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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

Arabella Miller's Tiny Caterpillar - Clare Jarrett

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

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Judi Barrett

Rating: 9/10 As always when possible, I want to give the art a shout-out. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Also really appreciate that "it was all just a story", and that was up-front and it still was great. Just a fun story, and the writing was

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog - Mo Willems

Rating: 3/10 Well, the whole story is in the title, and not in a great way. The pigeon finds a hot dog. There's also a duckling who wants it, and maybe is a little clever about trying to eat it. There's no spoilers in this,

How to Catch a Star - Oliver Jeffers

Rating: 8/10 As always, I'm a big fan of the author's art. And I think it's a reasonably good story, very typical pacing for him (in a good way!). The ending was solid, I spent the whole time wondering how he'd

Kitten's First Full Moon - Kevin Henkes

Rating: 7/10 A nice book. Obviously you know more than the kitten does, and I think books like that where the reader has perspective the characters lack are a good start. And I think in general, it does pretty well with it. Nice art. The ending is predictable, that&

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Scieszka

Rating: 10/10 I love this book, it's so much fun. Obviously you have to know the fairy tales to really enjoy it, but my fond memories of checking this out of the town library as an elementary school student were totally validated. In fact, I think it&

The Runaway Bunny - Margaret Wise Brown

Rating: 9/10 I like this book a lot! The story is great fun, I love the little escalations and one-uppings. And a nice little ending. The art is definitely something special, find the bunny on every page.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? - Eric Carle

Rating: 7/10 Ah, you know, this one doesn't really do it for me. I do enjoy the art quite a lot, and the "plot twist" at the end is amusing enough, especially since I'd totally forgotten it in the 30-ish years since I