This Is Sadie is a really cute book about a girl with an active imagination. The lovely illustrations show us some of the things that she has been in her mind (mermaid, Mad Hatter, etc.), and some of her daily activities (reading, tree-climbing, pretending she has wings, etc.). Makes me miss being a kid! If there's one thing kids don't need to be taught, it's how to have an imagination, which is why this book feels like a celebration rather than a how-to.

(In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I was not required to write a positive review.)

Scrounged From: A LibraryThing giveaway

Format: Board Book
Author: Sara O'Leary
Illustrator: Julie Morstad
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Winter has its perks, but as a resident of New England I am more than ready for spring by the time it finally gets here! Here are some picture books to help celebrate spring, or at least to usher in its approach.

"Every year Mom and I plant a rainbow." Planting a Rainbow is a simple description of how a flower garden takes shape during the spring. The narrator and their mother plant seeds, bulbs, and seedlings in red, orange, yellow, even green (ferns), blue, and purple. Lois Ehlert's colorful illustrations focus solely on the flowers and dirt, and show as they grow from tiny plants to full-fledged blooms -- a lovely and colorful celebration of new life during spring!

Rechenka's Eggs, by Patricia Polacco, is a sweet Russion story of Babushka, a skilled egg decorator, who saves an injured goose one day. When the goose accidentally destroys her decorated eggs she is upset, but she finds that "miracles" can happen as "Rechenka" the goose begins producing beautifully decorated eggs all on her own! The illustrations here are detailed and colorful, showing us a few aspects of Russian culture, and an even sweeter surprise for Babushka at the end. This also makes a great Easter story.

For those of us for whom spring just can't come quickly enough, And Then It's Spring, by Julie Fogliano, perfectly captures the waiting and wondering that happens every year -- we plant our seeds and it's still brown, brown, brown... we wonder, is it really going to come? But then it does! Erin Stead's lovely pastel colors capture both the browns that seem to last forever, and the greens that finally come at the end of all that waiting.

Speaking of waiting for spring, Spring for Sophie shows us this wondering and impatience from a child's perspective. Sophie keeps asking her parents how she will know when spring gets there. They tell her to use her senses to observe the changes: the squishiness of the ground, the sounds of the birds, the rain that falls which finally turns everything green, and then maybe at that point spring will finally be there. 

Old Bear, by Kevin Henkes, is a short book about a bear who hibernates through the winter and has a fantastical dream about every season -- from fall-colored fish to giant flowers in spring. But then at the end he waskes up to discover that it really is spring, and time for him to come out. Also by Kevin Henkes, see Egg for some more lovely spring pastel colors.

The song He's Got the Whole World in His Hands was one of my favorites to sing as a child, but I never knew it was originally a spiritual.

Sometimes it's a nice change (and a lot of fun) to sing a picture book instead of just reading it, especially with small children. Kadir Nelson has created some wonderful images to accompany the song, focusing on a boy and his family as they interact with nature and with each other, creating a vision that reaches from the individual person to the planet as a whole. 

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Unknown
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson 
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Ada Lovelace has been my introduction to the Little People, Big Dreams series, books that tell short stories of the lives of people who changed the world for the better. 

This is a preschool-level take on the life of Ada Lovelace. We learn about how different (and somewhat absent) her parents were, but that Ada found ways to exercise both her logical and imaginative sides. She was taught math and logic, which was unusual for girls in those days, and eventually met with inventor Charles Babbage, leading her to develop the first computer programming code.

It's a fascinating story that is good for young children but also encourages additional reading about an important historical figure, especially since the text here is sparse. There is a somewhat longer informational page at the end, and also a few book recommendations, which are helpful.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Illustrator: Zafouko Yamamoto
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: The text mentions briefly that Ada's father left when she was young.

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My kids have really enjoyed Leslie Patricelli's bright-colored board books, featuring a smiley, almost-bald baby who experiences holidays, helps demonstrate some simple concepts, and expresses love for some popular baby objects (blankie, binky). I can see why these books appeal to toddlers, with the simple words, exuberant baby, and textured color on the pages. Surprisingly, even my four-year-old enjoyed them, when I thought he was "beyond" these kinds of board books. Here are five of our favorites so far (but there are many!):

BIG Little compares the sizes of different (often related) things, with the repeated phrase "_____ are big, ______ are little." Things such as heads vs. toes, boats vs. rubber duckies, and ladies vs. ladybugs. At the end is a two-page spread featuring more big things and more little things that a toddler might recognize.

Binky is probably one of the books we've checked out of the library the most. It's a very simple search for a lost binky -- the baby looks in all kinds of places, like in a cereal bowl and under the rug, then begins asking family members before having a meltdown. My toddler gets especially happy when, at the end, the baby finally finds the binky in the crib -- "just where I like it best." Even though my kids never used binkies, they can still identify with the frustrations of losing a special object and not knowing how to find it, so they especially like the happy ending. My daughter has even decided that "Binky" must be the baby's name.

Quiet Loud is a cute comparison of related things that are quiet and loud. It's fun to read the first part in a quiet voice and then raise my voice a bit for the loud comparison. Some examples are "Snow is quiet. Rainstorms are loud." "Birds are quiet. Airplanes are loud." The last two pages contain several more examples on each page of quiet and loud things. The book doesn't make judgments about whether loud things are good or bad, but if I ever do need to ask my kids to do something quiet, this book helps to give them some examples!

No No Yes Yes is a nice, gentle way to demonstrate things that are not good to do, contrasted with the positive, correct way to do those things. For example, one "no no" is running away from Daddy -- the "yes yes" is holding hands while walking. Another "no no" is dumping water out of the tub, while the "yes yes" shows the baby dumping out water in the tub. The illustrations serve as the explanation -- the only words on the pages are "no no" and "yes yes," but I will usually add some explanations here and there. Sometimes these kinds of books make me worry that they'll introduce bad behaviors that children haven't thought of yet, but this one seemed pretty basic and familiar.

Again with very simple text (primarily just "Higher! Higher!"), this book introduces what appears to be either a new character or an older iteration of the almost-bald baby. The little girl's father is pushing her on the swing, and the higher she goes, the more amazing heights she reaches -- from as high as a giraffe to a skyscraper, and airplane, and even outer space where she meets an unusual creature. Fantastical, but fun. Along a similar vein is Faster! Faster!.