Pamela Duncan Edwards, , illus. By Henry Cole. . HarperTrophy, $5.99 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-06-443691-5
The creators of Some Smug Slug
here take on metamorphosis. After crimson-colored Catisha scorns Clara for her plain coloring, the heroine's camouflage saves the day. Ages 3-6. (Mar
.)
This thin tale told in couplets begins as Brown Hen, an expectant mother, has been mysteriously summoned to the farmhouse. She overhears a passing cat remark, "There's going to be a Continue reading »
Rather than focus on a recalcitrant child, Edwards (Some Smug Slug) reverses the typical plot of a book about polite manners and places a child in charge of a Continue reading »
Floppy-eared Muldoon thinks of himself as his family's employee, and this newest offering from the creators of Some Smug Slug
stretches the joke from the Continue reading »
In another alliterative adventure, Edwards and Cole (previously paired for Some Smug Slug) send winsome Rosie Raccoon on a mission: to deliver four roses, tied Continue reading »
Joining a lineup of books commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first flight, this cumulative tale from a pair of seasoned collaborators (Muldoon) packs an Continue reading »
The correspondents in this appealing epistolary tale are Claire, newly six, and the eponymous diva of dentition herself—although older readers may suspect that the latter is actually Continue reading »
This catchy song, whose musical notation is given as an endpaper bonus, explains that "Miss Polly has a dolly who is sick, sick, sick/ She calls for the doctor to come quick, quick, Continue reading »
Where there are leprechauns, surely there is gold to be found—but at what price? Two men in long-ago Ireland find out in this chipper tale with dulcet undertones. Sharing a story line much Continue reading »
"Once upon a bad hair day,/ A prince rode up Rapunzel's way," opens Wilcox's debut book, offering a slight if agreeably silly take on the classic tale. In rhymed couplets of Continue reading »
Intense friendships are a fixture of childhood but suppressing one's individuality is never a good idea, as Gigi the pig and Lulu the mouse discover. All the adults chuckle over the many ways Continue reading »
The collaborators behind Some Smug Slug
join forces to deliver this light look at how several animals' anxieties get stirred up when a new teacher begins on Continue reading »
The Bus Ride That Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks
Pamela Duncan Edwards
This glancing treatment of Rosa Parks's 1955 refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man unwinds as a cumulative narrative reminiscent of "The House That Jack Built." The style, Continue reading »
Two harpists set off for a contest to name the best in Ireland. "Edwards builds a mellifluous rhythm with her quaint phrasing and clean story line," wrote Continue reading »
A woefully neglected clapboard house is at the center of this straightforward story from the creators of Ms. Bitsy Bat’s Kindergarten
. Cole’s visual Continue reading »
“Come little sleepyhead, come with me,/ I've left my hole high in the tree./ Oh, what wondrous things we'll see,/ While the world is sleeping.” Edwards (Continue reading »
""Cole's illustrations... add a healthy dose of energetic humor to the tongue-twister text,"" said PW of this feisty alliterative tale. Ages 4-9. Continue reading »
A self-satisfied slug ignores its friends' alliterative warnings as it proudly climbs a slope that turns out to be the back of a hungry toad: ""Such a shock, such a shame. Such a succulent slug!"" Continue reading »
Pamela Duncan Edwards, Henry Cole, Pamela Duncan Edwards
""A taut, involving narrative and dramatic, shadow-filled full-spread art"" adopt woodland animals' perspectives to tell of a runaway slave's flight, said PW. Ages 5-9. Continue reading »
A lion cub just wants to have fun with his fellow inhabitants of the savanna. But he doesn't understand why, when he roars his invitation to join his game or dance, nobody wants to play with him. One Continue reading »
Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole, the creators of Some Smug Slug and Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke, take on metamorphosis with Clara Caterpillar. ""Grow up to be courageous and contented, Continue reading »
With a taut, involving narrative and dramatic, shadow-filled full-spread art, the creators of Some Smug Slug and Livingstone Mouse transport youngsters onto the overgrown path that an escaping slave Continue reading »
In this offbeat fairy-tale homage, Edwards revisits the alliterative format of her Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke. Dinorella, a shy, pink dinosaur, lives with two greenish-brown diplodochi. Continue reading »
Collaborators Edwards and Cole (Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke) pull out all the stops in this slapstick comedy of too many cooks, starring eight eager-eyed, quadruple-tusked, bristly warthogs and a Continue reading »
A queen ant and her winged groom head for the altar in this buggy--though not particularly wacky--alphabet. The nuptials take place on the verdant and damp forest floor, the bride and groom thronged Continue reading »
