(2) K-3 The Fright Club monsters are cooking a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. But what to do when vampire Vladimir's family shows up unexpectedly? Invite them in! Except...Aunt Bessy complains about garlic mashed potatoes, Uncle Gus electrocutes the turkey, etc. Digitally colored graphite-pencil illustrations amp up the humor and cast the nocturnal spooks' preparations in a suitably dim light. The simmering tension eventually boils over, before a "do-over" meal the next day.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2018

(3) K-3 I Like to Read series. Horse loves to dance, even without music; Buggy, a small bug, does not. But when Horse challenges Buggy to dance and then pumps some tunes ("What a fun song!"), Buggy and Horse boogie down until Horse tires out. Horse and Buggy's back-and-forth dialogue is simple and funny, as are the cartoon illustrations, which depict Horse doing the tango, the Charleston, the robot, and more on brightly colored backgrounds.

Reviewer: Mariko Turk

(2) PS Redd (a furry, bespectacled monster) and Bloo (a buck-toothed, egg-shaped bunny) learn a lesson about sharing and teamwork the hard way; they squabble over the ownership of a book but then must work together to get it back from Bookworm. Redd and Bloo are distinctly illustrated, and each receives a unique (handwritten) font; photographed real-world items (markers, scissors, etc.) provide refreshing visual pop on nearly all-white backdrops.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2017

(4) K-3 Mom has made her "Famous Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Buttercream Icing" for NaNa's birthday. Even though he knows he shouldn't, her son Snickerdoodle can't resist tasting just a crumb...and the tiny taste leads to disaster. What can the cartoon rabbit family do to fix their problem? This story starts out entertaining but is ultimately very slight.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(3) K-3 Rather than practicing scaring sounds with his ghoulish buddies from Fright Club, Fran K. Stein cuts out pink heart shapes, and his grossed-out friends, via speech-bubble dialogue, wonder why. Eventually, the adorable, digitally colored graphite-pencil illustrations reveal Fran stargazing with his (Bride of Frankenstein–looking) sweetheart as he reflects on the true definition of love. Long's latest is unique, surprisingly thoughtful storytime fare for Valentine's Day.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) K-3 When his friends Tiger and Bear keep trying to play with him, Lion takes increasingly extreme measures to be left alone to work on his painting. When he finally finishes, his masterpiece is--surprise!--a portrait of the three friends, who return to playing together. Expressive faces, frequent speech bubbles, and gentle humor make the emotional lessons offered here accessible.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 I Like to Read series. Two children demonstrate the talents of their portly cat. Cartoon-style illustrations illuminate the truth behind the text's straightforward assertions ("Big Cat can hide. Big Cat can dance") with Big Cat's expressively disgruntled face and body language. The simple sentence structure and repetitive vocabulary, paired with illustrations that both support and humorously undermine the text, make this an excellent selection for beginning readers.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 I Like to Read series. Pug wants to go on a walk to see doggie friend Peg, but none of Pug's human owners wants to go out in the snow. This simple story of friendship is told through nicely minimalist text, with repetition and short sentences of easy-to-sound-out words creating a perfect scenario for new readers. Humorous digital illustrations fill in details and provide some depth.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth

(4) K-3 After her students attempt to spell a word, Ms. Spell produces the answer through magic (e.g., "Chicken lips and earthworm hair, / spelling stick, please show us their!"). Thwarting this clearheaded book's mission to elucidate is its chaotic presentation: the cartoonish art features panels, dialogue balloons, asides to the reader ("They're is a contraction that means 'they are'"), and more.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS In this easy-to-read story, a chicken, goat, pig, and cow jump in, on, and over coops, fences, and tractors on a farm. Winner of a Geisel Award for the preceding Up, Tall and High, Long uses silly situations, well-placed liftable flaps, and bold illustrations (filled with thick lines and cartoonish characters) to offer a highly engaging lesson on directional prepositions.

Reviewer: Sian Gaetano

(2) K-3 The first rule of Fright Club: don't talk about Fright Club. The next rule? Only the truly scary can be members. Discrimination! cries a bunny, who wastes no time seeking representation, then organizing a demonstration along with a butterfly, ladybug, turtle, and squirrel. It's a funny Halloween concept that delivers through Long's spry text and cartoony, digitally colored (though sparely) graphite-pencil illustrations.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2015

(3) K-3 They're baaaack--and that's a good thing. The five birdbrained duck brothers return to present three different "amazing feats" of geometry. Each feat features W-centric alliteration and Looney Tunes–esque slapstick via cartoony panels. One feat is not for the fainthearted: when Walter participates in "Partitioning Rectangles into Two and Four Equal Shares," he ends up in four equal wedges.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Michael loves his oversize mouse friend, Bo, but finds his attachment and needy behavior challenging. Ultimately the duo creates a five-point contract setting limits such as "The bathroom is not a play area" and "We both sleep in our own beds." The story is didactic, but zany cartoon-style vignettes back up the narrator's exasperation at the attention-demanding, mess-making behemoth.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) K-3 Five wacky ducks, a.k.a. the Wing Wing brothers, compete at a strength test, battle it out in a hot-dog-eating contest, and ride (and break) a Ferris wheel--all while illustrating math concepts: counting, adding, and subtracting by tens. Although the alliteration of W words verges on overkill, there's plenty of humor in the silly yet clear text and comic book–style pictures.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) K-3 It's karma: in her second (and superior) vehicle (Chamelia), the stage-hogging chameleon is outshone by a new classmate. Cooper is a great artist, a great athlete, and, as the snappy digital-collage art makes clear, a great dresser. Show-and-Tell Day means a showdown but leads to a breathtakingly unexpected change of heart: Chamelia realizes that sometimes "being the best felt the worst."

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Beaver Milo can't sleep. His would-be soporifics--reading in bed ("MAX! Wake up! My lamp is broken"), a drink of water ("SLURRRRP!"), etc.--rouse his brother, with whom he shares a bedroom. Guess who nods off first? The brothers' clashing is utterly predictable but also utterly perfect, thanks to the expert pacing and clever sight gags presented via cartoony panels.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS Beaver Max has a crush; brother Milo is there with advice ("You can't just give her a boring letter. You need a plan..."). Max rejects Milo's hilariously outsized ideas, and a "boring letter" ultimately works, albeit one of Milo's devising. As in Max & Milo Go to Sleep!, the Longs make odd-couple brotherly tension and clean cartoony art a winning combination.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) PS In simple rhymes, one fly in a delicious bowl of soup begrudgingly counts as he is joined by nine uninvited insects ("Shoo, fly, shoo! / It's not for two!"). A hungry lizard arrives, but it's finally a spider who ends up satisfied. The illustrations are an awkward pairing of bug-eyed cartoony insects and photo-like images of the soup bowl.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(3) PS Several birds star in three minimal comic tales, all about being the tallest or the highest; the text, via dialogue bubbles, couldn't be simpler. Flat, creamy colors on thick pages (some feature flaps) introduce a flock that's ditzy-looking but endearing: competitive as they are ("I am tall" / "You are not tall!"), the birds' friendship prevails ("We'll help you up!").

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS I Like to Read series. Pig wants to nap, but "Hen wants to saw. / Cow wants to gab," and so on. They're noisily planning a party, and it's party supplies that save the day--straws become a snorkel, and Pig falls asleep deep under the mud. But not for long--the birthday celebration is for him! Cartoony animals add humor to the short, declarative sentences featuring familiar words.

Reviewer: Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan