Everything In Its Time: Finding Spring by Carin Berger

THE FOREST WAS GROWING COLD.

MAMA SAID SOON IT WOULD BE TIME TO SLEEP.

BUT ALL MAURICE COULD THINK ABOUT WAS HIS FIRST SPRING.

Everyone says that Spring will be something really special.

But Mama says he has to lie down and hibernate first.

How can little Maurice sleep when all he can think about is this wonderful thing called Spring?

Like a kid on Christmas Eve, Maurice can't sleep. Mama Bear snores on, but her cub steals outside to see if Spring has come yet.

It hasn't. At least, everything looks the same, and Squirrel and Robin and the rest all say it's going to be quite a while before he sees Spring.

Maurice wanders through the forest, noting the changing smell of the wind and windblown leaves falling all around him. But then something else falls from above.

MAURICE FELT AN ICY STING ON HIS NOSE.

A BEAUTIFUL CRYSTAL LANDED ON HIS PAW.

SPRING?

Maurice climbs the big hill for a better view, and strangely, the crystals are everywhere in the air and covering the ground. It's beautiful! This must be the something special everyone told him was coming. The little cub scoops up a ball of snow, wraps it in his red scarf, and sets off back to the den to show his Spring to Mama, looking like a little Santa with his pack.

But Mama is sleeping too deeply to wake, and little Maurice himself suddenly feels very tired. Putting his snowball bundle beside him, he snuggles up beside Mama and sleeps, too.

After a long sleep, Maurice wakes up with Mama.

"I BROUGHT YOU SOME SPRING!" MAURICE ANNOUNCED.

But Maurice's snowball is gone! Has he missed Spring?

Not in Carin Berger's Finding Spring (HarperCollins, 2015), when Mama and Maurice head outside to see what spring has done to their forest. The white snow is all gone, birds are busy, and buds are flowering all over the big hill.

AT LAST, HERE IT WAS!

With a literary nod to Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day and Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, Carin Berger concentrates on the coming of spring, saving the best--her gorgeous cut-paper collage art--for the beginning of spring. Berger's use of ephemera--scraps of script-filled handwritten notes, newsprint, bits of books, fabric, ticket stubs, and cut strips of of art paper--gives her illustrations a three-dimensional weight, whether picturing the tall, mossy-trunked trees of the forest, the variety of cut-out snowflakes, or the fields full of spring flowers. Even the youngest preschoolers will know that a snowflake is not a sign of spring and will giggle at Maurice's naivete' as he wraps his snowball to keep for Mama.

With shelves full of books about the cycle of the seasons and the glories of spring, this one is a standout. "Exceptional, exhilarating artwork perfectly suited for a story about anticipation, discovery and joy," says Kirkus Reviews.

Signs of Spring! My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell

When is spring?

It depends. For some it's the first crocus in January. For some it's tearing off that January calendar page. Depending on where you live, it's the first tufts of green grass peeping out of the melting snow, or planting peas, or the first green daffodil shoot piercing the brown, wet leaves. For some it's switching to a lighter jacket and stowing the mittens away. For some it's blooming dogwoods or redbuds or magnolia trees.

But for some, all those preliminaries are not THE sign of spring.

EVERY DAY LAST SUMMER, A ROBIN SANG FOR ME. I LIKED THAT ROBIN.

BUT IN THE FALL, MY ROBIN FLEW AWAY.

The girl waits expectantly for her robin to return and make this a real spring. She sees the first bee, and the first crocuses. She sees the forsythia bush burst into little yellow blooms, a tiny baby frog in a bunch of daffodils, some fiddlehead ferns unfurling, a fat worm squirming, and a cat napping in the warm sun. She picks a bouquet of violets for her mom. But...

I DIDN'T SEE MY ROBIN.

But then, she hears a familiar song....

CHEER UP, CHERILEE!

And now, it's beginning to look a lot like spring in Anne Rockwell's classic seasonal picture book, My Spring Robin, filled with those "signs of spring" beloved of primary teachers and (admit it!) all of us. Whether spring begins for you in February or May, whatever your favorite sign, the one that makes you believe that winter is at last really pastis, it is a big day! For me, it's a row of those daffodils in the sun, "tossing their heads in sprightly dance," and for some it's the clever robin who times his or her return just right to miss the last freezing night. With illustrations by her family, Harlow and Lizzie Rockwell, this one has most of the signs kids count up in either the text or in the illustrations of the girl's parents doing "spring things." Share this one with Caldecott-winner Kevin Henkes' When Spring Comes. (See my review here.)

"If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?" Bunny's First Spring by Sally Lloyd-Jones and David McPhail

BUNNY WAS BORN IN SPRING

WHEN THE WORLD WAS GREEN AND NEW.

"THE EARTH IS NEW LIKE ME!" HE SAID.

Bunny is thrilled with everything, all fresh and young and bright!

Flowers and butterflies are all around, as he sets out to meet all the other new forest babies, the robins and lambs who frisk and call energetically from the greening fields and trees.

Bunny grows bigger and stronger through spring and summer. Then one day he notices that his fur has gotten very thick. That's fine, but then he notices something that is disturbing. His favorite apple tree is dropping all her leaves, and his friends the robins are all flying away.

DON'T GO!" HE CRIES.

Bunny's mother and father advise him to wait and see what happens, but he doesn't understand. The cold winds blow, ruffling his thick coat, and then snow covers the wilted, brown plants. Frost turns the soft earth where he played to stone. His apple tree in the moonlight is like a skeleton of its summer self.

