I love this illustrator’s artwork.  There’s something charming and enchanting about it that draws  the reader in.  The story is somewhat Velveteen-Rabbit-esque, telling the tale of a boy whose family doesn’t believe his beloved stuffed lion is real, even though he’s sure he is.  When they’re out for a walk one day, the lion gets left behind.  The family searches high and low when they get home, but must postpone their search until the next day when it gets too late.  A wordless sequence in the middle shows the lion in the woods, found by some other animals who help him find his way home.  When morning dawns and the family’s search resumes, Leo is found in the bushes right outside the front door, much to the surprise of everyone who insists they’d looked in just that spot the night before.  I will confess there are some elements to the artwork that I don’t completely “get”: a coffee pot and cups in the bushes? and crowns floating over the heads of all the people, also floating over the heads of the animals at night but not during the day?  But I think that’s okay, in fact I think it makes the artwork more compelling to leave it open to discussion/interpretation/possibilities.

It’s obviously the sequel to The Boss Baby, which I’ve never read, but would like to get, base on the recommendation of this book.  The illustrations and text work together to tell the tale of the arrival of a new baby sister, from the perspective of the toddler big brother, who is used to being the boss, but is finding himself displaced, that is, until baby sister manages to wrap him around her little finger.  It’s fun, and a fresh twist on the new-baby-in-the-home theme.  For librarians who have parents who might object to such things, you should be aware that the illustrations include mom breast-feeding baby (or providing “organic catering service”), toddler stripping down and peeing in the flowers (backside view), and parents sipping martinis together when peace is restored to the household.

A cute reminder that art is in the eye of the beholder. When a hippo is impressed by a mouse’s painting of the sea, he asks to have his own portrait painted.  After posing very carefully, he is very impressed with the mouse-sized paper that gets painted solid gray because that’s all of him that would fit on the paper.  When they swap roles, and the hippo paints a portrait of the mouse, it turns out like a tiny dot in the middle of the paper, with which mouse is delighted.

It’s not getting a high recommendation, but there is a certain population of library patrons who will eat this up, for the illustrations alone, loaded as they are with pink and purple and rainbows and unicorns and princesses and sparkles and a mermaid, too.  Frankie, a fan of fairy tales, is surprised one day to find a princess in her bedroom, seeking refuge from a witch.  As soon as she gets the princess hidden under her bed, the unicorn arrives, also needing someplace to hide.  After Frankie has hidden the mermaid and the knight and the king and the frog, the witch arrives, and though Frankie does her best to keep her new friends’ secrets, the witch’s broom rounds up them all, but it’s okay in the end, because it turns out they’re just playing hide and seek, and Frankie gets to be “it” next.

A sweet, comforting, reassuring book to remind small children that there are grown ups in the world to keep them safe when storms rage.  Rhyming couplets and charming illustrations describe a series of young animals being protected by their grown ups while a storm rages:   the moles snuggling  close under ground and touching noses, the duckling under mama’s wing, the rabbits cozy in their burrow, etc… On the final page the puppy is reassured that, “A storm will always end.”

” The creators of the internationally bestselling Bear Snores On Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman” bring us Big Bear, Small Mouse. These two friends meet and greet pairs of their woodland friends on the way to Bear’s den. These pair of friends is compared presenting the reader with a set of ‘opposites’ which are visually reinforced through the colorful artwork: small – big, slow-fast, high-low, quiet-loud, and cold-warm.

Buster is the new puppy in the Roger’s house. Phoebe, the older dog, is tricking Buster by taking his bones while his back is turned. Phoebe the Trickster, might be a better title for this book.

Phoebe convinces Buster his bones need training to stay in place. When Phoebe runs barking out the dogie door, Buster follows. Then Phoebe returns first hiding Buster’s bone. Phoebe tells Buster she’ll help train his bones to “stay”. Each time Buster leaves to see if his bones “stay”, Phoebe takes one, telling Buster, ”  ‘It was not a smart bone… The smart bones will stay. Try again. ‘ ” (13)  Roger watches as Buster growls at his new bone, runs outside, and then back again. ”  ‘ That is one smart bone,’  said Phoebe.” (16)

The second half of the book continues with Phoebe now wanting the bone of the big dog next door. Phoebe pushes Buster through the loose board in the fence.  While Buster is innocently trying to teach the new dog’s bone to stay, Phoebe takes the bone. When caught with the bone in her mouth, Buster reasons that Phoebe is simply returning the bone.

Twenty-one poems and six recipes grace the pages of this book as collage animals romp around their page of food.

The free verse poems,  in one, two or three word lines, usually describing the food’s outward appearance. The poems run from five to twelve lines, but one or two have as many as eighteen or twenty-five lines.

Strawberry Jamboree

So many strawberries

costumed in red–

they carry green parasols

to shade their heads.

Tatseless, or tasteful?

You decide.

They wear their seeds

on the outside.

My fresh green salads are never this much fun! There is something whimsical about freshly photographed vegetables printed with inked faces smiling at you. Juana Medina’s salad preparation consists of counting smiling vegetables on their way to the salad bowl:

“1  one Avocado Deer, 2  two Radish Mice, 3   three Pepper Monkeys” , 4  horse carrots, 5 turtle tomatoes, 6 alligator cucumbers, 7 radicchio lions , 8  flying bird walnuts, 9 romaine dogs, and 10 Clementine segment kittens.     Wait, don’t forget to make dressing for the faceless salad. Olive oil in a porcupine bowl, a birdy salt shaker, and 2 piggy lemons come to the rescue.

Otto, the robot and his mouse friend Pip come full circle in this pre-level one story about Pip wanting a balloon.When Otto shares his balloon with Pip, Pip floats away until  a sleeping Zee, the bee, flies into the balloon popping it. Otto comes to Pip’s rescue only to crash into a palm tree sending Otto and Pip down into a pond. There Pip points to the baby hippo’s balloon.

David Milgrim’s illustrations answer all of the questions the minimal vocabulary does not provide.