Yuck! Stuck in the Muck by Corinne Demas, illustrated by Laura Rader.

Released in May 2006.

This is an beginning reader that has a nice sense of humor as well as a good plotline that is easy for early readers to follow.  It is the story of a dog that chases a duck into the swamp and gets caught in the mud.  One after another, animals and people try to save the dog, but each one ends up getting stuck too.  They are finally all saved by a helicopter that hoists them out.

I actually enjoyed the unexpected arrival of the helicopter.  It broke the rhyming pattern of the book, which is good for young readers, and it added some high tech interest.  The ending where the duck nests in the stuck truck is satisfying as well. 

Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod is an alphabet book perfect for kids who watch cartoons filled with superheros or those kids who play superhero all day long, in other words, most kids.  Author McLeod is a comic book artist who has worked on Superman and Spiderman comics.  This gives the book the feel of a real graphic novel or comic, not just a book paying homage.  Each letter of the alphabet gets a superhero that starts with that letter and then the page contains other comments about the hero that feature that letter.  It is cleverly done with lots of humor and even some gross moments that are perfect for the audience.

This is not one to share with a crowd, because kids will want to savor the heroes, discuss their powers and evaluate them.  So have this on your library shelves just waiting for the kid who doesn’t want a saccharine ABC book.  This one fits a perfect niche in every collection.