But the wilted flowers from beneath their snow blanket whisper that they are just hiding, and the apple tree shows Bunny something he hadn't noticed.

"OUR BRANCHES MAY LOOK BARE,

BUT ALL OUR BUDS ARE THERE!"

And in those waiting buds on the bare branches is nature's eternal promise that spring will come, and life will go on, in Sally Lloyd-Jones lyrical poem to the life cycle in Bunny's First Spring (ZonderKids Books, 2015). Notable illustrator David McPhail's gentle and realistic paintings celebrate the vitality of spring and summer and the promise of rebirth in the waiting winter forest beautifully for youngsters "grieving over Goldengrove unleaving."* A softer, more hopeful look at the little death that is winter, Lloyd-Jones and McPhail have crafted a lovely look at the seasons and the joy in spring that all creatures share.

"SPRING! IT'S THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD!" SAYS BUNNY.

*Poem, "Spring and Fall: To a Young Child" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Waiting... Again! When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes

BEFORE SPRING COMES, THE TREES LOOK LIKE BLACK STICKS AGAINST THE SKY.

Tell us about it.

It's that time in late February and early March when even the staunchest mitten fancier is ready for a change.

A proud snowman, snug and smug in his knit cap and buttoned-down jacket, grows disheveled as he shrinks and slumps, until he's just a lumpen figment of his former self. The brown grass underneath and the abandoned garden begin to show ragged tufts of tender green weeds.

Of course, we mere mortals have no choice about the waiting, for as even the youngest among us will learn, spring has a mind of its own.

SPRING CAN COME QUICKLY OR SLOWLY.

BUT WHEN SPRING IS FINALLY HERE TO STAY, YOU WILL KNOW IT. . .

The daffodils always win, and even in the face of sudden freezes and soggy late snows, they survive and show their colors, and then...

Spring has come, with its birds and blossoms and bees and warmth to bask in, to ride bikes and fly kites in, to plant seedlings and chase butterflies in, to glory in, to forget the dull and dismal days of winter in long hours of sunshine. But. . .

NOW YOU HAVE TO WAIT... FOR SUMMER--

For, as the poet said, "What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days."

And it is all worth the wait, as Kevin Henkes makes clear in When Spring Comes (Greenwillow Press, 2016). A Caldecott and Newbery Award winner, Kevin Henkes portrays the bated-breath waiting for the coming of spring in simple but elegant English that makes the heart sing. An award-winning artist himself, Henkes calls on his sometime illustrator, his wife Laura Dronzek, for the lovely, iconic artwork that brings his spare prose come to life. Dronzek's bowed by not broken daffodils, her melted snowman reduced to a splayed-out splotch, and of course her cheeping baby birds and bouncy kittens speak volumes of the welcome rebirth of life that spring brings.

This one recalls the veiled mystery and loveliness of Henkes' other memorable nature-linked books, like Kitten's First Full Moon and his other collaboration with Dronzek, Birds.

Hip Hop Bunny: Hooray for Hoppy by Tim Hopgood

HOPPY WOKE UP BRIGHT AND EARLY. HE WIGGLED HIS NOSE AND SNIFFED THE AIR.

"PERHAPS TODAY'S THE DAY," HE THOUGHT.

BUT AT THE TOP OF HIS HOLE, HE SAW THAT THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN SNOW.

"TOO COLD!" HE SAID AND HOPPED BACK TO BED.

When Hoppy finds snow and ice outside, he opts to sleep in. But then, one morning everything has changed. His twitchy nose notices a change as he sniffs fresh warm air and green grass.

"TODAY IS THE DAY. THE DAY THAT SPRING ARRIVES!"

Hoppy hops out and his senses are overwhelmed by everything!

There are pink blossoms on the formerly bare tree. Young ferns are unfurling, and Hoppy hears birds calling instead of the muffled quiet of winter.

He smells sweet flowers, tastes the fresh grasses, and sees young lambs springing about the meadow.

The pads on his paws feel the warmth of the earth. Spring has definitely sprung!

Hoppy hops up to the crest of the big hill to look for his bunny buddies, but at first he sees only brown smudges among the flowers and grasses.  Where is everybody? Helloooo?

But up they hop, dozens of brown bunnies, in the appropriately surnamed Tim Hopgood's Hooray for Hoppy! (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2014), which doubles as a signs-of-spring bunny tale and an exploration of the five senses story, just the kick-off for a lesson on the many changes to be experienced in spring for the preschool set. Hopgood's illustrations are suited to his young audience--flat, textured pastel collages done in a spring-y palette--but with a twist, with Hoppy himself in blue and the morning sky in pink. A good readaloud to inspire a looking-for-spring walk or preschool seasonal class activities. The author appends a double-page spread covering the five senses and recall questions such as What does Hoppy smell? And if spring is slow in coming, Kirkus Reviews suggests that this one is..."just the ticket for a little bit of learning on a cold winter day when spring seems far away."

The Show of the Season: A Season to Bee: A Stylish Book of Colors by Carlos Aponte

We know that spring brings April showers and May flowers.

But to the fashionistas of the bug world, the new season brings something else--spring fashions and spring fashion shows.

All of those insects who have spent the winter clad in dull cocoons and other drab metamorphological stages are ready for a change--a BIG change. The fashionistas of the arthropod persuasion are ready to burst out and flaunt their brand-new shapes and brand new look! There's excitement in the spring air!

