Just a Snowy Day by Mercer Mayer (HarperFestival, 2006)

Little Critter wants to go out and play in the snow. He puts on his smooth, shiny boots, his hat with the fuzzy pom-pom, and his coat with the warm, fuzzy lining. As he gets dressed, young readers can feel his boots, hat, and coat in this cute, interactive book.

Very young readers will love playing with Little Critter as he has fun in the snow, warms up inside, and goes to bed.  Open the door for Little Critter. Make him wobble on the ice. Feel the smooth, shiny icicles. Give his sled a pull. Smell his hot chocolate. Help him take a shower by pulling the shower curtain open. And finally, tuck him into bed with a warm, soft blanket.

This is a good lap book for adults and kids to enjoy together.

Just So Thankful by Mercer Mayer (HarperFestival, 2006)

From the well-known Little Critter series comes this new title, Just So Thankful. Little Critter wants a Super Streak Scooter, but doesn’t have enough money to buy it. Instead of being thankful for all the toys he does have as his mother suggests, he sulks because he can’t have the terrific scooter.

Then a new kid moves into the neighborhood, and wow! He’s riding a Super Scooter. In fact, the new boy, H.H., has tons of wonderful toys — and a maid, a cook, a swimming pool, his own cell phone, and more. Little Critter and his friends have a great time at H.H.’s house, and wish they were so lucky.

Little Critter can’t imagine why H.H. would want to play at his house. He’d be so bored without all the cool stuff to play with. But Little Critter invites him over anyway. That’s when Little Critter learns through H.H.’s eyes that he’s a lucky critter, too, and has a whole lot to be thankful for.

This book would make a nice read-aloud to help kids understand the concept of being thankful. Sometimes what looks like “no fair” to us looks like “wow, you’re lucky” to someone else.
One quibble that readers may have with this Little Critter book is the stereotypical way in which gender roles are depicted: boys roughouse, make messes, like dogs, and wear blue. Girls are neat, play with tea sets, like cats, and wear pink. Women wear long dresses, while men wear pants. Parents and teachers might use the illustrations to discuss gender roles.

This book is also available in Spanish: Tan Agradecido.

The Six Fools by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Ann Tanksley (HarperCollins, 2006)

When a foolish bride-to-be and her parents let a cask of apple cider floods her basement while daydreaming about the name of her future child, her young man declares he won’t have her until he finds three fools bigger than the ones sitting in the pool of cider.

And find them he does, as he encounters a man trying to jump into his clothes, a farmer trying to get a cow to eat the grass on the barn roof, and a woman trying to push a wheelbarrow of sunshine into her house to dry her scrubbed floor. After all this foolishness, will the young man finally have his bride back?

Zora Neale Hurston traveled the Gulf States in the 1930’s to gather and preserve the rich oral history and legacy of the African-American people of the south.  The Six Fools was among the many tales she recorded. Now Joyce Carol Thomas retells the tale for young people. Ann Tanksley’s raw and vibrant illustrations capture a retro 30’s looks, fitting the times in which the story was first recorded. Their child-like charm captures the exuberance of this tall tale.

Mummies: The Newest, Coolest, & Creepiest from Around the World by Shelly Tanaka (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2005)

What is it about mummies that is so fascinating? Is it coming literally face-to-face with someone from the distant past? Is it the extraordinary amount of information a mummy reveals about the culture it came from? Or is it just that mummies are creepy, and we all love a shiver?

Shelly Tanaka takes the reader on an around-the-world journey to look at some of the most famous — and infamous — mummies that have been unearthed. Unlike other books that focus on Egypt, Tanaka begins in the Americas, home to the oldest mummies known. There, bodies might simply be dried in desert sands, or elaborately prepared by dismemberment, drying, and reassembly into clay-covered puppet-like figures. There are mummies that are probably sacrifices to Inca gods, to a body accidentally frozen over 500 years ago in a glacier in British Columbia.

The tale turns to Egypt, home of the most famous mummies, and tells about a modern Egyptian mummy, made by researchers from a donated body to study how Ancient Egyptians preserved their dead. The mystery of young Tutankhamen’s death (illness? accident? or murder?) is explored. A trip northward to Europ takes us into the land of the bog bodies, where people who were either sacrificed or executed (no one knows for sure) were tossed into the bogs, where strong tannic acids preserved them. After a look at the Iceman, found in Italy, and some puzzling mummies in Ireland, the tale moves to Asia, where tall, Caucasian-looking bodies were mummified in northern China. No one knows who these people were, nor how they got there. Nomads, perhaps?

