Spring: A Pop-up Book (Seasons Pop-up), and Summer: A Pop-Up Book (Seasons Pop-up).

Party of One? Scaredy Squirrel Has A Birthday Party by Melanie Watt

Scaredy Squirrel has a problem. He's afraid of almost everyone and most things----CONFETTI and CLOWNFISH, PONIES AND PORCUPINES, ANTS, and of course, BIGFOOT! And especially birthday parties.

Not birthday cake, of course.

But Scaredy Squirrel wants a birthday party, with cake!

Scaredy Squirrel decides to do his own birthday party of one. But first, he has to do due diligence--examine his exact birth data, get his tuxedo dry-cleaned, research the perfect birthday cake, build up his breathing to blow up birthday balloons, mail an invitation to himself only--all the essentials. But as he goes to mail himself the invitation, he finds a birthday card in his mailbox.

ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE. I JUST HAD TO BE THE FIRST
TO WISH A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Sincerely, Buddy

Awww! So sweet! Scaredy screws his courage up the the sticking point and mails his invitation to Buddy!

But inviting a guest is one risky move!

Still, Scaredy tries to prepare for every eventuality. He baits his casting rod with a carrot to divert ponies. He puts up a tent to shelter from falling confetti. He sets up perimeter surveillance for any roaming Big Foots. He puts on goggles and earmuffs in case a Porcupine pierces the perimeter and pops the balloons. He makes a list of party faux pas to avoid. He comes up with a list of acceptable conversational gambits.

Scaredy Squirrel is as ready as he'll ever be!

SURPRISE! PARTY ANIMALS APPEAR.

Scaredy can't handle an unplanned event!

Scaredy Squirrel panics... and plays dead.

But two hours later, when he recovers, Scaredy finds everything in perfect order, with Buddy Dog dishing out slices of delicious nut cake to a polite circle of puppies.

All is well and Scaredy Squirrel's first birthday party is a splendid success, in Melanie Watt's story of a successful shindig, Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party (Kids Can Press). Scaredy is a super stand-in for the worrywarts among us, which says that planning is always a good thing, but is never perfect, and that surprises can be a good thing as well. For Watts' first book about her quirky character, check out her Scaredy Squirrel and its nervous sequels! (See review here.)

A Winter's Tale: Once Upon A Winter's Day by Liza Woodruff

MILO WAS LOOKING FOR A STORY, BUT HIS MOTHER WAS BUSY.

"WHY DON'T YOU GO PLAY IN THE SNOW?" SHE ASKED.

MILO DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY IN SNOW. HE WANTED A STORY!

But he dutifully bundled up and, leaving angry, stomping tracks behind him, walked to the bird feeder, where he notices some tiny mouse footprints under it.

WOULD THE MOUSE HAVE A STORY TO TELL?

Intrigued, Milo follows the tracks to a winterberry bush with no berries, but a single feather. Supposing the mouse had eaten all the berries, Milo moved on, raising a flock of cardinals, one of which drops a winterberry, proving that the mouse is not the only one who striped the bush of its summer fruit. Walking into the woods, Milo discovers some cut branches underneath an evergreen where he spots two porcupines happily crunching the hemlock needles. Still tracking the mouse prints, Milo finds a patch of dirt clogs mixed with snow. Something had been digging there, and just ahead he comes upon a group of deer, munching acorns that had been under the snow. Trudging on, Milo spots a slide made by otters, sledding downhill to the creek. Following the mouse trail a little further, Milo comes upon a worrying scene. The mouse tracks end in a patch of disturbed snow and Milo spots a swooping hawk, claws extended, grasping at something scuttling under a tree.

Is that the end of the mouse's story? And then he hears his mother calling him to dinner. DRAT! But then... he happily spots some tiny tracks disappearing down a deep hole.

MILO FOLLOWED HIS TRACKS BACK HOME.

And after supper, his mom finally offers to read him some stories.

MILO SHOOK HIS HEAD. "THIS TIME I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU," HE SAID.

Liza Woodruff's Once Upon a Winter Day (Holiday House, 2020) is a winter's tale, a snowy Sherlock mystery, and a fine nature walk all in one, in which Milo's trek offers much about how animals survive in winter, with a beautifully illustrated happy ending for the deer mouse in a two-page spread showing the mouse trekking through a tunnel and up into a cozy nest in the woodpile. With endpapers that reveal the names of the animals Milo encounters, this story is perfect for preschool and primary grade studies of animal adaptation to the season, with an attentive nature detective as main character. Says Horn Book's starred review, "Words and pictures work together to tell a taut and just-right-for-the-audience suspenseful tale."

'S No Valentine: Snowy Valentine by David Petersen

On a snowy Valentine's Day, Jasper Bunny still could not think of a gift good enough for Lilly. Jasper loved his wife very much, so he couldn't give her just any old gift.

Ah, a common dilemma. The greater the devotion, the harder the choice.

Jasper decides to seek the wisdom of the group and sets forth down the steep hillside in the snow to see what kind of Valentine gifts his neighbors are giving their near and dear.

The Porcupines are settled around a cozy fire, with all seven porcupine pups knitting away on a scarf for their mama. They are all too happy to teach Jasper their art, but Jasper is all thumbs, and after extricating himself from the tangled yarn, concludes that knitting is not for him.