It's spring in the meadow.
Time to shuck off the freeze.
What's the New Look from?
The flowers and trees?

It's time for the bugs to strut their stuff on the runway--under the direction of our fashion first designer.

"It's a season to bee!" exclaims Miss V. McQueen,
Editor of BUZZ Fashion Magazine.

Long-limbed bugs leg it across the stage, their high heeled shoes clacking out a rhythm,

Ladybugs are pretty in red polka-dotted wings, and grasshoppers copy the color of the season--green.

Some sport another stylish shade of the month, copying the iris and the violet. Fireflies favor the cool look of biolumenescence and a quick flash of glimmer glam. Some choose the blue of the spring sky, and some are bold like the bees in flashy, clash-y, black and gold stripes. The paparazzis' cameras flash like stars in the spring sky.

So much to see!

But the best thing, says Diva McQueen, is to bee yourself in your true colors, in Carlos Aponte's A Season to Bee (Price Stern Sloan/Penguin Group, 2017). While preschoolers may not get all the references to high fashion models and famous fashion house designers, they will love the dressed up insects in their flashy fashions in this spring-themed story of the rainbow of seasonal colors.

Blooming! Spring Blossoms by Carole Gerber

Sometimes it seems as if spring is a long time coming--and then suddenly it's here, taking the landscape by storm, in a tsunami of blooming trees in a spectrum of shapes and colors.

SPRING IS BURSTING OUT ALL OVER. THE SUN IS WARM! LET'S GO!

TREES, SO BARE AND PLAIN ALL WINTER, ARE DRESSED UP FOR THEIR YEARLY SHOW.

Some buds are tiny and pale and some are boisterous in color and size.

Dogwood spread their low branches wide to show off their white crowned blooms, and crabapple trees are covered with small flowers, white and fragrant, both dressed for Eastertide. Other flowers show their colors! Cherry trees bare bouffant pink ruffles on stubby stems that bounce and flounce in the breeze.

THE OAK BEARS TWO KINDS OF BLOOMS.

MALE FLOWERS DROOP. THEY'RE GREENISH GOLD.

THE FEMALE BLOOMS ARE SMALL AND RED.

BOTH OPEN AS NEW LEAVES UNFOLD.

The red maple, true to its name, bears its spring red clothes, but the redbud blooms are rose pink. And conifers like pine and balsam firs hide their quietly colored flowers so well that most of us don't see them, just their potent pollens borne on the breeze. And a windy, warm spring rain can bring the trees' bright petals down in a colorful shower of flowers!

People wax poetic over flowering trees, but for the trees, it's just their job to flower and pollinate and provide their fruits and nuts to secure that more trees will grow and bloom for many springs to come, in Carole Gerber's poetic Spring Blossoms (Charlesbridge), offering sybillant verses and a bit of botany, while artist Leslie Evans follows two girls out under the flowering trees to celebrate the spring beauty, illustrating the botany session as they go. Appended are charming illustrations of each bloom for easy identification in a lovely spring lesson.

Casting Call: Fancy Nancy: Spring Fashion Fling by Jane O'Connor

OOH-LA-LA! SPRING IS IN THE AIR.

BREE AND I FINISH DECORATING OUR EASTER EGGS. WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO THAT WOULD BE EXTRA SPRING-Y?

Fancy Nancy Clancy is always up for hostessing a shingdig, and a spring-themed shindig quickly presents itself. How about a fashion show, starring their favorite dolls as models--Mirabelle, Chiffon, and Sarinda! Nancy pulls out her boxes of doo-dads--feathers, ribbons, fabrics, bows, buttons, and beads--and the young designers, with Nancy's little sister JoJo right in the middle of it all. The three designers get to work on making their models' ensembles (that's fancy for outfits, you know) totally unique (fancy for one-of-a-kind.)  Then, to give their fashion show a unique ambiance, Bree comes up with a brainstorm:

WE DECIDE TO USE REAL FLOWERS IN OUR DESIGNS!

With costume design done, Nancy throws her imagination into designing blossom-themed handmade invitations, which, of course, must be hand delivered while they are as fresh as a daisy. Dad and Bree's brother Freddy are recruited to play paparazzi and record the entrance of the celebrities. Elegant refreshments and a lovely tea table designed by Mom provides just the aura for a spring fashion show, and daisy chains, phlox, and tulips complete the decor for the salon.

THEN SOMETHING TRAGIC HAPPENS.

IT'S A FASHION FAUX-PAS!

Nancy herself trips over some of the trailing table decor, and the tea table crashes to the floor. There are broken Easter eggs, smooshed delicacies, and crushed flowers all over. Is the spring bash a bust?

But with Nancy Clancy in charge, the show always goes on, in Jane O'Connor's latest Clancy clan venture, Fancy Nancy: Spring Fashion Fling (HarperFestival, 2015). With flowers, fashions, dolls, and Frenchy the poodle decked in pastels, it's an festive event to make everyone forget the sooty snows of winter. Inexpensive and definitely vocabulary building, this one even includes plenty of stickers to adorn those invitations that young readers will likely be creating for their own spring flings.

Plenty of Patterns: Sorting Through Spring by Lizann Flatt

COULD FLOWERS ONLY GROW

IN SET PATTERNS, ROW BY ROW?

Which rows make an ABA, ABA pattern?

What other patterns do you see?

