Doug Cushman

Fabulous satire of detective noir novels and films. Both my kids thought this book was funny and liked the illustrations of the elephants in particular. At the same time, this is so enjoyable for parents who have read Chandler or even just saw The Maltese Falcon.

First sentence: Where are you going, Rex? I am going swimming. Come with me. Will we be cold? It is a hot day.

Premise/plot: Rex, a warthog, "teaches" his (oh-so-reluctant) friend, Oslo, an oxpecker, how to swim. Oslo has zero interest in learning to swim. NONE. Rex thinks Oslo should want to learn to swim. He's just as insistent as Oslo is resistant. Will Oslo learn to swim?

My thoughts: I was underwhelmed. Granted I am not the intended audience for this one. Granted I overthink things. The show more over-thinker in me is like why does Oslo *need* to learn how to swim? Why does it matter so much to Rex that Oslo learns to swim just so they can swim together in the future? Like isn't Rex being just a little too pushy if he's a good friend? Why should Oslo have to do something just because his friend wants him too. Isn't this just peer pressure? But I overthink things apparently. show less

Four mice are in charge of delivering valentines to all the woodland creatures. Along the way, one of the mice goes missing! Can the other three find him?

This is a fun book to share with young readers (preschool-first grade would probably be best), even if it only touches on Valentine's Day slightly. There's a lot of energy on every page, with illustrations of the feisty mice and short, quick sentences that come at a rapid pace. Many of these simply use a single verb - throw, hop, slide, show more glide - so that you can turn the reading of this book into a movement activity as well, provided that you have an audience of children who can listen well enough to know when to stop wiggling and return to the text. Even if you don't do that, the energy of the book is bound to come up as you read the text in an excited voice, making this a good book for those less attentive listeners. show less

A porcupine invites an owl and an otter to a slumber party. They make themselves slightly sick eating dough while baking cookies. When they go to bed directly after watching a scary movie, they each get a turn being afraid of monsters in the dark.

I found all the above quite boring, but my daughter liked it well enough when she was three.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: The Invitations -- Baking Cookies -- Monster Bat -- The Scariest Thing

Rated "Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod; rated show more "Good" by Adelia. show less