Louise Voce, Author, Joyce Dunbar, Author, Carol Thompson, Illustrator Candlewick Press (MA) $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56402-428-2
The sun shines over a bright, verdant meadow at the start of Voce's (illustrator of Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat ) energetic rendition of a familiar song. Each spread introduces both a number and an endearingly wide-eyed animal family,...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, James Dunbar, Author, James Dunbar, Illustrator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) $13.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-395-57580-2
The most popular word in the toddler vocabulary--``why''--gets a workout in this meager picture book offering. An inquisitive youngster asks his father a series of questions about the physical world around us, for example: ``Why is the moon so far...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Mark Edwards, Illustrator Interlink Books $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56656-309-3
Dunbar's (This Is the Star) evocative tale of a sand creature who comes to life in the dreams of a boy suggests a summertime version of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman. During a seaside camping trip, a boy and his father spend the day building castles...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Debi Gliori, Illustrator , illus. by Debi Gliori. Harcourt/Voyager $6 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-205247-8
The sweet floppy-eared rabbit siblings from Tell Me Something Before I Go to Sleep
here explore the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. In a starred review, PW
called it "a moving tribute to the ties that bind." Ages 3-7. (Mar.)
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Debi Gliori, Illustrator Harcourt Children's Books $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-202346-1
An oversize format and the intriguing juxtaposition of large and little make for a fetching picture book from the team behind Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep. Giant Baby Bear stumbles across a thimble-size ""something"" while playing in
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Debi Gliori, Illustrator Red Wagon Books $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-204756-6
An addition to the Lullaby Lights series, Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep: Night-Light and Book Gift Set by Joyce Dunbar, illus. by Debi Gliori, combines a miniature edition of the bedtime book first published in 1998 with a night-li
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Joyce Dunbar, illus. by Polly Dunbar. Candlewick, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-7577-6
Ten years after Shoe Baby, the mother-daughter Dunbars return with another baby-centric spin on a nursery rhyme. Never mind the late hour: there’s a rosy-cheeked baby chef in the kitchen—“a cookie baby/ a pat-a-cake baby”—and she’s ready to cook up...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Polly Dunbar, Illustrator , illus. by Polly Dunbar. Candlewick $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-2779-9
Joyce Dunbar (Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep
) teams up with her daughter Polly Dunbar (Dog Blue
) for a nursery rhyme–style romp. A cute and nearly baldheaded baby commandeers a fanciful red shoe and embarks on amazing...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Jane Cabrera, Author, Jane Cabrera, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1510-6
In a story both clever and wise, Dora the duck decrees that the following day will be ""eggday,"" complete with a competition for best egg. She tells Humphrey the horse to bring a ""horse egg,"" Pogson the pig a ""pig egg,"" and so on. Humphrey,...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Patrick Benson, Illustrator , illus. by Patrick Benson. Candlewick $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-4274-7
The Lostlet, the Strangelet and the Oddlet are three furry sui generis critters who wander a desolate beach, pondering the Big Questions: “What am I?”; “Where am I?”; “Who am I?” When a little boy—“stra
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Helen Craig, Illustrator Candlewick Press (MA) $9.99 (24p) ISBN 978-0-7636-0720-3
Panda gets worried when his best friend Gander writes an affectionate letter to a ""secret friend"" in a disarming installment of the new series Read Me: Panda and Gander Stories. Dunbar (The Sand Children, reviewed above) develops the contrast...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Debi Gliori, Joint Author , illus. by Debi Gliori. Harcourt $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-202564-9
Willa and Willoughby, the sweet floppy-eared rabbit siblings from Tell Me Something Before I Go to Sleep,
here explore the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. Very early one morning, Willa rouses her brother to make her breakfast, because &#
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Brita Granstrom, Illustrator , illus. by Brita Granström. Eerdmans $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8028-5260-1
A chick finds his true calling in this sunny-hued picture book about self-discovery and acceptance. Saturday is the most inquisitive chick in his family. He marvels at all the other creatures in the barnyard, wondering why he can't be like them...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Sophie Fatus, Illustrator , illus. by Sophie Fatus. Scholastic/Orchard $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-439-47431-3
As Dunbar's (Tell Me Something Happy
) brief story starts, the feathered title character—clad in a pink frock—stands atop a tree, calling out, "Love me! Love me! Love me!" Though her plea brings no answer, she wakes up Shut-Ey
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Carol Thompson, Illustrator Candlewick Press (MA) $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56402-551-7
Four slice-of-toddler-life vignettes, while perky and realistic, don't add up to a great deal in this slim volume. In the title tale, a spirited girl imitates her friend's antics until the two bump heads; they bounce right back and the girl suggests
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Russell Ayto, Illustrator Candlewick Press (MA) $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-0322-9
Ayto's (Mrs. Potter's Pig) comic verve sets this book apart from other entries in the baby-bird-learns-to fly genre. The hero, rendered in watercolor and ink, is an adorably goofy-looking fellow, with big anxious eyes, even bigger feet and a bright...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Gary Glythe, Illustrator, Gary Blythe, Illustrator Harcourt Children's Books $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-200851-2
An exquisite rendition of the Nativity, this work really is the star, a sure standout amidst the season's picture books. Blythe's (The Whales' Song) awe-inspiring oils interpret in photo-realistic detail Mary and Joseph's difficult journey and the...
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Joyce Dunbar, Author, Emilie Boon, Illustrator, Emilie Boon, Photographer Orchard Books (NY) $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-08335-2
Barney the Bear has a cake with five cherries. He says to himself, ""A fine little cake with five cherries on it will be just delicious.'' And he settles down to eat. But in the next pages, a mouse in a little paper boat, a bird in a tree and three...
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Joyce Dunbar, illus. by Petr Horácˇek. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0424-7
Duck is sulking and stomping around the farmyard with highly expressive orange feet. Her grumpiness is justified in one respect—the pond has dried up, so there’s no paddling—but otherwise it’s self-indulgent. She claims she has no one to play with,...
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