Patterns do occur in nature, but most of the patterns in LizAnn Flatt's new Sorting Through Spring (Math in Nature) (Owlkids Books, 2013) are not among those naturally occurring regularities--they appear as devised teaching opportunities in the bright and stylized cut-paper collage illustrations of artist Ashley Barron.

With the exception of the spring ritual of the male prairie hen--woo-woo flap, stampity stomp-stomp!--most of the double-page spreads simply use spring cycles to teach the concept of sorting, a math skill that involves recognizing similarities and differences and spotting repetitions, or patterns, of like and unlike. Some concepts may require previous learning, such as what an ABA pattern is.

Examples range from the simple--recognizing the color pattern in piles of shed yellow or white caribou antlers--to the advanced, calculating the ratio between the number of eggs laid by robins as opposed to hummingbirds (robins lay four; hummingbirds lay two). Many of the tasks involve skills in between, such as greater than or less than or reading a bar graph about where mosquitoes lay eggs and interpreting where in the illustrations the mosquitoes will leave their eggs. Some pattern pages are open-ended, asking what other ways the items could be grouped, by color or shape or pattern.

One double-page spread deals with reasoning as well as probability, or at least thinking beyond the counting box, asking whether a father fox is most likely to bring home a dinner of voles, squirrels, or rabbits, a query which lends itself to considerations beyond which one of the three animals are most plentiful on the page. (For example, squirrels on a tree trunk are unlikely catches for a ground-based predator, no matter how many there are!)

An appendix, "Nature Notes," offers short summaries of the spring habits and behaviors of the featured animals, but provide few clues to the mathematical queries in the text. The second in the Math in Nature series, Sorting Through Spring (Math in Nature), published in Canada, features some animals (caribou, lake smelt) which will not be familiar to students in the more southern regions of North America, but whether the pictured animal is called a caribou, a reindeer, or just a deer, a smelt or just a fish is not material to the mathematical concept presented. Picture books which deal with mathematical concepts such as probability, ratio, and complex patterns are rare, and the charming illustrations of animals in spring make this book an attractive seasonal choice for young readers. The small size of this book and the detail of the patterns make this one best for adult-and-child use, although some older puzzle-preferring readers may choose to pour over the pictures by themselves.

My review of the first book in this series, Counting on Fall (Math in Nature) can be seen here.

Bearly Spring: Spring Is Here by Will Hillenbrand

MOLE WOKE UP.

"IS IT SPRING?" HE WONDERED.

HE OPENED THE WINDOW. HE SMELLED THE AIR.

"Sniff, Sniff, SNIFF!"

Mole tiptoes politely past his snoring friend Bear's room and rushes outside.

It IS spring! The snow has been replaced with mud and the birds are singing. It's time for Bear to wake up from his long winter's nap.

But Bear snores on. Nothing Mole can do--tickling his nose with a feather, tooting his trumpet, tapping on his window--wakes his sleeping housemate. It's time for Plan B.

Mole knows his pal well. He milks the cow, churns some butter, and mixes his ingredients in a big bowl. Into the oven goes his creation.

And when the fragrant muffins are right under his nose, Bear wakes up in a hurry.

"YUM!" BEAR SAYS.

HE LOOKED AT MOLE.

But it looks as if Mole has worn himself out in the effort to wake Bear and found Bear's still warm pillow irresistible.

"WAKE UP, MOLE!" BEAR SAYS. "IT'S SPRING!"

Will Hillenbrand's newest Spring Is Here! (Holiday House, 2011) is a charming spring tale, filled with delightful use of onomatopoeia and a bit of irony as he delicately explores the nuances of friendship between two unlikely buddies. His illustrations are equally charming, with a world of meaning in the facial expressions of the two characters. A fun readaloud for the changing seasons.

Coping with Change! The Thing about Spring by Daniel Kirk

"THE WORLD LOOKS A LITTLE DIFFERENT TODAY," MOUSE SAID ONE BRIGHT MORNING.

Ah! The first signs of spring!

Everybody loves them, right?

Apparently not in this forest. Mouse and Bird are rhapsodizing about budding trees and warmth in the air, but Rabbit is not at all pleased. With a sour expression, he is going about the meadow, scooping up the vestiges of melting snowdrifts into his pail. Mouse inquires about Rabbit's curious behavior.

"SAVING SNOW WHILE I CAN!" SAID RABBIT. "WE WON'T SEE ANY MORE OF THAT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!"

Some of us have problems with transitions, and Rabbit seems to be the only one in the woods who is going to miss snow. Ever the contrarian, he points out that snow helps him track down his friends, and it is useful for snow forts and snowball fights.

Bird points out that Rabbit won't be cold when spring comes, and besides, he and Mouse are not going anywhere anyway.

But Rabbit has another complaint.

"THE THING ABOUT SPRING IS THAT BEAR IS WAKING UP. I KNOW HOW BAD HE SMELLS AT THE END OF A LONG WINTER, AND I'M SURE HE'LL WANT A HUG."

And right on cue, a disheveled Bear appears, and Rabbit, holding his nose, suffers through a stinky embrace, just as a warm vernal drizzle begins to fall.

"THE THING ABOUT SPRING IS THAT IT RAINS WHEN YOU'RE NOT EXPECTING IT," RABBIT WHINGES.

But Bear replies that the falling rain is right on time to give him a good wash, as he pointedly scrubs his armpits.

But nothing about the change of the seasons pleases Rabbit. It's too noisy. Birds peep and squirrels chatter! It's all so annoying. Rabbit is all hot and bothered from the whole conversation.

