Priscilla and the Pink Planet

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Reminiscent of Dr. Seuss and Hilary Knight, here is a clever read-aloud about a little girl who lives on a planet where everything is pink. Priscilla dreams of seeing the world in other colors and ends up teaching the Great Queen of Pink that diversity leads to true beauty. After eating one too many bowls of pink porridge, she decides to search the world for at least one other color. Told in Seussian rhyme, the story follows the girl as she steps off the road and makes her own path through meadows, rocks, and swamps. Discouraged, she asks aloud for a sign, and what should appear but a beautiful multicolored butterfly. She chases it, only to see it captured by the Great Queen of Pink. The queen, of course, likes only pink, and all other colors must be kept underground. Priscilla comes up with a plan to change the monarch's mind and break her spell. This is an entertaining book, and the engaging cartoon illustrations are filled with interesting details. The contrast from the world of pink to just the one colorful butterfly is dramatic. After the queen releases all of the colors, the pages are filled with a grand array of tints and shades. This could be a fun title to use with an art class and also makes a bouncy read-aloud.

Bunny Cakes

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Max wants to make Grandma an earthworm birthday cake, but he needs Red-Hot Marshmallow Squirters. Ruby is baking a surprise cake with raspberry-fluff icing, but Max keeps spilling her ingredients. With their usual creativity and aplomb, the favorite bunnies succeed tastily.

Crossing the Street (Just Be Safe Series)

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Designed to present to your children the vitally important safety rules to use everyday. Always cross the street holding hands with an adult you know. Always cross the street at the corner. Always look left-right-left and all around.

Never Talk to Strangers

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This book brilliantly highlights situations that children will find themselves in—whether they’re at home and the doorbell rings, or playing in the park, or mailing a letter on their street—and tells them what to do if a stranger (always portrayed as a large animal, such as a rhino) approaches. Colorful, ’60s-style “psychedelic” artwork and witty, lively rhyme clearly spell out a message about safety that empowers kids, and that has never been more relevant.

Inside a Zoo in the City

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The rhyming, cumulative text begins, "Here is the [parrot] that stretched/ and squawked / that woke the [tiger] that growled and stalked." The book substitutes a jovial little picture of an animal for each bracketed word, making this a rebus and offering playful practice for children who can't quite read yet. Here's the unspoken premise that emerges in the illustrations: the zoo animals sleep each night in their apartments in the city. It's five in the morning when they begin to wake up one another. One by one, they climb aboard a city bus and ride to their day jobs. They disembark and trundle off to their areas, where they look as sleepy as zoo critters often do. Now we know why! Arnold's playful line-and-wash drawings, textured with his signature squiggles, will amuse children on every page. Even parents will smile at the bus-riding chicken absorbed in reading the Stock Market News. Good fun.

What A Party!

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Froggie stands in for the quintessential overexcited child in this companion to Too Many Frogs! (Philomel, 2005). He loves sleeping in his own special hut by the pond, but on his grandfather's birthday, he eagerly wakes up and heads for the celebration. He quickly makes a costume, a stage, and programs so that he can give his present to Grandpa-a performance of his favorite song. When the party ends, Froggie doesn't want to leave. His friend Rabbit plays the part of the patient parent, taking him home and reading him a story. Finally settling down, he reminisces about his wonderful day. The colorful multimedia illustrations range from full-bleed spreads to spot art, which adds movement and visual interest to the pages. While the spotted frogs are appealing, Rabbit, who is blue and rather odd looking with an elongated forehead and fluffy white mustache, is a bit off-putting. Nevertheless, youngsters will empathize with Froggie's feelings. The fact that Froggie, who seems so clearly to be a preschooler, apparently lives alone is a bit jarring. However, the rhythmic, repetitive refrain of his song will work well for audience participation, and both intergenerational and birthday stories are always in demand.

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark

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The tale of "The Three Little Pigs" gets an underwater makeover in this snappy yarn. Three little fish swim out into the deep blue sea to build their homes. Jim builds a "weedy little house," Tim builds a "sandy little house," and Kim takes up residence in a sunken ship. It isn't long before the big bad shark shows up at each successive residence, calling "Little fish, little fish, let me come in!" Children will quickly join in the answering refrain, "Not by the skin of my finny fin fin!" Gorton's whimsical, computer-drawn scenery and electric color palette set just the right tone for Geist's tongue-in-cheek retelling. The bold font is humorously integrated with the art, appearing inside the shark's mouth for emphasis, or swirling along the current with an escaping fish. This spunky tale is a welcome addition to storytime and picture-book collections.

Heaven Is Having You

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In reassuring couplets and gentle ink-and-wash drawings, the team behind Love Is a Handful of Honey explains just how deep grandparents' love for their grandchildren can be. "It's heaven to see you!" exclaims Grandma Bear as she greets Little Bear. When the fellow asks her what heaven is, she replies, "It's not all that easy to tell you, Because heaven is so many things." Yet she goes on to describe pleasures very much of this world: "It's chasing you around the garden And hearing you shriek with delight. It's lying down while you sit on my tummy And tickle with all of your might." The text frames single-page images and full-bleed spreads, sometimes with creatively curvy type lines. Cabban shows Little Bear and his grandparents spending time in gentle ursine exploits on flower-sprinkled meadows, as well as the grandparents' cozy cave with its big red armchair for eating cupcakes in and an enormous blue towel for drying off after a bubble bath. In the soft pastel glow of a summer sunset, Little Bear reunites with his parents. Without a theologically conventional definition of heaven, this volume will likely have universal appeal to grandchildren and grandparents alike.

My Teacher Is the Best!

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