Picture books, helping me get closer to Cannonball

I’m a Lot of Sometimes by Jack Guinan – The subtitle (A Growing-Up Story of Identity) is apt, the art work cheery and entertaining; the story, informative without being too preachy. Definitely fits into the “what the heck are feelings and what do I do with them” genre of picture books that’s essential if you’ve got younger kids.

Dojo Surprise by Chris Tougas – The dojo kids are each interesting and adorably drawn, and they get the best of the Master, which kids always enjoy (making adults look like dopes is always a plus to a kid, in a book or in real life). The words flow neatly and smoothly, and this is book three in a series of dojo books that’s probably worth checking out.

Clearful & The Queen by MJ Exon & Lillie English – Quirky and unique- like the word “clearful” itself- the story is brisk and off beat, about a word a three-year-old invented that has a lot of meaning, enough meaning so that the Queen herself must get involved.  Unfortunately my copy from NetGalley included no illustrations, but glancing on Amazon, I see that the charming story could only be enhanced by the sweet, pencil draft sketches I do see.

Princess Lemonella  by Saarein te Brake – This one I’m going to mark as “just ok” on Goodreads, but probably only because I thought it could have gone a step or two more out of where it was, to break the mold a little bit more. But that’s hard for a fairy tale to do, so I’m giving it it’s due credit here- Princess Lemonella was definitely an atypical fairy tale.  The princess is born with a sour face and disposition, you see, and all the princes come to try and woo her, and she’s not having it (too much effort on her part, not enough on theirs) until the day a prince comes who doesn’t put forth any effort at all, and has a sour face of his own… and somehow, the two sourpusses cheer each other up.  I guess the part I am hesitant about was the fact that the prince she winds up liking, Prince Pickle, just seems as not into the whole romance thing as she is, and yet the both wind up being into it? Over the course of a single page? Which… eh.  So: Just ok.  But look how lovely the sour baby face is:

All books in this review were provided by NetGalley, in exchange for honest reviews.