Two Fun Books to Tuck in a Tote

A couple of books came out last month and I think they’re perfect for spring.

Odd Bugs: Meet Nature’s Weirdest Insects 

by Laura Gehl; illus. by Gareth Lucas 

22 pages; ages 2-4

Abrams Appleseed, 2026   

A few years ago I chatted with Laura Gehl about her book Odd Beasts. This one is the third in her series of “nature’s oddballs” and it’s about my favorite critters: bugs!

Odd Bugs presents eight insects, each with a particular adaptation. Among them is a moth with painted wings, and a caterpillar that stings. There are ants that weave with silken strands and a butterfly whose wings look like panes of glass. And then there’s the robber fly – a true thief. Even their babies steal from other insects!

What I like about this book: Using fun and playful language, each spread presents a single bug. Read aloud, page by page, it’s a single poem about the insects. My favorite part is at the end where Laura points out that we don’t have six legs or antennae or wings or any of the buggy attributes they do. So … who’s the real weirdo? What’s more, this board book has Back Matter! Two spreads present additional information and photos of each insect featured. Laura will be one of the guests at the Annual Arthropod Roundtable over at the GROG on Earth Day, April 22nd.  (Review copy from the author)

What's the oddest bug you've ever seen? 

A spiky caterpillar? 

A moth the size of  a hummingbird? 

This summer, draw pictures of the truly odd bugs you find around your neighborhood.

Big Brain Puzzles: Plant Pandemonium! 

created by Camille Pichon 

10 pages; ages 6 and up

Twirl, 2026

Flowers, butterflies, earthworms … all in puzzles that mix things up. Spin the dials on a lily pad, pull butterfly tabs, slide worm parts through the soil to match the challenges. Five puzzles times nine different ways to play makes a total of 45 different challenges – adding up to complete pandemonium! Great for logic and problem-solving. (Review copy from Blue Slip Media)

Have fun!

Let it Snow!

We still have a couple weeks before the official “first day of winter” but it can snow any time, so I want to share these fun books today.

theme: snow, snowflakes, STEM

Flurry, Float, and Fly!: The Story of a Snowstorm 

by Laura Purdie Salas; illus by Chiara Fedele 

40 pages; ages 4-7

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025

Clouds lie heavy, gray, and low. From down below, just one wish: Snow!

The kids are waiting, and waiting… they pull out the sled and sit on it and wait some more. Above, the sky is dark with clouds that look like they might bring snow. And above those clouds, the air currents, cold from the north and damp from the south, mix and swirl. “Water vapor clings to dust, begins to build a slushy crust.” From the endpages – autumn leaves at the front, snow at the back – to the rhythmic, rhyming language, this is one fun read-aloud!

What I like about this book: there’s a ton of science in this book, beginning with cloud formation. Readers will learn how a drop freezes and how water vapor clings, forming branches, and how those crystals begin to fall and collect into flakes. Back matter all about The Science of Snow, from the ingredients you need for a snowstorm to flake formation, accompanied by snowflake photos. 

Hello Snow (Board Book)

by Katherine Pryor; illus. by Rose Soini 

24 pages; ages 0-3

Schiffer Kids, 2025

Flakes flutter. Wind swirls.

Parents help two youngsters zip up into their outdoor clothes so they can greet the snow. They slip and slide, make snow angels, and roll snow into a friend. There is so much to explore outside in the cold.

What I like about this book: The rhymes are short and focus on sounds and action. Boots crunch, ice cracks. Activities are perfect for toddlers (and their adults!), and the bright colors bring life to a snowy page.

Beyond the Books:

Go snowflake watching. Make sure you’re dressed warmly and then go outside to watch snowflakes fall. What do they look like when you watch them looking straight ahead? What do they look like when you look up into the sky? Come up with words that show what you see.

Catch snowflakes. You’ll need to put some dark colored paper in the freezer a couple hours before. Then head outside and let flakes land. Some things to do: look at flakes through a magnifying glass; catch flakes at the beginning of the storm and later on to see if they have changed shape and size; try to count how many land on your paper in 10 seconds. 

Build a snowflake using materials at hand: legos, twigs, straws, or cut one out of paper. Remember the two rules of snowflakes: they have six rays and they are symmetrical. Here’s a video showing one way to cut a paper snowflake.

Make a list of five more things you can do to play with snow! Then go do them.

We'll be joining Perfect Picture Book Friday when it resumes after the holidays. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Spring is for Fox Stories

This is the spring for Fox books! My first post of the year was a book about foxes. And today I’m sharing a couple more.

theme: foxes, nature, animals

A Kit Story 

by Alison Farrell; illus. by Kristen Tracy 

22 pages (board); ages 2-4

‎Chronicle Books, 2022   

This is such a cute book for the little ones. It begins with a challenge on the first page: I am a fox. Do you see me?

The fox kit compares her speed to a hummingbird (slower), the amount of food she eats to a butterfly (way more), and how fierce she is (more than a rabbit). We see her at different times of the day, and through the seasons until, in the winter, she curls up in a ball with her family. 

What I like about this book:

It is fun to read aloud and compare yourself to a fox kit. And the text is simple enough that older siblings might be able to read it by themselves. This book is the second one created by Kristen and Alison. Last year they shared A Cub Story, which invites youngsters into the daily life of a young bear cub.

Sly As a Fox: Are Foxes Clever? 

by Marie-Therese Miller 

32 pages; ages 8-9

Kids Core (ABDO), 2022

You’ve probably heard someone say “he’s as sly as a fox” but… are foxes really sly and clever? That’s what Marie-Therese Miller explores in her book, one of a series comparing animal idioms (expressions) and the real-life animals.

The answer is a resounding YES! “Foxes find places to live and food to eat in resourceful ways,” Marie-Therese writes. “Foxes also outsmart animals that are hunting them.”

Focusing on the Red fox, she highlights their adaptations and discusses the types of food they eat. Like us, foxes are omnivorous, so they’ll eat a wide range of stuff – including berries and fruits planted in people’s gardens!  There’s a chapter that focuses on how foxes hunt, and a chapter that focuses on how they escape other predators.

The informative text is conversational and fun to read. Marie-Therese includes text-boxes to highlight specific adaptations or fox features and a section of “fox facts” at the back.

Marie-Therese is a member of #STEAMTeam2022, and it turns out that she’s not the only STEAM-teamer who contributed to the series. Matt Lilley, who you met in early February through his book on Krill, has written about Oxen and Mules. And Laura Perdew, whose books on the solar system I reviewed just last week, contributed books about smart birds and eagles to this series. If you like word play AND animal science, you can check out more about the series here.

Marie-Therese has written a whole slew of books. Find out more about her at her website.

You can find more about STEAM Team books here.

Beyond the Books

Make a paper bag fox puppet. All you need is a clean lunch bag and some crayons. Here's how.

Walk like a fox. When you look at fox tracks, you notice they are all in a line. And when foxes slink through the woods, they are silent. Here's how you can learn to walk like a fox.

Do you eat like a fox? Red foxes eat blackberries, grapes, apples, and acorns (nuts). They also eat fish, birds, and insects. Make a list of fox foods you eat. My list starts with tuna fish sandwich!

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Who's the Weirdest Animal of All?

Odd Beasts: Meet Nature’s Weirdest Animals 

by Laura Gehl; illus. by Gareth Lucas 

22 pages; ages 2-4

Abrams Appleseed, 2021

theme: animals, comparison, adaptation

This pangolin wears armor.

This book presents eight odd beasts, each with a particular adaptation. The pangolin wears an armor of scales. Nothing odd in that, right? Except: pangolins are mammals, and mammals have hair, not scales. Other creatures include a glass frog, a long-necked turtle, and a spider with two very sharp – and very long – horns.

What I like about this book: Each spread presents a single odd beast, with one sentence to introduce it. When read aloud, page by page, you realize it’s one long poem to the animals. And this board book has Back Matter! Two spreads present additional information of each animal featured in the book. I don’t often see back matter in board books, so I was kind of excited to find it in this book.

I had a couple questions for author Laura Gehl. Fortunately, she had time to answer them!

Me: How did you come to choose the eight animals you feature?

Laura: Choosing the “odd beasts” to feature was the hardest part of writing this book, because there are so many weird and amazing creatures to choose from. A poop-shooting caterpillar? A fish that looks like it’s wearing lipstick? A bat with a human-size wingspan? Those are just a few of the creatures I had to cut from my list. When narrowing down, I tried to choose creatures that swim, crawl, fly, and jump; creatures that would work well to illustrate; and creatures I could describe in simple rhyming verse. 

Me:  Did you originally write it as a board book? If so, can you talk about why, and how one structures a board book?

Laura: Yes, I did structure this as a board book originally. There are a number of wonderful picture books about odd creatures, but I thought board book readers would also find creatures beyond the typical pets and farm animals intriguing. Unlike picture books, which are usually 32 pages, sometimes 40 pages, board books do not need to be any specific length. I tend to write my board books as 10 spreads (20 pages), but that’s just personal preference.

Me: Back matter in board books is unusual. Can you talk about the back matter?

Laura: A reader might possibly think that the creatures in this book are too weird to be real. I mean…a frog whose skin is transparent, so that you can see right through to its organs? Having photos in the back matter lets readers see that these are real creatures. The extra information included with each photo will be interesting to parents, older siblings, and caregivers who read the book out loud. They can then choose to share some or all of that info with the board-book-age kiddos in their lives, based on age and interest.   

Beyond the Books:

Of all the animals you have seen, whether in a pet store, a zoo, or in the woods, which do you think is the oddest? Draw a picture of it or write about why it is an Odd Beast.

If a wild animal came upon you, how do you imagine it would think of you? Would YOU be the Odd Beast? What would make you weird to other creatures?

Laura has some free ODD BEASTS coloring sheets over at her website. You can download them here.

Laura is a member of #STEAMTeam2021. You can find out more about her at her website.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.