Mary Murphy, Author Candlewick Press (MA) $6.99 (24p) ISBN 978-0-7636-2307-4
Just right for board book, How Kind! by Mary Murphy received a starred review from PW upon its original publication in 2002: ""Streamlined compositions complement the straightforward message in this circular tale in which one good deed hatches...
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Mary Murphy, Author Harcourt Children's Books $11.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-200039-4
A cheerful little penguin enumerates the things he likes to do with his or her mother (or conceivably father) in this buoyant British import. Drenched in broad fields of reds, blues and greens, each spread shows the pair together, holding hands,...
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Mary Murphy, Author DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) $9.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7894-2471-6
The (almost) rude title belies the utter sweetness of this book about a puppy discovering the senses under the watchful, affectionate eye of its doggie parent. Murphy (I Like It When) manages to evoke the simple pleasures of the sound of falling...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5267-8
“You know, my Yummy One, the world is full of utterly lovely ones,” a spindly-legged blue crane tells her baby as they view the array of animals that surround them. In a syrupy monologue, she explains why each creature is “utterly lovely” (“[J]ust...
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Mary Murphy, Author, Mary Murphy, Illustrator . Candlewick $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-1732-5
Streamlined compositions complement the straightforward message in this circular tale in which one good deed hatches another (and another and another). Hen triggers a string of goodwill gestures when she gives her egg away to Pig. "How kind!"
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Mary Murphy, Author, Mary Murphy, Illustrator . Knopf $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-375-82347-3
Murphy's (How Kind!) laugh-out-loud, alphabetic flight of fancy recalls Michael Chesworth's recent witty Alphaboat. Here anthropomorphic letters use clever wordplay to outsmart a stern zookeeper-like caretaker (donned in drab overcoat, pumps
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Mary Murphy, Author, Mary Murphy, Illustrator . Candlewick $12.99 (24p) ISBN 978-0-7636-2122-3
With an animal cast so elated that they seem on the verge of jumping into readers' laps, Murphy (How Kind!) offer indisputable proof that a newborn is one of nature's most powerful mood enhancers. A fish leaps for joy: "I saw the baby!...
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Mary Murphy, Author, Murphy, Author, Mary Murphy, Illustrator Candlewick Press (MA) $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-2268-8
A gold-foil star adorns the cover (and final spread) of Mary Murphy's unjacketed picture book Little Owl and the Star: A Christmas Story. An adorably drawn owlet follows a star to witness the Nativity: ""What a happy, happy baby!"" he says.
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Mary Murphy, Author, Karrie A. Oswald, Editor Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) $5.95 (22p) ISBN 978-0-15-204625-5
First published as a picture book in 1997, PW called I Like It When... by Mary Murphy ""exceptionally warm."" Now, the story of a penguin child and her loving caregiver return in a board book format that sets off the economical text and bold...
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What's black and white and likely to be read all over? This cheery paper-over-board addition to Murphy's (Please Be Quiet!; My Puffer Train) canon of penguin books for toddlers. Here, a young penguin observes how the things in its life and...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $7.99 (14p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9059-5
Graduated pages reveal an ever-larger cast of animals in this lightly mischievous introduction to comparative sizes. Murphy starts with a small mouse, using ellipses to bring a whiff of tension to each page turn: “Mouse is small, and... Tortoise is...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6182-3
Chirpy adjectives and large flaps describe and reveal the ways that different animals kiss. In one scene, a large fish greets a little one: “A fish kiss is fizzy and bubbly... like this!” A flip of the flap unites the two fish in an aquatic kiss....
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $6.99 (16p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6022-2
A wide-eyed and enthusiastic yellow duck takes center stage in this unstuffy introduction to prepositions. “Quick, Duck! Out of the mud! Quick, Duck! Under the hedge!” writes Murphy, as her tiny hero, outlined in thick black ink and painted in...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6951-5
In this cheery companion to 2012’s A Kiss Like This, Murphy explores the sounds that six animals make (with a few extra cows and geese thrown in on the title page, complete with their own moos and honks). As in the previous book, a playful format...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $6.99 (16p) ISBN 978-0-7636-7372-7
An eager-eyed tan puppy asks six farm animals the question of the title before eventually finding its mother on the final page. The animals answer the puppy while introducing their actual children, who are hidden behind small flaps. “No, I’m a cow....
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-7970-5
Murphy follows A Kiss like This and Say Hello like This—animal-themed guides to affection and greetings, respectively—with a comforting peek at the bedtime rituals of
several species. Once again, half-page flaps create a sense of before and after...
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Mary Murphy, illus. by Zhu Cheng-Liang. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0940-2
In a lilting, lighthearted voice, a girl with neat black braids speaks to readers as she looks out her window: “I see the mailman at the red gate./ I see a blackbird in my tree/.... This window is what/ I like most in the world.” A page turn, and...
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Mary Murphy. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1470-3
Wonder and significance permeate this catalogue of the essence of natural things: “A tree has leaves that turn sunshine into tree food. Amazing!... Only a tree knows how to be a tree.” Wending from trees and dogs to birds and fish, and escalating up
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