I Feel a Foot! by Maranke Rinck and Martijn van der Linden

This is a clever new take on the Blind Men and the Elephant story.  Here, five animals come across something strange on a dark night.  Turtle thinks it is a huge turtle because of the foot.  Bat thinks he feels a huge bat wing.  Octopus feels a long tentacle.  Bird feels a beak.  And finally Goat discovers a large goatee.  By the end, children will have figured out the animal easily, but the five animal friends are all surprised to find an elephant! 

The text and illustrations work perfectly together here.  The text is simple and great fun, though the tale has a timelessness about it, the text and dialogue have a modern, up-beat feel.  The illustrations really shine, especially against the dark background.  The colors are vivid and pop right off the page.  This is a perfect story time read for a large group because they will be caught in the mystery at first and the illustrations will project well to a big audience.

Highly recommended for story times, this would be a wonderful addition to elephant, turtle, bat, or even octopus themed programs!  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrated by Junji Koyose

Take the sweetness of baking a cake, mix it with construction vehicles, and populate it with charming tiny beings, and you have this book.  A family calls to order a birthday cake, and they spring into action.  The little people are about a quarter-inch tall as seen in scale with a stick of butter, so they need construction vehicles to make the cake.  Along the way, children will see the stages of baking a cake and will enjoy the fun and color of the tiny people using large machinery to do such easy work.

The illustrations are large and vibrant, but because of the small figures it is best to read this to one or two children at a time.  A large part of the fun is poring over the actions of the tiny people as they work hard to make this cake.  The illustrations make great use of white space and pops of color.  The story is secondary to the illustrations, and with few select words talks of the steps of baking.

Charming, delicious and clever, this book will appeal to all sorts of children.  From those who only want books with diggers to those who love to cook to the broad number of children who enjoy the tiny and interesting.  This book will zoom off of shelves all on its own.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.