Crinkle, Crackle, Crack

February 1, 2015
Bauer's imaginative first-person romp puts (some) readers right into the story, inviting them to journey with the animals in the moonlight to welcome spring. Under the eaves of a homey (and nicely untidy instead of spic-and-span) house, "you," pictured as an androgynous blond, Caucasian child, are startled by some noises and must investigate. Stepping outside, you meet a bear who says, "It is time....Come with me." You are kept wondering what it is time for as more noises follow the first ones, and animals and plants and even the breeze join the bear's chorus that it is indeed time. Curiosity battles fear as more and more animals join the hand-in-hand parade to an unknown destination, the noises growing ever louder. Readers may start to feel their own curiosity fading in the lengthy setup to an over-too-quickly climax: A gigantic egg cracks open to spill out all things spring. Still, the text is at times lyrical and calming: "Cold mud sucks at your feet. / The moon is ice. / Even so, traveling with a bear / is rather nice...." Shelley's India ink-and-watercolor illustrations are charmingly detailed if ethnically limiting in their representation of "you." His animals are gentle and friendly, and the forest is a wonderfully textured place that harbors nothing scary. A new perspective on the "arrival of spring" theme best suited to blond, pink-skinned readers. (Picture book. 4-7)

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March 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 2-Wakened by strange sounds on a late winter night, a child ventures to the door and sees a bear standing in the yard. The shaggy animal issues an invitation to follow saying, "It is time." As they venture into the woods, they listen to the sounds around them and the bear insists that the time is right, but for what? Breezes and buds echo the refrain as do a rabbit, squirrel, and beaver that join the snowy walk. Their destination? A huge nest topped by a gigantic egg that bursts open with a tremendous "crack" and releases a shower of birds, flowers, and butterflies to usher in spring. The twisted branches and gnarled roots of Shelley's trees recall the illustrations for Halloween Forest (Holiday House, 2012), a previous author/artist pairing. But these India ink and watercolor illustrations, including the fuzzy woodland animals, are inviting, not scary. Bauer's text flirts with rhyme and repetition that could have created read-aloud engagement but settles for prose that yields no surprises. VERDICT An adequate but not essential purchase for collections whose readers need a glimpse of spring as winter drags on.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

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April 1, 2015
Preschool-G It's anything but quiet this winter's night. A child wakens to an assortment of sounds crunch, scrunch and, upon getting up to explore, finds a bear outside the door. Come with me, he says, and with that, they, and the reader, go on a dreamy moonlit ramble. Buds on the trees, the breeze, the bear all say, It is time. Especially charming pen-and-ink with watercolor illustrations contrast the cool colors of winterblue, gray, whitewith warm tonesbrown, sepia, redthat increase as bear and child walk. Rabbit comes out of his burrow to join them, as do other woodland creatures. The easy rhythm, the onomatopoeia, and the repeated refrain, It is time, build anticipation until the group finds a gigantic egg! Crinkle, crackle, CRACK! Spring erupts as if hatching fully formed in a colorful array of flowers, grass, butterflies, birds, and animals. Great for reading aloud and just right for springtime story hours, this is a fanciful version of how dramatic the change of season can sometimes seem.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)