Here is a list of kids book reviews for for Spring, by our friends at Green Bean Books in Portland, OR. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please comment with YOUR favorite books for Spring 2013!
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit by Il Sung Na (BB $6.99)
Il Sung Na’s hippity-hoppity, migrating-goosey, snoozy-bearish Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit is now in board book form! A must have changing seasons book for the baby in your life! If you don’t already know Na’s crazy cute creatures from A Book of Sleep, you’re in for a wooly, bushy-tailed treat! Na paints the animal kingdom like nobody else–her ink and oil illustrations inspire “oohs” and “aahs” every time! There’s NA excuse for missing this one!
The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers (HC $14.99)
This playfully spine-chilling knee-slapper could have been titled The Uncanny Cottontail– there’s something eerily familiar about the shady, zip-lipped, long-eared character following regular rabbit wher’ere he roams. As day stretches into evening Black Rabbit looms larger and larger. “What do you want,” cries rabbit, trembling, “Why are you following me!?” Fleeing into the dark woods regular rabbit encounters a menace far more sinister than the cottontail on his tail–a big, BAD, HAIRY, wolf. Luckily wolf isn’t as bad his reputation suggests–wolf’s scared off by a mere…SHADOW! Who’s shadow hopped up just in the nick of time? Will rabbit ever lose his pursuer? Only story time will tell!
Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman (HC $16.99)
Who knew such a tiny giant panda could have such a gargantuan sneeze!? Chu wakes up with a tickley nose but he won’t let a little itch ruin his big day–a trip to the public library with mom in the morning, lunch with dad at The Moby Diner–which has a blue whale for a line chef–and finally an afternoon trip to the three ring circus with the whole family! What with the ruckus of horseback-riding antelopes, clowning piglets, and trapeze-crazy baboons, nobody takes note of Chu’s breaking news: “I think I am going to sneeze.” Chu’s “ACHOO” ricochets all over town–toppling circus tents, pommeling hungry badgers and water buffalo with gum balls at the diner, and blasting bookish elephants right out of the reading room at the library! “Oops,” says Chu. Adam Rex’s paintings are full of jokes to discover, and animals running amok! Rex is the perfect partner for the ever-wonderous Neil Gaiman and his silly and utterly un-goth new sneeze story!
The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne (HC $16.99)
Never has a boy acted more like a bubble! Sydney native Barnaby Brocket, born to the world’s most run-of-the-mill mom and dad, is simply incapable of obeying the laws of gravity! A horrible “accident” involving a hole snipped in Barnaby’s specialty sandbag backpack sends this brave young satellite spiraling off into the stratosphere. Barnaby’s rescued mid-flight by a pair of a hot air ballooning coffee farmers who grant him a little R&R on their land in Brazil. Barnaby visits the alarming New York art world, escapes from the villainous ring-master of a “freakitude” show, and even saves the day aboard a middle-space shuttle! Barnaby Brocket, illustrated by the inimitable Oliver Jeffers, is all about honoring the odd, the off and the out-of the ordinary. Boyne–author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Noah Barleywater Runs Away–is as clever and contemporary as ever!
