Arabella Miller's Tiny Caterpillar - Clare Jarrett

Dad

11 May 2026

Rating: 5/10

It's a perfectly nice book about a girl who finds a caterpillar. This is apparently a reference to a nursery rhyme but not one I'd ever heard of, and it doesn't actually follow the rhyme very closely as far as I can tell. It's very obvious what's going to happen, basically the whole way through, especially if you've read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That said, it ends with a page of facts about caterpillars and their metamorphosis and I like that quite a bit. Also, I dig the rhymes. The art is not my top art of all time, but that's ok. No doubt the failure to color within the lines is a style thing, right?

Earl the Squirrel - Don Freeman

Rating: 6/10 I like the art in this and the use of color is just great. The thing about bulls and red is a bit of a tired old trope, but I'm sure this was all legit when it was written. The story is a bit long

if you want to see a whale - julie fogliano

Rating: 7/10 This book is more of a poem with pictures than a book (maybe that's fine?). But it's not a poem that I particularly love. I like the art quite a bit, and it goes well with the words. Unlike Mom's immediate

The Puddle - David McPhail

Rating: 6/10 Great art. I liked the rhythm of the story and how it worked with the pictures quite a lot. It's a story about a boy who plays in/with a puddle. With his boat. The cover is a bit of a giveaway like that. But

The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats

Rating: 8/10 Sign me up for any book about a snowy day, that's my jam. And this book is certainly that! Great art, too, if this style does it for you (it definitely does for me). I definitely have fond memories of this book that are coloring

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Earl the Squirrel - Don Freeman

if you want to see a whale - julie fogliano

The Puddle - David McPhail

The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats