(4) PS Illustrated by Steven Kellogg. "Big forests / Love little trees / Big fields / Love little flowers..." Krauss's rhythmic text, originally published as Big and Little in 1987 and illustrated by Mary Szilagyi, is newly illustrated with Kellogg's lush, detailed paintings. The spare text leaves room for children to imagine meaning, but Kellogg's art is a bit too literal for that to work.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) PS Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. As a little boy watches his puppy and chicks, he can see they're getting bigger. What's harder to observe is his own growth--until he takes out his winter clothes from the previous year. Oxenbury's soft watercolors breathe new life into this sixty-year-old story. The boy is depicted as curious, pensive, and ultimately joyous when he discovers, "I'm growing too."

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Marc Simont. "A little boy woke up one morning and got out of bed. He said to himself, 'Today is backward day.'" Walking backward down the stairs, he says goodnight to his family. The silliness is enhanced by Simont's bold three-color illustrations showing everyone playing along. The universality of Krauss's work assures that a new generation will want to celebrate backward day.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 1950

(2) PS Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. In Sendak's exploration of the line between fantasy and reality, the jacket, pre-title page, and title page set up a book-long chase between a boy (the image of Max in his wolf suit) and his kidnapped teddy bear through crowds of life-sized bears. Broad spreads, upfront composition, simplicity of rendering, and pacing suit this to the very young. The hide-and-seek romping offers much to discover.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2005

(3) PS Illustrated by Crockett Johnson. A blue egg ("It couldn't walk. It couldn't sing. It couldn't fly. It could just get sat on") is eventually hatched by a patient bird, and the baby bird walks, sings, and flies away. The circular ending is completely satisfying. The minimal text and simple pictures make this story just right for three-year-olds to memorize and "read" to themselves over and over.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz

(3) PS Illustrated by Jane Dyer. Dyer's sweet art is a fine match for Krauss's bedtime rhyme in this re-illustrated and re-titled edition of Eyes Nose Fingers Toes. Young listeners will enjoy the large, gently humorous illustrations of a cherubic-looking toddler tucking her doll and stuffed animals into bed for the night.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(3) PS Illustrated by Mary Blair. A large-format jacketed hardcover, this "deluxe" edition of a Little Golden Book features an imaginative little girl imitating a host of animals: "A cow can moo. I can too. / I can squirm like a worm. / I can grab like a crab." The illustrations are just as energetic as the book's heroine.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz

(2) PS Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. A little boy knows just what a Very Special House should be. It would have a bed to bounce on, a table ("very special where to put your feet feet feet"), and it would be a place to bring any friends--a lion, a giant, some monkeys. Best of all, it would always suggest "MORE MORE MORE"; "NOBODY ever says stop stop stop." The exuberant drawings running over each page are made for lingering looks and chuckles.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc. | Horn Book Magazine Issue: December, 1953

(2) PS Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. In dreamy, childlike prose, Krauss describes Charlotte's love for her colt Milky Way--spring comes, Milky Way grows, and Charlotte's father wants to sell him. The father relents when Charlotte pleads for the horse. Sendak's illustrations, some of their colors deepened for this new edition, add to the mystique with their antique tints and curious outside-in perspective.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: October, 1955

(3) PS Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Brought to life by Sendak's watercolors, Krauss's understated text voices an imaginative plan for re-doing the colors that surround the young narrator, from painting the ceilings green to making "a house like a rainbow." Without rhyme or fixed meter, the poetic words might be mannered were they by a less accomplished writer.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) PS Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Though Krauss and Sendak have had many imitators, their work in this reissue often holds the line against the sentimentality these imitations display. Krauss's whimsical text consists of maxims a child--a very cerebral child--might espouse ("A baby is very convenient to be"), and Sendak's line drawings of children realize and extend those maxims happily.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. In short poems, plays, and songs, Ruth Krauss displays an uncanny ability to capture the language of childhood: "I love the sun / I love a house / I love a river / And a hill where I watch / and a song I heard / and a dream I made." Sendak's pen-and-ink drawings enhance and amplify the minimal text in this welcome reissue.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: December, 1954

(4) K-3 Originally published as 'The Bundle Book', Krauss's text has been re-illustrated and retitled. The text is reassuring and cozy--a small child hides under a blanket and the mother repeatedly guesses what the bundle might contain. The illustrations are soft and romantic, printed on nursery-yellow paper with a pastel palette and a blue-eyed "Gerber baby." The text is charming and realistic, but the artwork is sentimental.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.