If your child loves nature and has a wild imagination The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis is the book for them! It's the story of a girl and her friend who say they're "going to Annie's house to play," but instead go fishing, all by themselves, "which wasn't allowed." Though on the lookout for newts they instead find a Bog Baby. They bring him home and create a habitat for it and love it to pieces until one day the Bog Baby doesn't quite look very happy and they worry about him and tell their mother about him, though up to that point they'd kept him secret. What follows is sweet resolution as they learn they must let it go back to where it belongs. The illustrations are adorable, the Bog Baby endearing. There's even a page in the back of the book where you can write about your own Bog Baby sighting. Your four-eight year olds will most likely love it as much as my girls who are now planning to find a Bog Baby themselves.


Not All Animals are Blue, A Big Book of Little Differences by Beatrice Boutignon is one of a kind. On every page is an illustration on the right and text on the left. The text refers to the illustration, giving several clues about each figure in the illustration and inviting listeners to interact with the pages of the book, watching and pointing throughout the whole thing. For example, on one page, entitled Five Gentlemen Showing Us Their Tails there are five animals sitting and the clues read: Who has a bushy tail? His tail is very elegant. Why is he a different color? Do they know what he's hiding? Doesn't his tail look soft? It's like a pompom. It's amazing how quickly the listeners pick out who each clue is about. The book was an unexpected treat and the kids really enjoyed it.