Finally, the book goes where many mummy books never tread: modern mummies. There is the bizzare practice of self-mummification by Buddhist monks in the Himalayan mountains. There are cadavers preserved by plastination, partically-dissected and used in a modern educational museum show (ew! ew! ew!). There are the bodies of Eva Peron, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong, preserved with chemicals, and placed on display.

This book is a must for any young mummy fan who is interested in more unusual mummies. It is illustrated throughout by colorful photographs, some of which are not for the faint of heart!

Captain Barnacle’s Aquarium by Edward Miller (HarperCollins, 2006)

Yo, ho, ho! The old pirate, Captain Barnacle and his trusty  parrot are ready to take a class on a tour of his famous aquarium. The salty old sea dog has tales to tell of his days at sea, fighting other pirates, battling storms, and searching for treasure. From sailing through shark-infested waters, to getting clues from dophins, to treasure hunts and fights wtih giant sea squids, Captain Barnacle’s adventures hold the class entranced.

But throughout the pages are lots informative bits of sea lore about the fish and other sea creatures that Captain Barnacle encounters. Readers can read the tale straight through, then go back and read the information, or take in all the information on each page at once.

For young children, Captain Barnacle is a good introduction into studies of sea life, though parents and teachers will want to explain where fact ends and fantasy begins, lest children think that their first visit to an aquarium will bring them face-to-face with a pirate. Classrooms and homeschool kids could take a tip from the format of the book and create their own “aquarium” with sea facts and drawings of sea life.

How to Be, written and illustrated by by Lisa Brown (HarperCollins, 2006)

How to be a monkey: Swing from a tree. Eat with your toes. Copy someone. Be curious.

How to be a bear: Catch fish with your hands. Hibernate. Growl. Be brave.

Author/illustrator Lisa Brown employs simple, charming illustrations and a minimal text to teach children how to be different animals — the how to be themselves, using the best qualities of the animals. The easy-to-read text make this book terrific for interactive storytime. Kids may want to act along with the children in the book, pretending to be different animals.

The book may also inspire conversation about what it means to be a person, and what it means to be yourself. The text could easily introduce the good qualities that people strive for: bravery, curiosity, patience, creativity, charm, and frendliness, without being pedantic or preachy.

How to Be is Lisa Brown’s debut book for children, and may be destined to become a beloved classic.

Lies and Other Tall Tales, complies by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted and illustrated by Christopher Myers (HarperCollins, 2005)

“Liars, back in the day, could tell a lie so good,

You didn’t even want to know the truth.”

The late Zora Neale Hurston (author of Their Eyes Were Watching God), throughout her anthropological studies of the southern U.S., collected tall tale after tall tale, each one more deliciously far-fetched than the next. But then:

“…she knew that there had been a decline

In the quality of lies and it was just

Gone get worse, unless somebody did something.

So she wrote down all the lies she could get her hands on.”

Illustrator Christopher Myers went the next step with Hurston’s collections, creating a book full of whoppers, illustrated with Myers’ cut cloth and paper art. Meet a man who ran so fast, he lost his feet. Or the woman so small, she could walk between the raindrops and never get wet. And then there was the year it was so dry — or the year it was so cold — well, you wouldn’t believe it until you read it, and even then, maybe you won’t believe it, but you’ll want to!

Lies and Other Tall Tales is a tribute to the fast-dying art of tall tales and outrageous whoppers straight from the furthest reaches of the imagination, “back when computers ran on steam power, back when cellular phones had rotary dials.” The rhythmic text echoes the voices of the original speakers as they sat of an evening, trying to outdo one another with one whopper after another. Small children may need some introduction into the text, lest they take the tall tales too literally, but young readers will enjoy the zestful exaggerations and wild fancies, and may try to come up with their own whoppers to match.

Review of How Much? Visiting Markets Around the World by Ted Lewin (HarperCollins, 2006).

How much for a rambutan, a durian, or a longan? How much for a llama wool poncho? What about that camel, or that basket of flowers?