Marion the Frog's window glows with yellow light and she eagerly shows off her special gift for her beloved--a heart-shaped box stuffed with hand-dipped chocolate-covered flies.

"Definitely not something my Lilly would enjoy!" Jasper muses.

Jasper plods on through the snow and meets up with Everett Raccoon's colorful gypsy caravan, his bouquets in full display, hoping for a last-minute Valentine's Day sale. But, alas, the flowers have wilted in the chill, and frost-bitten posies don't exactly make the statement he's after. Jasper trudges on through the snow until he comes to the cottage of Teagan the Fox, his mullioned windows glowing with firelight inside. Teagan welcomes him warmly and quickly ushers him inside. But then, things take an unfortunate turn:

"I do understand," says Teagan with an ingratiating smile. "I myself have been hunting all day for a Valentine's gift to impress my vixen, Faith--

And I think rabbit stew would be just the ticket!"

Egad! Things have come to a pretty pass, Jasper muses, as he finds himself literally in the soup! Either Faith Fox or Lilly Rabbit is going to be seriously disappointed on this Valentine's Day!

But love will find a way, and there will be a Valentine surprise in store for Lilly and for readers in David Petersen's Snowy Valentine (Harper, 2011)--a huge heart-shaped Valentine in the snow, created by Jasper's faithful tracks, and Lilly's happiness will be complete.

David Petersen, whose graphic style is familiar from his popular Mouse Guard series, is at his best in his first color picture book. Although his plotline breaks no new trails through the well-trodden February story snowscape, his illustrations, black-line drawings, bright with delicate and luminous watercolor, have great charm, evoking hobbit-y homes or the seven dwarves' cozy cottage: Miriam Frog's little random-stone house features rounded glowing windows, their mullioned panes forming spiderweb shapes, and Petersen's interiors recall the snug dwellings of Frog and Toad, Winnie the Pooh, and other classic characters. Publishers Weekly also puts Petersen in very good artistic company, writing "Petersen’s storytelling and artwork offer hints of Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame. It’s a world that readers will be happy to lose themselves in."

The Nearness of You! I Need a Hug by Aaron Blabey

Everybody needs somebody sometime!

But not all bodies are equally... embraceable.

Nevertheless, Porcupine needs a big hug--bad!

"Will you cuddle me, Lou?"

Lou the Rabbit says, "SHOO!"

With the prospect of those prickles, Joe the Bear says "NO," four times in a row.

Porcupine pitches his request to his elk friend Ken.

"NOT again!" says Ken.

"That's not very kind!" complains Porcupine.

But all the critters seem to be beating a hasty retreat, page left. What's their problem now?

WAIT! What is that, slithering into the frame, page right?

"Gosh, All I wanted was a kiss," hisses Snake.

It's a match made in heaven, in Aussie author-illustrator Aaron Blabey's new American release, I Need a Hug (Scholastic Press, 2019 Am. ed.). Blabey's trademark googly-eyed critters have been cracking up kids Down Under for quite some time, and this new edition comes just in time to join our Valentine's Day affection selection. After all, snakes are great at hugging, and porcupines have to take their hugs when they can get them, in Blabey's comical conclusion to this delightfully predictable tale. Aaron Blabey is also the best-selling author of his Pig the Pug and sequels Pig the Winner (Pig the Pug), Pig the Fibber (Pig the Pug) Pig the Star (Pig the Pug) and Christmas comedy, Pig the Elf (Pig the Pug)(reviews here).

And for more prickly porcupine love problems, share this one with Laurie Isop's How Do You Hug a Porcupine?

Heart-y! Consider Love by Sandra Boynton

CONSIDER LOVE.
IT'S EVERYWHERE.

Best-selling author-illustrator Sandra Boynton's little hardback Valentine's card, Consider Love, (Little Simon, 2013) gets off to a conventional start with its claim that love is all around us. But her wry take on the varieties of love shows through right away in her trademark illustrations of quirky animals, beginning with her own take on a marble statue of the Grecian god of love:

RHINOC
EROS

Obviously this little versified essay on love is not just for toddlers, although her familiar slapstick-funny animals have their own charm for the youngest, as Boynton goes on to set up her own humorous dichotomy of different types of love.

LOVE THAT IS SHALLOW.
LOVE THAT IS DEEP.

LOVE EXTRAVAGANT, (An elephant presents his love with a complete apple tree, roots and all)
LOVE, WELL, CHEAP (An ape offers his mate a used banana peel.)

Boynton has a lot of fun with her contrasting style of lovers: the over-zealous beaver who carves out heart-shaped bites on tree trunks and the over-jealous tiger who hides in the grass and grabs his lady love's ankles when another tiger comes along. Then there are two pigs, relaxing side by side (comfortable), and two porcupines, warily considering the off-putting prospects of a hug (problematical!)

It's all good and it's all love, Boynton says, as she brings it home in her final couplet:

LOVE THAT'S STEADY AND DEVOTED AND TRUE--

CONSIDER MY LOVE FOR ADORABLE YOU!

From its cover with the cat with a bouquet of heart-shaped balloons to its last lines that celebrate love enduring, what's not to like in Boynton's silly but serious look at love, all wrapped up in a bright new edition perfect for all ages? As Publishers Weekly puts it, "An appealing menagerie of Boynton's inimitable animal characters court and cavort through these buoyant pages, demonstrating how love 'comes in every shape, and style.'"