And now he is thirsty!

Bear agrees that all this palaver is making him thirsty, too, giving Rabbit a chance to have the last word:

"WELL, THEN," SAID RABBIT, "YOU SHOULD BE GLAD I SAVED SOME SNOW. LOOK INSIDE MY PAIL!"

Daniel Kirk's newest tale, The Thing About Spring (Abrams Books, 2016), gives the curmudgeon in all of us a chance to complain about change. Story books are full of joyful rabbits and bouncy bunnies as the harbinger of spring, but Kirk turns the tables on our expectations with a truly funny bunny who takes a cranky stand in favor of snow. With delightfully wry dialog, he gives his Rabbit his moment in the sun, whether he likes it or not. Kirk's signature style of illustration, with his characters mostly full frontal or profiled, has a look all his own, giving this novel seasonal story a new twist.

Kirk's earlier books include his popular Library Mouse
series and Ten Thank-You Letters.

For Art's Sake! Fancy Nancy Aspiring Artist by Jane O'Connor

IT'S SPRING VACATION. I SHOULD BE ECSTATIC, JOYOUS, CAREFREE, (THOSE ARE ALL FANCY WORDS FOR HAPPY.)

BUT I'M NOT.

Nancy Clancy not feeling fanciful? How can that be? But she's just bid farewell to her best best friend Bree, off for a fabuloso New York City spring fling, and the spring rain is so uninspiring.

But it's Mom to the rescue, back from shopping with a huge box of fresh crayons for her little sister and a brand new selection of glitter pens for Nancy. Spring break is saved! Nancy is inspired to turn her clubhouse into a fabulous art studio, and wearing her smock and a French beret just for the atmospherics, she's all set to create.

An afternoon ballet class intervenes, and as Nancy admires the Edgar Degas prints there, she has her first inspiration, turning out Degas-style ballerinas, all of whom have strawberry blond curls like you-know-who. Having tea with Mrs. DeVine on Monday, Nancy is again inspired by the colors of her Claude Monet prints and goes home to her own dark and light period as she turns out Monet-inspired tulips.

And so the week goes. Lionel comes over and they paint each other's portraits, Lionel's good but goofy as always. On the next day Bree's letter arrives with a description of her visit to a famous art museum and the watercolors of Henri Matisse, and Nancy is again inspired to paint butterflies, bending the rules in impressionist style.

As the vacation week begins to draw to an end, a trip to their own museum with her Dad provides Nancy with another inspiration: with an old sheet and leftover house paint, Nancy, Robert, and friends have a blast doing a Jackson Pollock drip painting in the backyard. And when Bree returns with her own sketches from the Big Apple, there's nothing to do but put on a neighborhood art show, refreshments and all.

Finally Nancy relaxes with Mrs. Devine for tea in her garden.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW TIRED MY HANDS ARE FROM ALL THE ART I MADE LAST WEEK"

MRS. DEVINE SAYS SHE KNOWS THE PERFECT REMEDY FOR ACHING ARTIST'S HANDS:

A MANICURE!

Jane O'Connor's hot-off-the-presses Fancy Nancy: Aspiring Artist, (Harper, 2011) with its appended vocabulary and suggestions for inspiring art projects (Harper, 2011). is a perfect spring treat, an antidote to the spring shower blues and a nice jumping-off place for a study of noted artists or a spring break trip to the local art museum as well.

Can't Please 'Em All! Substitute Groundhog by Kristen Remener

"I SEE MY SHADOW!" GROUNDHOG DECLARED.

HALF THE ANIMALS CHEERED. THE OTHER HALF GROANED.

Mama Squirrel is particularly displeased. Being stuck for six more weeks in a hole in a tree with her little nutters is making her nuts!

"I JUST CALL IT LIKE I SEE IT!" GROUNDHOG MUMBLED.

The restive early spring advocates are disgruntled by the message and berate the messenger. Poor Groundhog ducks back down into his den and lays low until spring finally appears in its own time.

At last everyone comes out to forage, Mama Squirrel still lamenting that berries six weeks earlier would have tasted better, while Hare lavishly praises Groundhog for giving her fur coat extra time to become even more luxurious and proffers a basket of berries to her benefactor.

THIS EXCHANGE DID NOT GO UNNOTICED.

Suddenly, Groundhog finds himself everybody's new best friend. Mama Squirrel invites her "old pal Groundhoggy" to sit with her and share some peanuts at the opening baseball game, with a hint that perhaps he can return the favor next February 2. Despite his protests that he can't control the weather, Groundhog finds a lot of his would-be friends also vying to grease his palms with a little payola for a promise of an early spring.

Coach Sparrow offers him a special perk, a position on the baseball team, to sweeten the deal for an early spring training next year, and Hare drops by with a pie in the way of a counter offer for fur-growing chill. Bear offers an obvious bribe for more sack time next spring, and soon even our virtuous hognosticator finds himself giving in to the inducements of his opinionated public with vague promises to both sides.

But he knows this popularity can't last. Spring will come when it comes no matter what. Either way, someone is going to be feel cheated. Groundhog spends a winter of discontent doing some serious thinking, with musings of "First to thine own self be true."

And on Groundhog's Day, Mother Nature doesn't make it any easier. It dawns chilly and--the whistlepig's worse nightmare--partly cloudy. Groundhog sighs as he pokes his head out of his hole.

"I'M SORRY, EVERYONE.

I CALL IT LIKE I SEE IT!" HE SAYS.