Caldecott Honor artist Ted Lewin takes readers on a shopping excursion around the world in a series of deft watercolor sketches. In Thailand, we visit a floating market where shoppers may buy exotic fruits such as rambutan, longans, or the infamous durian (”Eating a durian is like eating vanilla custard in an outhouse.”), or they may stop at a fried-banana boat for a sweet treat. In India, we tour a floral market in the evening, as lamplight reveals smiling faces, bare feet treading over a thick carpet of discarded leaves and petals, and brilliant baskets of flowers. In Peru, a textile market filled with handwoven garments lines a narrow street bisected by a train track, and children dart about only a few feet from the train carrying people to Machu Picchu. In Egypt, we witness camel traders making a deal. And in more familiar territory, we visit a flea market in New Jersey, where people haggle over one another’s discards.

Though most of the settings are exotic and unfamiliar to Western readers, the familiar elements that all have in common are buying, selling, and trading. Children who understand that they can trade money for the things that they want will be fascinated by the kinds of things that other people around the world like to buy, and where they do their shopping.

Once I Ate a Pie by Patricial MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest, illustrated by Kathy Schneider

Meet Beefy, who once ate a pie. Lucy, who loves what’s hers — and everything is hers. Sugar, who only likes to sleep. Abby, who never steals, only borrows. Pocket, who cannot understand why his coat, dish, and collar are so tiny when he’s sure he’s huge.

It’s a dog’s world, as the saying goes, and the dogs of Once I Ate a Pie are here to explain the world from a dog’s point of view. Gus wants us to know that he needs to herd everyone and wants everyone in one place. That’s why he pokes his nose into the bathroom when people close the door. Puppy feels overwhelmed by the size of the world, and wants to be close to his people, safe and warm. Louis used to only yip, but now he can BARK, and he’s proud of it.

Everyone loves to be heard, and Newbery Medal winner Patricia MacLachlan and her daughter, Emily MacLachlan Charest open the world of thirteen household heroes who want us to know what’s on their minds. Guggenheim Fellowship winning illustrator Katy Schneider provides heartfelt, dog-view portraits, bringing the stars of the book to life.

This book would be an excellent addition to any family where dogs and small children share the same space. Once I Ate a Pie is a great way to help kids understand their canine companions, and should help open up conversations about “why does puppy do that?”

A Gift of Her Own by Wendy Pini, Father Tree Press, 1995.

What do you do when someone laughs at something that’s close to your heart, until you think your heart will break? Run away from home, into the forest, to live on wild berries for the rest of your life?

That is what young Elmy tries to do in A Gift of Her Own, a fantasy picture book from the creators of the Elfquest graphic novels. Illustrated with Wendy Pini’s achingly beautiful artwork, the story carries an important message for young children with creative souls.

Elmy is a poor child in an alternate world, the World of Two Moons. When she is mocked for a button necklace that she made for herself, she flees into the forest, vowing never to return. There she meets some mysterious people — the wolfriding elves that she believed were only legend. The gentle treeshaper, Redlance, takes her deep into the elfin holt, where she meets two youngsters, Ember and Suntop. Elmy soon finds the values of her human world turned around, for the elves trade furs and meat with the trolls for gold and jewels that they view as mere decoration, while Elmy’s handmade necklace is treated with respect. “Elmy made that!” Ember says, holding back the greedy troll child, Trinket, who makes a grab for the necklace. “It’s special!”

“You are a Maker,” Redlance tells her. “With such a gift, you’ll never want for anything. Someone will always have a use for what you can do. There aren’t many Makers, after all.”

In the 1980’s, Wendy and Richard Pini published the first of their fantasy graphic novels that becaome the Elfquest series. “Fantasy with teeth,” they called it, for the Wolfriders weren’t the sort of elves to just drift around the forest looking ethereal. The ancestors of the wolfriders were forced to live in a savage world, and adapted by becoming creatures of the night, bonding with wolves and learning to hunt as the wolves do. The novels live on, supported by a fan base playing out their out their own Wolfrider fantasies in online holts all across the Internet. While the original Elfquest novels deal with adult subjects, A Gift of Her Own brings the world of the Wolfriders to children in this gentle and lovely picture book.