As they did in Some Smug Slug, Edwards and Cole here use alliteration to lighthearted and humorous effect. On a ""warm Wednesday morning,"" Wombat, Weasel and Woodchuck contemplate all the terrible Continue reading »
Bad Fred Flea, who shares residence on a dog with his angelic brother, Ed, hopes to get the whole hound to himself. When Ed, who reads the dog's whining as a warning to move on, invites Fred to bail Continue reading »
The stars of Warthogs in the Kitchen team up again in Slop Goes the Soup: A Noisy Warthog Word Book by Pamela Duncan Edwards, illus. by Henry Cole. The author uses onomatopoeia to demonstrate how Continue reading »
Warthogs in a Box: Counting, Colors, Sounds [With Stickers]
Pamela Duncan Edwards
A trio of miniature editions unite for Warthogs in a Box: Warthogs Paint: A Messy Color Book; Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book; and Slop Goes the Soup: A Noisy Word Book, all by Continue reading »
The stars of Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book learn a few things about the properties of primary colors in Warthogs Paint: A Messy Color Book by Pamela Duncan Edwards, illus. by Continue reading »
A fox who flambees and fillets? Unfeasible? Not according to this alliterative tale, which introduces chef Fosdyke and his four siblings: Frank, Floyd, Freddy and Flo. When the quintet's mother Continue reading »
This heavily alliterative retelling of "The Princess and the Pea" from the creators of The Old House is more like "The Princess and the Letter P." The porcine princess's palace is in disrepair, and Continue reading »
Actor and playwright Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) turns a gimlet eye to Hans Christian Andersen in this ducky tale. Elmer, crowned by a wispy comb of feathers Continue reading »
En route to "your house," a mischievous witch stops at creepy locales to pick up ghosts and mummies: "Hop aboard, there's always room/ for a howling, growling Werewolf,/ and a Continue reading »
A boy's real and imaginary worlds merge in this simple but intriguing picture book. As the narrator asks why various animals (and, eventually, the moon and the sun) behave as they do, each Continue reading »
When Mom and Dad head out for their night on the town, will their "angelic" little monkeys behave? Not likely. First, there are as many of them as there are letters of the alphabet; Continue reading »
Two raffish wolves named Willy and Wally ("Oh yeah, we're bad. We're bad. We're really, really bad" is their mantra) have just been run out of town by the Three Little Pigs and Continue reading »
One snack too many lands Santa in a tight spot—literally. During his appointed gift- giving rounds on Christmas Eve, Santa can't resist nibbling the numerous treats and sweets the Continue reading »
Tango has two daddies in this heartwarming tale, inspired by actual events in New York's Central Park Zoo. Two male penguins, Roy and Silo, "did everything together. They bowed to each Continue reading »
"Fierstein turns a gimlet eye to Hans Christian Andersen in this ducky tale," according to PW's
starred review. "Cole makes a sympathetic hero Continue reading »
Those looking for an "M is for Matey" type of treatment will have to plunder elsewhere, as Sobel's (B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC
) alphabet Continue reading »
The front lawn of Caroline’s new home is like all the others in her cookie-cutter subdivision—it’s a simple, sterile patch of green that falls far short of the Continue reading »
An ugly duckling of a different feather—one with a rubber leg—turns his deformity into an asset in this quirky and triumphant picture book. Five, the fifth duckling born to Mama Duck Continue reading »
Dad is engrossed in the paper, which of course makes him a ripe target for a silliness offensive by his son. “You know what?” says the boy, with a gleam in his eyes worthy of Bart Continue reading »
Pecking at a bag of feed in the back of the farmer's truck, the four chickens take an unintended ride to town in this third outing. The chickens become increasingly discombobulated by the Continue reading »
A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home
Henry Cole
Fantasy and natural history blend comfortably in illustrator Cole’s (Jack’s Garden
) first novel, as a Louisiana plantation—where wildlife Continue reading »
Equally peppy words and pictures introduce an active litter of 10 puppies. As this counting tale opens, most snuggle with their mother, fast asleep, but "1 pup's up," and its siblings soon awaken and Continue reading »
This balletic book follows Capucilli and Cole's (Katy Duck, Center Stage) familiar peppy protagonist as she literally dances across the page. With the help of tabs and flaps, a tutu-clad Katy Continue reading »
This follow-up to Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? (2006) and Knock Knock (2007) rounds up 14 of the usual suspects—the most gifted illustrators working today—and gives them one spread to explain Continue reading »
