Watch Out for Muddy Puddles!

March 1, 2018

PreS-K-Puddle jumpers will delight in this fun, adventurous tale. Vibrant horizontal and vertical spreads detail the excitement of what might be hiding beneath the surface of a puddle-lost soccer balls, frogs, underwater kings, and all types of unexpected things. The text warns readers to tread with caution-some puddles might be filled with crocodiles, transport you straight to another world, or be the home of a big, bad rubber ducky! The narrative has read-aloud appeal, despite some clunky scansion and a few forced rhymes. The bright, bold illustrations warmly reflect the over-the-top imaginative impossibilities of what may lie beneath the surface of a puddle. VERDICT Pair this appealing title with Anne Margaret Lewis's Puddle Jumpers or Richard Jackson's This Beautiful Day for a storytime that will make kids want to jump in their boots and head outside on a rainy day. Recommended for large picture book collections.-Brianne Colombo, Fairfield Free Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
A tiny tot likes puddles, but with so many things beneath the surface it might not be wise to splash in them.A white child (friends of other races join in group shots and background vignettes) with a mop of shaggy brown hair and red rubber boots is about to step into a puddle. On every page, readers can see what lies underneath. Sometimes it is fanciful: pirates or bearded merpeople playing water polo. But other times it just may be a crocodile waiting to snap (the crocs have dinner napkins comically tied around their necks, but their wide, toothy grins are still a bit menacing). One time the child even falls into a deep puddle (here the book requires that readers turn it 90 degrees to appreciate the puddle's depth): "You'll sink and sink / and go straight down-- / straight down through / the planet ... / tumbling past the / sandstone, / the fossils, / and the / granite." The most dreaded puddle of all is the one that contains "the BIG BAD rubber ducky." Avoid that one at all costs. Debut author Faulks falters on the rhythm and scansion at times and relies on the occasional sluggish word choice or two, but he doesn't lack in imagination. Contrary to the title, however, none of the puddles--or even any of the puddle-stomping boots--are muddy at all. Every preschooler in storytime will point that out.This may make children think twice about splashing, but hopefully it won't make them run screaming from the sidewalk every time it rains. (Picture book. 3-6)

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