Who Wet My Pants? was written by Bob Shea and illustrated by Zachariah Ohora. The front cover says, “It’s not the crime… It’s the cover-up.” I found it shocking. No, not the crime. No, not the cover-up. What was shocking is the fact that you can use the borrowed-from-the-French-wholesale “vis-a-vis” in a children’s book! Apparently there is…
Stick and Stone, written by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Tom Lichthenheld, was published in 2015. It is the story of two lone creatures who become friends. Obstacles include a bully, a storm, and needing help. There are a few delightful language plays and a fun mathematical transformation.
I read Another by Christian Robinson. The inside front flap asks, What if you… encountered another perspective? Discovered another world? Met another you? What might you do? And then the book asks and answers that question using images only. At one point I wasn’t sure that the end had the right MC in it. Very cute.
The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach, was published in 2015. Adorable. I enjoyed the art. Improbable story made much more plausible than I would have believed possible at the end. Wonderful unreliable narrator. Apparently I have a thing for those, as Denver is a (slightly) unreliable narrator.
I read The Neighbors by Einat Tsarfati. Inside front flap: Climbing the stairs to her seventh-floor apartment each night, one curious little girl wonders what is behind her neighbors’ doors. Each door is totally different from the last, so she guesses that each apartment must contain a totally different kind of household. As she climbs higher,…
A Letter for Leo, by Sergio Ruzzier, was published by Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2014. The book is about an animal mailman who never receives mail. One day he rescues a small bird, that he raises, till the birds head north again. Then the rescue bird flies away. At the end, Leo receives a…
Ideas are All Around, by Philip C. Snead, a Neal Porter Book from Roaring Book Press, published in 2016, has several interesting features. The illustrations are small photographs and large drawings and single-colored images all mixed together to tell the story. That collage of styles is interesting and offers a very different visual than most…
What is Given from the Heart, written by Patricia C. McKissack and illustrated by April Harrison, was published by Schwartz and Wade, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, in 2019. With a young boy as narrator, this story follows a family from April to February, as the father dies, they lose their home and…
Truman, written by Jean Reidy and illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins, was published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 2019. The inside front cover reads: Truman the tortoise lives with his Sarah high above the taxis and the trash trucks and the number 11 bus, which travels south. He never worries about the world below…
I think of this book as Elephants Play. Ed and Kip, by Kay Chorao, is a Holiday House I Like to Read book, published in 2014. It is about two child elephants who are playing ball. They wake up a bug, who is not happy, and then instantly become friends. The jump there was a…
