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40 pp.
| Dial
| October, 2015
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-4010-5$17.99
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
In these jaunty verses (with the occasional rhythmic hitch), the Mouse family moves into a human home and discovers Christmas. Glowing illustrations, featuring the Borrowers-like Mouse household, show how the mice create their own joyful celebration. A hidden item treasure hunt is an added bonus, though the answer key is located (inconveniently for libraries) inside the book jacket.
32 pp.
| Dial
| October, 2012
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-3579-8$16.99
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
When he wakes up to find his sidewalk shoveled, a young boy wonders if his snowman is responsible. He begins to contemplate all the jobs snow-folk might have. The clever rhyming text and cheeky illustrations add to this story's lighthearted appeal. Hidden images in each double-page spread painting are challenging and frustrating; the answers are on the back of the book jacket.
32 pp.
| Dial
| November, 2010
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-3383-1$16.99
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
On the chilly heels of Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas comes this fantasy, courtesy of a boy who imagines an entire year spent playing with a magically unmelting snowman. The visual variety (settings include a zoo, the beach, and an amusement park) is effective in helping to camouflage the occasional uninspired rhyme.
32 pp.
| Dial
| September, 2008
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-2878-3$16.99
(3)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
Queen Sophie is bored. She enrolls in a correspondence course with the Royal College of Beauty, then forces her subjects to let her practice on them--until they protest her cosmetic tyranny. The accompanying oil over acrylic illustrations deliver on the funny premise; farm folk and sheep alike are beehived and otherwise coiffed within an inch of their lives.
32 pp.
| Dial
| March, 2007
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-2939-1$16.99
(3)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
Skipping into the log cabin of the Three Bears comes a very active Goldilocks wearing red cowboy boots. Set in a Rocky Mountains-like wilderness, the illustrations (oil paints over acrylics) are filled with funny details and hidden animals. The jump-roping intruder speaks in rhyme, and the amusing art will hold children's attention, even those who've heard the tale before.
(3)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
When cat Cleevis teases him unmercifully, Dexter, a tiny dachshund, trains to be a superhero. Despite Dex's new rippling muscles and superdog outfit, Cleevis still laughs--until he gets stuck in a tree and must call on Dex for help. Only the hardest heart wouldn't cheer on Dex, and the humorous art capably depicts his determination.
40 pp.
| Dutton
| September, 2004
|
TradeISBN 0-525-46805-6$16.99
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
A night watchman at a train yard sings such lovely lullabies to the engines that neighboring mothers bring their babies to be sung to sleep. The linear perspective, heavy, rounded shapes, and dark palette suit the subject. The story is less successful--the plot is thin, and neither the trains nor Niccolini have enough personality to engage readers other than avid train fanatics.
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
In Buck's sentimental but satisfying Christmas story, first published in 1955, a boy gets up very early on Christmas morning to do his father's farm chores. Buehner's slightly rounded, stylized paintings, some of which are too dark, have at times a humorous feel at odds with the text.
32 pp.
| Fogelman
| September, 2002
|
TradeISBN 0-8037-2550-7$$15.99
(3)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
Upon noticing that a snowman appears disheveled the morning after being made, a child imagines what snowmen do at night--such as drinking ice-cold cocoa, skating, sledding, and playing baseball. Told in rhyme, the story is imaginative and fast paced, and the rich oil over acrylic paintings (which contain the artist's signature hidden shapes) are jubilant, energetic, and reflective of a mischievous mood.
(4)
PS
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
From one Pilgrim in a tree observed by two passing Wampanoag Indian girls to twelve "tables groaning / beneath a harvest spread," generally taut rhyming verse describes preparations for a shared first Thanksgiving feast. The book's message of embracing diversity is undercut by the generic quality of the faces herein (all beam and have identical features), but the conceit is affecting.
(3)
PS
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
A rhyming text shows how a monster mama lovingly combs cobwebs from bangs, takes her darling swimming in the swamp, and sings lullabies "of things that shriek and moan and creep." Buehner's lively illustrations are filled with suitably spooky details, yet the bright colors and humorous creatures keep the art and story light enough for preschoolers.
(2)
K-3
Illustrated by
Mark Buehner.
The essential cat, in all its haughty self-assurance, is brought to vivid life in this captivating volume that alternates haiku with longer, rhyming verses. Realistic oil and acrylic full-page paintings (striking enough that an invitation to find animals hidden in each page seems an unnecessary disraction) illustrate a book that holds its own int he cat-poetry category.
Reviewer: Nancy Vasilakis
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 1999
(3)
K-3
Following the quiz format of their manners book, 'It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel!', the Buehners' latest humorous lesson in good behavior asks readers to choose among answers a, b, and c for each scenario, and then find the letter of the correct answer hidden in the accompanying painting. Bonus fun comes from locating other hidden objects, such as a dinosaur-shaped stream and an ever-present bee.