It's a victory for honest public servants, in Kristen Remener's Groundhog's Dilemma (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2015). Author Remener tells her tale well, laying out the temptations to please the public in a little parable of local politics for young readers, and artist Matt Faulkner uses his noted skills to make the self-serving motives of the characters comically evident in his clever illustrations. With a piquant little story for this admittedly minor "holiday" that broaches the subject of public honesty lightly but clearly, this is one of the best of this year's bunch for Groundhog's Day. Say the Kirkus reviewer, "Remenar's graceful prose and the subtlety of her message, pitched to older preschoolers and early-elementary students, are a good match. A sly and funny take on truth-telling and friendship."

For an absolute glut of February 2 tales, see my Groundhog Roundup here.

Do the Web-Foot Wiggle! Duck and Goose: Let's Dance by Tad Hills

ARE YOU READY TO LEARN THE DUCK AND GOOSE DANCE?

Spring has apparently sprung. The sap is rising, and so is the energy level of young ones.

But Duck and Goose have just the thing to get those high spirits channeled into a spring dance. Rites of Spring it's not, but this poultry pair have the moves to find the right grooves.

Jumping forward and back, shaking tail feathers, goose-stepping and duck-walking, Duck and Goose have all the right moves, in Tad Hills' spring song, Duck & Goose, Let's Dance! (with an original song) (Schwartz and Wade, 2016). And don't worry about hiring the band; just follow the included link to download the happy song and dance along, with whatever moves your feet.

Hills' Duck and Goose have their first dance party, suitable for getting the wiggles out of kids before quiet time or getting some indoor exercise when spring rains shutout the games at home or school. Honking and quacking are encouraged, but optional!

Dear March, Come In: In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb by Marion Dane Bauer

MARCH COMES IN WITH A ROAR.
HE RATTLES THE WINDOWS AND SCRATCHES AT THE DOOR.
HE TURNS SNOW TO MUD, THEN TROMPS ACROSS THE FLOOR.

MARCH COMES IN WITH WINTER CLINGING TO HIS TAIL
HE SCATTERS SLEET AND SOMETIMES EVEN HAIL.

When a Newbery author and a Caldecott illustrator get together, it's a real two-fer, as with Marion Dane Bauer's new In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb (Holiday House, 2011), illustrated by the estimable Emily Arnold McCully.

Bauer and McCully rework the old saw about the month of March, with its blustery weather portrayed by a pouncy, jouncy lion, and its gentle prelude to spring by the soft, cloudlike lamb.

"WERE YOU EXPECTING SPRING?" THE LION SNICKERS.
"REACH FOR YOUR SLICKERS."

This lion is all bluff and bluster, but with just a hint of a smile on his face, as he struts about, making things generally yucky for the boy who tries to navigate the gusts and swings in temperature of that mercurious month. But the lion seems to know what's coming, and when his sneeze turns into a soft breeze, what follows are some lamblike woolly clouds, bees and butterflies, and a warm sun so seductive that even the lion curls up for a spring snooze under its charms, letting the lamb take over as the star of the turn-of-the-season show.

Bauer's poetry is humorous and her rhythm steady as she relates the story of spring's gradual arrival throughout the month, and McCully's light blackline and pastel watercolor illustrations are appropriately vernal, carrying a good share of the load in telling this spring story.

For the youngest, it is a good idea to introduce this book with a little explanation of what a simile is--an explanation of what "in like a lion" is trying to say about March weather, lest preschoolers think there really might be a lion outside their windows on March mornings. This is a good time to introduce the concept, if not the vocabulary, of metaphor and personification here by talking about how March's stormy weather is like a cranky lion and springlike days are like a soft, gentle lamb.

Preschool teachers may even tape a cutout of a lion or a lamb on each day of the March calendar as the class talks about the weather for that date. How many "lion" days does your town have in March? How many lambs?

As a lovely seasonal book and a lesson in basic poesy, In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb "fits like a glove." In fact, you might say "it's the bee's knees." (Explain that one!)

Spring Forward! Happy Spring, Chirp! by Satoshi Iriyama

Spring has sprung, and little peeper Chirp springs into action when Mama Hen asks him to take a basket of fresh flowers to Auntie Duck's birthday party. With a peep and a cheep, he's off with the bouquet basket in his beak.

OFF CHIRP GOES.
BUT WHO IS HIDING BEHIND THE BUSHES?

Through a cutout on the verso page, Cheep spots a fuzzy face and part of one ear!

With a page turn we see Bear pop up with a big BOOOOO!

Cheep drops the basket and the flowers are scattered, a little the worse for wear!

Bear apologizes and offers an alternative idea for replacing the posies.

"I'LL TAKE YOU TO GET A NEW PRESENT!"

Chirp clings valiantly atop Bear's head, as with a beep, Bear bumbles on, even swimming across a pond with much splishing and splashing and a spooked Chirp precariously hanging on.

And there they are, at Bear's favorite strawberry patch. Bear hunkers down to eat a few, while Chirp searches for the sweetest, biggest, most perfect strawberries to fill his little basket. He assures Bear that he knows just how to find Auntie Duck's pond all by himself, but after a while all the meadows begin to look the same. As Chirp stops to get his bearings, a bird swoops down and makes off with the most perfect strawberry from the basket. The startled Chirp drops the basket and the birthday present berries begin to roll down the hill, with Chirp tumbling behind....

