Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Joy Ang.
Sometimes you just want a book that makes a kid belly laugh. From the moment Baby Billy makes his appearance, mustachioed from the get-go, Huck and Rilla were in stitches. As Billy grows, his mustache makes it easy for him to assume a variety of roles: cowboy, cop, painter, circus ringleader. But beware the toddler with a long, twirly, Snidely Whiplash mustache: you might have a wee villain on your hands. The surprise ending generated the biggest guffaw of all from my small fry. When Huck discovered the book had gone back to the library, he very nearly grew a bad-guy mustache on the spot. Don’t worry—just like Billy, he recovered his good-guy wits before any dastardly deeds were done. Mustache Baby will be making a repeat visit very soon.
Charm new words right out of your child with two clever readers and a picture book to spur them on.
Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking (Level 2), written and illustrated by Philippe Coudray,
Toon Books, $12.95, ages 4-8, 32 pages. In this adorable book of comic gags, a loopy bear looks at life from the far side. Benjamin Bear, a brown bear with a cute, saggy body, has an offbeat approach to problem-solving and is so comfortable in his own fur that he endears readers right away. In one strip, Benjamin is too nervous take a glider off a cliff so he promptly solves the problem by having a dog chase him off of it. In another, Benjamin happens upon a sliver of moon in the park and assumes that he must be hungry since he's skinny. So, he offers him fruit to make him
full. Here and there, a rabbit friend hops into a comic to bounce his humor off of or to keep him company. Every page is a new cartoon with four to seven panels. Some panels have conversation bubbles with short sentences and sound words; others are wordless, allowing for fast comprehension. Other great readers from the Toon library: Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner
The Big Non-NO by Geoffrey Hayes and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book Little Mouse by Jeff Smith.
Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie book), written and illustrated by Mo Willems,
Hyperion, $8.99, ages 4-8, 64 pages. Elephant is giddy with anticipation because he just bought himself an ice cream cone from a sidewalk vendor. But now that he's realized that he didn't get any ice cream for his best friend Piggie, he's stumped about what to do. Should he share his "awesome, yummy, sweet, super, great, tasty, nice, cool" cone with Piggie? Hmm, that's a tough one, especially now that Elephant is ogling it and looping his trunk around the cone like a snug scarf. There are, after all, some really good reasons for not sharing, he tells himself, trying to sound convincing. Like the possibility that Piggie won't like this flavor and the fact that Piggie isn't even there right now! But just as Elephant is about dive in and eat it, tender thoughts of his friend sneak up on him and he freezes: Suppose Piggie is somewhere all alone feeling sad? OK, now Elephant just has to find her and give her some of his ice cream. But has he waited too long? Fifteen books into the series and Elephant and Piggie are as irresistible as ever. Coming Oct. 4:
Happy Pig Day!
The Anthology Project Volume 2
Series editor Joy Ang has posted some images of the follow-up to last year’s The Anthology Project, and it looks as stunning a package as its predecessor.
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