A trickster tale!  When Elmer’s friends ask for Snake’s guidance in tricking Elmer, Snake gives them an idea, but then goes to Elmer with an idea to turn the tables and trick his friends instead.  A great story to share on April Fool’s Day, there’s nothing malicious about any of the tricks, and everyone ends up laughing.  Elmer fans will enjoy the familiar characters and colors of McKee’s bright jungle world.

A delightful tale, told in rhythm and rhyme, about the joys of including one and all.  Panda starts out planning a panda party, until he realizes he is the only panda at the zoo.  He decides to expand the guest list to include all bears, until his friend Koala Bear points out that he’s not really a bear, but a marsupial.  And so the party expands to include all mammals, until Rhino RSVPs that he won’t attend without his bird.  And so things go until the party is open to all creatures at the zoo, and just as the party is about to begin, a new creature arrives — another panda to join the fun.  An author’s note in the back provides additional scientific information about many of the animals mentioned in the story.

A beautiful Christmas story, told from the perspective of the birds.  Old owl is reminiscing about the song heard by birds at the first Christmas, and looking out on a world that seems to have stopped listening.  All the birds gather and hatch a plan to share their song with the children, who have more open hearts, ready to listen to it.  Bird to bird, child to child, they share their song of Peace on Earth.  The illustrations are soft and wintery.  The final page includes a montage of the word Peace in a multitude of languages.

Both story and illustrations are absolutely charming.  A forest full of assorted animal friends are doing their best to cheer up Mouse, who seems to be in a bit of a slump.  Each tries to offer a solution that s/he would like best: Crow tries to take him for a ride in the sky, Frog for a dip in the pond, etc. In the end, Chipmunk’s simple hug is what finally does the trick, and everyone gathers around for a group hug.  It just makes you go, Ahhh!

We all know kids like Suki:  the one who makes up all the games and always seems to have the lead part, telling others what to do.  And everyone likes hearing the story of what happens when a new bunny comes to town who doesn’t give in to the queen (that would be Mirabella).  When Suki’s usual followers start trailing around after Mirabella, the inevitable round of one-up-manship ensues, until a formal contest is proposed, with a daisy crown to go to the winner.  Sure enough the two contestants find they can only manage together, and when the crown splits in two, they declare  both to be winners, each with a tiara instead of a single crown.

I really like the story.  I wish I liked the illustrations more.  It’s not even the illustrations themselves I object to, but I’ve been noticing a trend lately in too many picture books that I don’t like:  the only word I can find for the color scheme is drab.  The story itself is great — it’s so many elements that so many folks can relate to: moving to a new neighborhood, wishing for a tree house, father-sons bonding activity, brotherly bonding, little brother’s remorse as big brother moves on to new interests/friends, community bonding during a summer black-out, reconnecting.  I like the use of silhouette, but I just can’t get past the drabness of the colors in the rest of the illustration.

The surface tale of a favorite baby-sitter putting his young charges to bed is the setting for sharing a litany of old classic childhood rhymes.  Every time Skinny Doug shares one of the old classics, the children shout for him to say it again, but he always delays until some other time, offering instead that, “I’ll tell you another I heard from my mother:”  and so the children hear of bed bugs that bite, the old man who went to bed and bumped his head, the piggies who went to market, and a handful of other old classics.  The simple cartoon-like illustrations insert the children and their sitter into the heart of each of the old rhymes.  A great way to share some old classics.

A delightfully charming, silly, mash-up showing what happens when one invites a T-Rex to a tea party.  The humor in this story comes from combining the illustrations with the text.  Taken alone, the genteel text is simply a manners manual instructing one on the proper etiquette when inviting guests to tea.  It’s the silly illustrations that demonstrate the riotous results when applied to dinosaurs.  Fun for all!

Though perhaps intended primarily for pre-school audiences, early elementary students who have younger brothers or sisters at home will certainly recognize the typically toddler behaviors that keep landing Sophie in time-out.  When grandma turns the tables at the end and puts herself in time-out, Sophie comes to her rescue and all is well.

With very limited text (strictly dialogue), the story is told mostly through the illustrations, which juxtapose a scowling old man and an eager young boy as they face the prospect of heading out on a rainy day, the old man grumbling all the way, and the young boy playing make-believe in his froggy-themed rain gear.  Both their attitudes seem to be contagious to all they encounter, until they both end up at the “Rain or Shine Cafe.”  The old man growls at the young boy, too, both when he bumps his chair, and even when he offers to share his cookie, but when the grump leaves his hat behind, and the youngster chases him down to return it, they share a moment impersonating each other, and the old guy walks away happy.  It’s fine, but the ending seemed a bit pat, and I kept thinking the boy was a girl because the tassels on his froggy hat looked like pigtails.