Will Chirp fail in his solo mission? Not to worry, in Sateshi Triyama's just published Happy Spring, Chirp! (Chirp the Chick) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). In a grand eight-page gatefold spread, Chirp and his berries tumble down, down, right into Auntie Duck's pond just in time to make  a dramatic splash at the birthday bash.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTIE!" SAYS CHIRP.

"THANK YOU, MY SWEET CHICK," SAYS AUNTIE DUCK. "AND A HAPPY SPRING, TOO!"

With flaps, cut-outs, pop-ups, and vertical and horizontal gatefolds done up in sturdy stock, there is plenty for young fingers to do in this sun-drenched, pastel-paletted springtime story. Chirp is as cute as an Easter basket peep, and with the many critters--rabbits, ladybugs,caterpillars, moths, beetles, and birds--in the background, youngsters can have fun seeing how many of those pictured on the endpapers they can spot throughout the story.

Triyama's latest "toy and movable book" board book joins the earlier Good Night, Chirp (Chirp the Chick).

Signs of Spring! Happy Springtime by Kate McMullan

At about this time year, on the sidewalks around primary and elementary schools, less-than-perfectly straight lines of warmly-dressed young scholars may be seen trudging behind teachers on a slow-moving walk, interrupted often by someone pointing or darting out of line to pick up unknown objects and scanning the skies and trees nearby. They are re-enacting one of the oldest rites of human life, the expectant search for SIGNS OF SPRING!

HERE'S A MESSAGE FOR SCHOOL BUS RIDERS, HEADING OUT ON A DARK COLD MORNING...

FOR THOSE WITH STUCK SNOWSUIT ZIPPERS...

WEARING EARMUFFS AND TWO PAIRS OF MITTENS...

DO NOT LOSE HEART!

For beneath their very feet the earth is continuing its annual circuit of the sun. Each day is longer than the one before, and the chilly, muddy earth under their boots is preparing for its really big show of the year!

Primary scholars are not the only ones waiting for Mother Earth's biggest EXTRAVAGANZA...

GROGGY FROGS WAKING FROM THEIR WINTER SLEEP, TREES UNFURLING LEAVES, PINK WORMS POKING UP...

WINTER-BORN BABIES WHO'VE NEVER SEEN A SPRING....

Everyone celebrates that time that ancient astronomers watched for, that EQUINOX, that time when days begin to grow longer than nights, when grass grows so fast you can almost see it doing it, little birds take their first flight, bikes, shorts, and running sneakers appear along with the crack of the baseball bat, and spring peepers in the pond where picnickers watch, and birdsongs begin provide the background music until...the big day arrives--SUMMER SOLSTICE.

SO LONG SPRINGTIME,

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Spring never fails to delight us, no matter how many we've seen, and noted author Kate McMullan joyfully traces in lyrical language its progress through the landscape and into our consciousness every year. Watch and ... Wait for it!

Illustrated exuberantly by artist Sujean Rim, this is a great book to get youngsters observing the signs of Earth's heralded big production each year, in Kate McMullan's Happy Springtime! (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2021). In a perfect melding of narration and illustration, it's a breath of fresh air for the winter-weary brain. Says School Library Journal, "Rim's watercolor, pencil, crayon, and collage illustrations are lush and fluid like snow melting into the new growth taking its place. These blend beautifully with McMullan's springtime celebration, warming the fingers, toes, and hearts of readers."

Groundhog Roundup: Woodchuck Chuckles for the Picture Book Set

As I remarked in my previous post, what used to be a woodchuck wasteland for the picture book set has become a groundhog glut for parents, teachers, and librarians looking for material for this "timely" holiday. Here are just a few.

Known for her clever holiday books, Margery Cuyler has a new one, Groundhog Stays Up Late, which plays with the theme of the Aesop fable "The Grasshopper and the Ant." Her groundhog hates to hibernate; sleeping all winter is just plain boring work. His forest friends, however, insist that he has to do his duty and drop off to sleep in the fall. How else, Bear, Badger, and Squirrel implore, will they know when to end their winter dormancy without Groundhog's help?

"I don't have to hibernate to do THAT!" Groundhog insists.

"Don't expect us to give you shelter when it snows," grumbles Bear.

"Or food when you get hungry," Squirrel chimes in.

"Or warmth when you get cold," Badger adds emphatically.

Despite their warnings, Groundhog enjoys the brisk fall weather and greets the first snow with "WOW! SNOW. Want to make a snowman?" he invites the non-hibernating animals. But Hare, Fox, and Weasel have other, snugger winter plans, and with "What a bunch of stick-in-the-muds!" Groundhog plays in the snow all alone. Before long, though, he finds himself growing thin and chilly, and true to their promises, the sleepy animals refuse to share their warm dens. Desperate, Groundhog plays his best hand. On the first sunny day, he wakes all his friends:

"Spring's come early! Let's CELEBRATE! Let's EAT! he shouts at their doors.

Although Groundhog gets his much-needed meal, his trick is soon discovered when snow begins to fall again. Finally Groundhog yields to the inevitable and hibernates in a hastily prepared hole. But his friends show they can play pranks, too, when they paint a realistic looking shadow at the mouth of his burrow. When February 2 rolls around, Groundhog emerges, sees the fake shadow, and with a "Nuts! Six more weeks of winter" sadly goes back to sleep, while Bear, Badger, and Squirrel frolic in the early spring sunshine and enjoy the last laugh on friend Groundhog.