Henry Cole encourages youngsters to take a closer look at their surroundings in his paper-over-board On the Way to the Beach. Gatefold flaps on spreads of marsh, dune and beach environments open Continue reading »
With understated humor and a somewhat labored plot, the team behind Moosetache and Bad Boys introduces Joseph and Thomas, a pair of happy, contented pigs whose slobby behavior disturbs the rest of Continue reading »
No matter how Moose braids, coils and nets his wiry ""moosetache,"" he winds up with a hair don't. His Rapunzel-length locks snag his ankles, dangle from his antlers and sometimes obscure his face Continue reading »
Edwards's (The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles) sliver of a tale traces the adventures of a small gray cat named Boadicea, ""Bo"" for short. Wealthy Mrs. Edith Edge is mortified to discover Continue reading »
What are baby animals really saying with the sounds they make? According to Walton (Once There Was a Bull Frog), ""Little snakes say, ""Kissss! Kissss!/ Kisss us on the cheek like thissss!"" And Continue reading »
Easy to envision as an animated cartoon, the peppy debut volume in Saunders's All-American Puppies series introduces a cast of canine characters with distinct personalities. At the center of the tale Continue reading »
Little Bo in France: The Further Adventures of Bonnie Boadicea
Julie Andrews Edwards
In the sequel to Little Bo, the feline heroine and her sailor friend Billy Bates hitchhike to Paris in Little Bo in France: The Further Adventures of Bonnie Boadicea by Julie Andrews Edwards, Continue reading »
As in his groovy Hip Cat and his less successful The Candystore Man, London strives for a bippity-bopping boogie rhythm, this time convening an animal dance party. Here ""hoppin' hares"" and Continue reading »
What might have been an ordinary be-yourself story is enhanced by Laminack's (Snow Day!) surprisingly thoughtful storytelling. Three hens on the Tuckers' farm are sick with envy when a peacock shows Continue reading »
Mom is so over it: "I'll make this crystal clear:/ No more 'Chicken Butt' my dear." But for the star of Chicken Butt! every grocery store item (and everything his mother says) becomes fodder for his Continue reading »
In the voice of the titular character, Cole (A Nest for Celeste) wistfully recounts the life and times of a Christmas tree. The sound of chain saws in late autumn stirs fear in the tree that has come Continue reading »
Chick, a long-lashed tan chicken in a green two-piece bathing suit, is determined to make her surfer-star father proud. Peppered with surf lingo, Dempsey’s (Mini Racer) verses occasionally stretch to Continue reading »
This little piggy has escaped from his owner and is running riot through the county fair, getting covered in gunk, globs, and other stuff representing nine colors: brown from the muddy pig pen, red Continue reading »
Geist offers a high-spirited salute to animal sounds, movements, and twin siblings, riffing on the nursery rhyme “Over in the Meadow.” Geist’s verse introduces various sibling pairs in outdoor Continue reading »
Hopkins gives this story of miscommunication and false alarm a Southwestern spin, much as she did in The Three Armadillies Tuff and The Horned Toad Prince. The narrative uses internal rhyming and Continue reading »
Once upon a time, a “clever and quick” girl named Nelly leaves her impoverished, overpopulated family and goes to work for Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle, a man at the far end of the eccentricity spectrum. Continue reading »
Bogart and Vinnie: A Completely Made-Up Story of True Friendship
Audrey Vernick
The heart wants what the hearts wants. Case in point: Vinnie, a "crazy-happy" dog (and seldom has a description been more apt) who wanders into a nature preserve for exotic animals and decides that Continue reading »
Readers get a hint of the ingenuity in Cole's (Unspoken) nifty study of comparative sizes from its arresting cover, which features a ladybug at very close range, Inside, realistic full-bleed Continue reading »
The illustrator of some 80 picture books – some of which he wrote, some penned by other authors – Henry Cole is a versatile children's book creator. In his latest solo effort, Continue reading »
What Is Color? The Global and Sometimes Gross Story of Pigments, Paint, and the Wondrous World of Art
Steven Weinberg
Using an effusive cartoon version of himself as a guide, Weinberg (Washer and Dryer’s Big Job) joins forces with dog Waldo to lead readers along a delightfully meandering Continue reading »
Thirteen-year-old Tara Gimmel believes that she can do anything. But when she’s enrolled in a “special academic program to challenge high-performing students” and promoted Continue reading »
Kahn (Drawing Deena) and Zerrougui team up to deliver a distinguished attestation to the power of sport. Upon moving from Tampa to Milwaukee, Pakistani and Indian American high Continue reading »
At risk of repeating sophomore year, anxious Black 16-year-old Niarah Holloway must spend the summer completing her capstone project and making up PE credits. A doomsday prepper Continue reading »