The illustrations are nice, the simple counting text rhymes, and I would probably recommend it for Australian audiences, whose young children would appreciate having a counting book that featured familiar images.  But the images and vocabulary are “absolutely Australian,” as the cover states.  It would’ve been more useful as a cross-cultural tool for American children if there were explanatory sentences or paragraphs to provide context/definitions.

The stated mission of the group publishing this series of books is to preserve our heritage of children’s folksongs.  If you share this mission, this may be a worthy addition to your library, but as a stand-alone picture book, it doesn’t hold up as well as some of the others in the series.  On the back of the book they spin it as a “great American nonsense song with a real tongue-twister for the chorus,” but really that means it’s hard to read aloud, many of the non-sense words leaving the reader unsure how to pronounce them, and the story seems to be that of a man who married a wife who’s a slob.  The illustrations do their best to try to make sense of the nonsense (with mice mirroring humans), but it seems a case of doing the best one can with what one has to work with.  The music is in the back, and maybe if I could read music the tune would’ve helped, but as is, it was an awkward read.

It might get recommended for libraries in New York, but kids who are unfamiliar with New York landmarks are going to miss a lot of the references in this book.  The illustrations are fun, and the story is cute:  it tells of a taxi driver who picks up a funny-dressed passenger who asks to be taken to Schmeeker Street, on the other side of town.  At a dead-end, the passenger pulls out a remote control that opens the entrance to the Finkon Tunnel, and leads to the other side of town (a very pink a green kind of place), where they root for the Spankees baseball team, have to drive around spotholes, etc. After dropping off his passenger, the cabbie makes his way home by way of the Snooklyn Bridge, and is much relieved when he finds himself back in Times Square, but when he gets home his family are all dressed in pink and green, and his wife is serving tweet loaf and bravy for dinner.

A fun read-together for kids and dads to share, it points out all the ways kids are lucky if there dad is the kind who never grew up.  The silly illustrations accompany a long list of indicators of dads who have never grown up, from racing grocery carts to reading comics and making pancakes in shapes.

Well, when it comes down to it, this is the story of a not-too-bright man doing a strip-tease at the train station, in an effort to find the ticket that he’s got in his mouth. When he gets down to his underwear without finding the ticket, he yells out about losing it, and then finds it on the ground since it fell out of his mouth while yelling.  He puts it back in his mouth so that he has his hands free to dress again, and when he gets on the train he laughs at his own silliness, thereby swallowing the ticket.  Lucky for him, he has cash to buy a new one on board because folks standing by while he stripped had thrown money into his hat. The illustrations are cleverly drawn, but colored in such drab, dreary colors, they’re not as appealing as they might have been.

It’s rather pedantic and cheesy.  It tells of a selfish, whiney, demanding little bear who has created a long list of all the things he wants from Santa, insisting that if he can’t have them all it won’t be a happy Christmas.  When Christmas arrives, his cousins do too, and they get most of the things on Little Bear’s wish list, but all he gets is a folded piece of paper that he refuses to even open.  He sulks for a while, then decides to help each of his cousins with their toys, until his father reminds him that he forgot about his note, which directs him to look under the stairs, where he finds the last item of his wish list, a tricycle, which he decides to share with his cousins.

The illustrations for this book are bright and interesting and unusual and intriguing.  I just wish the story lived up to the artwork.  There’s not really a plot.  It basically tells about someone who loves magic so much they imagine all sorts of magic they can do, each of which is a function of nature (make the sun rise, the rain fall, flowers bloom, etc.).

Though a picture book, this title is really better for older students.  The bright, somewhat abstract paintings that illustrate it are beautiful, and draw one in to this biography of jazz musician John Coltrain.  It describes how his music was influenced by life experiences, which included poverty, race issues, family issues, drug use, and spirituality.  It’s a compelling story, well-told and inspiring, but a bit too dark for young readers.

The illustrations are absolutely charming!  Hugo is a small yellow bird, living in Paris, who doesn’t like to fly.  One day he meets a new friend who wants to take him to the Eiffel Tower, but Hugo keeps making excuses to put off the adventure.  Finally that evening he confesses to a local owl that he is afraid of flying.  The owl is both understanding and helpful.  After practicing all night, Hugo is finally ready to take the leap the next day when his friend returns, and thoroughly enjoys the adventure.

The illustrations are soft and charming.  The text is rhythmic and rhyming and repetitive.  The story tells the simple tale of a young owl who watches his older siblings fly away and leave the nest, but is afraid to attempt to fly herself.  When she finally does, she’s glad because she then sets up her own nest, and hatches her own chick.  My one criticism is that there’s no actual compelling reason that finally spurs the chick to try flying: after repeatedly refusing the attempt she just finally does.