Jean Cassals' endearing illustrations, reminiscent of Jan Brett's style, add much to the hibernation humor in this funny tale of a stay-up-late groundhog.

Don Freeman, of Corduroy fame, has an entry in the shy groundhog sub-genre, titled Gregory's Shadow (Picture Puffins).

Shy Gregory's only friend is his shadow, whom he takes everywhere he goes. "I'm right behind you," Shadow reassures him. But when timid Gregory is frightened in the dark barnyard one night, in his haste to get inside he locks Shadow outside his door. Lonely and frightened, too, Shadow finally manages to convince Gregory that he's got his back covered, and tucking in tightly at his heels, Shadow helps Gregory announce the return of spring to his waiting fans.

Abby Levine incorporates a bit of groundhog history in her Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day! Gretchen is a young groundhog stricken with stage fright when faced with taking over the job for her Great-Uncle Gus, anguishing over facing the hordes of tourists, TV cameras, reporters, townspeople, and brass bands on February 2.

But Uncle Gus is sympathetic. "The first time always the hardest," he counsels. Gretchen is still frozen with fear, and The Picadilly Post starts a panic when they print the news that there may be no groundhog appearance on Groundhog Day. Then Gus takes Gretchen to see Town Historian Hester, who fills Gretchen in on the many shy groundhogs who nonetheless came out to do their job every year. There was Goody Groundhog, who inspired the Pilgrims and Indians with the news that "The Second Winter will be better than the first!" Then there was General George Groundhog, reviving the hopes of the troops at Valley Forge, and General Grant Groundhog, cowboy star Gene Groundhog, and vintage movie star Gloria Groundhog, who were all afraid to Go Out, but conquered their fear to do their jobs.

At last Gretchen takes heart and does her duty beautifully on February 2, and the Post headline proclaims

GRETCHEN GOES OUT!
PICADILLY PLEASED AND PROUD!

Women's lib comes to woodchuck lit in Susannah Hill's Punxsutawney Phyllis. Phyllis is an outdoorsy girl groundhog who even loves getting up early to enjoy cold spring water and mud between her toes. Her goal in life is to become her Uncle Phil's successor as the harbinger of the vernal scene. But taking over the Punxsutawaney gig is not going to be easy, she learns:

"When I grow up, I'm going to be Punxsutawney Phil," Phyllis said.

"Don't be silly, dear," her mother said. "Punxsutawney Phil is a fellow."

But when Phyllis awakes very early one dreary morning to the "drip-drip-drip" sound of melting snow, her investigations convince her that it's time to announce the return of warmer weather. Uncle Phil, however, is determined to sleep in, and even when Phyllis drags him out to see for himself, he's unconvinced until Phyllis points out the subtle signs of early spring. Finally, Phil reluctantly concurs that perhaps Phyllis is best qualified for the job, and Pennsylvania welcomes its new Punxsutawney prognosticator. In Uncle Phil's own words,

"The best Phil for the job is a Phyllis!"

A strong afterword with plenty of Groundhog Day (Candlemas)lore, including the beginning of Phil's reign as "Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinaire," and his rate of correct predictions (37-39%), plus Gregory Ebbele's bouncy full-bleed acrylic illustrations make this a worthy choice for the woodchuck collection.

This title is also available as a book and cassette readalong under the title Wake Up, Groundhog! (Punxsutawney Phyllis) (Book and Audiocassette Tape) (Paperback), great for primary classrooms and individual reading practice.

Judy Cox makes good use of kids' love for holidays in her Go To Sleep, Groundhog! Her dutiful Groundhog goes to bed early on Columbus Day, but has an unexpected case of insomnia. Finally he gives up trying to drift off into hibernation and gets up at "half-past October" to take a little walk to invite sleep. Outside he finds an intriguing scene, filled with jack o'lanterns, costumed kids, and witches. One witch recognizes Groundhog, and with a brusque "What are you doing up?" gives him a broom ride home and tucks him in with a ghost story and cup of apple cider.

At "half-past November," Groundhog is awake again and ventures out into the Thanksgiving scene, where a turkey flies him back to the burrow and beds him down with a piece of pumpkin pie and a Pilgrim tale. By "half-past December" the wakeful woodchuck is up again, this time to wander right into a full-blown winter wonderland. This time Santa flies him home in his sleigh, reads him a Christmas story, adds cookies and milk to the bedtime ritual, and at last Groundhog goes down for a long winter's nap.

When the clock he set in October finally rings on February 2, though, Groundhog gives the sunny, snow-covered scene a bleary eyeball, and seeing his shadow, gladly goes back for six more weeks in snoozeville. Kids will love the idea of all of these holiday characters coming together for Groundhog's tucking-in, and the zippy illustrations are half the fun.

For early independent readers, the noted Robin Hill School series has a Level One reader featuring Mrs. Connor's class studying Groundhog Day. On the board Mrs. Connor writes

"If the sun shines bright
on Groundhog Day,
The snow will swirl
until it's May.

If the snow blows hard
on Groundhog Day,
The sun will shine
before it's May."

After Mrs. Connor takes them through the calendar's seasonal markers, she introduces the class to Chester, a hamster who will be standing in for his groundhog cousin at the class's Groundhog Day party. On the big day, Chester's cage goes up on a wide windowsill, where Chester sees nary a sign of a shadow. "No more winter!" the class rejoices. Although Mrs. Connor points out that groundhogs are not always right in their forecasts, "that year, that sunny year, he was!"

Just like those Druids of old, we, too, can only hope!