Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie by Norton Juster, illustrated by Chris Raschka.

Return to the effervescent, colorful world that Juster and Raschka created in their award-winning The Hello, Goodbye Window.  Nanna and Poppy never quite know who is going to show up, Sourpuss or Sweetie Pie.  Their granddaughter can be either one.  At times she is kind, polite, respectful and a joy.  But at other times she is rude, angry, and hurtful.  This picture book looks with clarity and spunk at the temperament of a child and will be familiar to all children, all parents and all grandparents.

Raschka’s illustrations are just as evocative as in the first book.  They remain loose, brightly colored, and perfectly capture the emotions swirling through the book.  The pleasure of returning to these wonderful grandparents and their loving relationship with their creative granddaughter is particularly sweet.  Juster’s words capture the emotions of a small child with ferocity, delight and high contrast.  The book makes a great read aloud and will spark plenty of discussion about feelings and self-control.

If you loved the first book, you will adore this second outing.  This is a book to share with children, who will connect to it effortlessly.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

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.

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin, illustrated by Rosana Faria.

This is a remarkable book.  One that offers insight into what it’s like to be blind.  It is a book about colors that contains only the color black.  Each color has a separate page with glossy raised pictures that are meant to be touched, not seen.  White text accompanies these images, describing what you are touching. 

Here’s an example of the text from the "green" page:

He says that green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that’s just been cut. 

Lovely, isn’t it?  Each page is like that, offering different ways to sense color and experience it. 

I applaud Faria, the illustrator, for not only taking on a colorless project, but creating images that when touched as just as evocative as when seen.  When we finished reading this book, my sons started trying to read the braille alphabet and traded back and forth going over the dark images again and again.  There is something wondrous in this book.

Highly recommended for art classes, diversity units, and just for the amazement of the book itself.  Sure to start discussions and interest, this could be nicely paired with Helen Keller’s biography.  Appropriate for a wide range of ages because of the fascination inherent in the book.  This could be used with even middle school students successfully.