Review of The Littlest Drop, by Sascha Alper, illustrations by Jerry Pinkney & Brian Pinkney

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Littlest Drop

by Sascha Alper
illustrations by Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

Anne Schwartz Books, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This picture book retells a folk tale the author originally heard from the environmentalist Wangari Maathai. Brian Pinkney tells us that his father had left behind sketches that were almost complete, but he hadn’t started painting yet. Brian lovingly completed them with a result that’s a beautiful combination of both of their styles.

The story is of a hummingbird who lives in “a vast, beautiful land that was a home to all of the animals.” After she builds her nest, a spark starts a fire not far away.

All the animals flee to the river and huddle frightened by its side. But the hummingbird wants to do something.

And so the hummingbird flew to the river and filled her tiny beak with just the littlest drop of water, for that was all that it would hold.

When the other animals tell her she’s too small to put out the fire, she answers, “I am doing what I can.”

And that prompts the elephant to do what she can. And soon all the animals are working to put out the terrible fire. And the last drop that puts out the fire comes from the hummingbird.

It’s a lovely tale about each of us doing our bit. Who knows? You may inspire others to all work together to help everyone.

justjerrypinkney.com
brianpinkney.net
rhcbooks.com

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Review of Fish Fry Friday, by Winsome Bingham and C. G. Esperanza

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Fish Fry Friday

written by Winsome Bingham
illustrated by C. G. Esperanza

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 44 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Fish Fry Friday strikingly reminds me of the Caldecott Honor Book My Daddy Is a Cowboy, with pictures by the same illustrator. Both books feature a little girl rising before dawn to go on a special outing with a relative. Both have vibrant, bright, colorful pictures, many at nontraditional angles, showing happy, loving people interacting.

In this case, the girl is setting out with Granny to catch fish.

There are plenty of other people at the pier and they all greet Granny enthusiastically, telling the girl that her Granny is the fish magnet queen.

And then they start catching fish after fish. Granny declares each one her favorite and thanks God for the blessing.

After their bucket is full, they go home to prepare for the Friday night Fish Fry.

We clean fish,
scaling and skinning,
cutting and gutting.

And when that’s done, Granny slowly slides the knife from the top to the tail. “Beautiful fillets,” she says, shaking them. “My favorite.”

They coat the fish in batter, fry it, and even make hush puppies. Each part is Granny’s favorite. And it all builds to a big, happy family, in bright colorful clothes, sitting around the table, happily enjoying each other.

“Spending the day with you, baby,” Granny says,
“is my favorite, favorite, favorite part!”

“Well, my favorite, favorite, favorite part,” I say,
“is eating fried fish with you on Fridays.”

Reading this book with a kid may just end up being someone’s favorite. Few books exude so much joy.

binghamwrites.com

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Review of The Polar Bear and the Ballerina, by Eric Velasquez

Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 1

The Polar Bear and the Ballerina

by Eric Velasquez

Holiday House, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written November 12, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Wordless picture books are hit or miss with me, because it’s not always clear what’s actually happening. And they’re not easy to use in story time. But this one is a grand slam.

The book opens with a group from Harlem Children’s Ballet at the zoo, taking photos in front of the polar bear’s tank. They pose as the giant polar bear swims behind them. One girl has a long red scarf streaming out behind her.

After the other kids move on, the polar bear and red scarf girl have a moment through the glass. She lingers, but has to head to the performance. She doesn’t notice that she has left her red scarf trailing on the floor behind her.

The polar bear notices, though! In a double-page spread with extra panels, we see the bear climb over the fence lining his enclosure and go around to the entrance of the park to go in and get the scarf. He puts on the scarf and makes his way uptown.

There’s a sign on the ticket booth: SOLD OUT! NO POLAR BEARS ALLOWED!

But the girl hears his growl in response and comes running. She gets her scarf from him and brings him to a seat in the auditorium.

And then the girl dances, with a photo of the bear behind her. He is enraptured.

Afterward, he gets to take the scarf back home with him, and he dreams about his new friend.

And it’s all done so beautifully. The graceful lines of the dancers and the sheer size of the bear stand out. My favorite is the page of the bear stealthily getting out of his cage. Or no, wait – it’s probably the spread of the girl gracefully dancing.

There are facts about polar bears at the front and facts about the ballerina at the back. This picture book left me smiling.

ericvelasquez.com

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Review of Zip Zap Wickety Wack, by Matthew Diffee

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Zip Zap Wickety Wack

A Story About Sharing

by Matthew Diffee

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 48 pages.
Review written October 24, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This absolutely brilliant picture book makes me want to do story times again.

I’ve always loved books that subvert animal sounds. The classic Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer, was one of the first books my kid could read. And I loved to bring out The Cow That Went Oink, by Bernard Most, for story times. Zip Zap Wickety Wack reminds me of Froodle, by Antoinette Portis, which was a big hit when I gave it to my nieces. [Look at that! Froodle was also edited by Neal Porter. No wonder the similar brilliance.]

In this case, the book begins very deadpan. Completely traditional pictures and standard text tell us:

The cow says, “Moo.”
The horse says, “Neigh.”
The sheep says, “Baa.”

Could have been written in the 1950s! Except on that very same page, the goat is looking up at the sheep picture above him.

The goat says, “Wait a second. I say baa.”

So there’s an argument. They don’t want to share.

They start thinking of other things they could say, but oink, quack, cockadoodledoo and ribbit are already taken.

So the sheep declares that he will think of something that no one has ever said. He does a lot of thinking and then gets a full spread declaring:

“Zip Zap Wickety Wack
Bing Bang Walla Balla
Flip Flap Yackety Yack
Wing Ding Dilly!”

See why I want to read this book in story time?

But the book is only beginning to get silly at this point, because on the next spread we see a very small flying saucer coming to the farm. The alien inside says:

I hate to be a bother, but zip zap wickety wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack wing ding dilly is what I say. Why don’t you just wiffle?”

It turns out that wiffling is alienese for sharing.

And how they work it out is still completely deadpan and utterly hilarious.

And kids learn about sharing at the same time!

Trust me, you’ll want to find this book, and if you can read it without reading aloud, you have more self-control than I do.

matthewdiffee.com

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Review of Cat Nap, by Brian Lies

Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Cat Nap

by Brian Lies

Greenwillow Books, 2025. 48 pages.
Review written October 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Fun fact: I met Brian Lies, because he won his Caldecott Honor for The Rough Patch in 2019, the year I was on the Newbery committee. So I met him at a pre-awards reception and got to talk with him a little bit. Still, these days I am resistant to reviewing picture books, because I’m still trying to catch up on posting reviews I’ve written. But Cat Nap charmed me so much I can’t keep quiet. And between you and me, this book screams Caldecott! (Though you never know what the actual committee will decide.)

Cat Nap is the story of a kitten chasing a mouse through art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There’s a fun refrain:

Does Kitten follow?
Of course he does.

But what makes the book stunning is the art. As in The Three Pigs, by David Wiesner, the cat’s portrayal changes on each spread to match the art where he is currently hunting.

So that would be interesting enough if it were simply different styles of drawing – but Brian Lies actually uses sculpture in many frames – when the cat interacts with a ceramic dog and a mask with a bird. He made actual stained glass windows when the cat interacts with a medieval stained glass pane.

There’s an extensive Author’s Note at the back with the works of art identified. And pictured without the cat. I was awed by these paragraphs from that note:

It would have been easy to create the illustrations in this book on a computer – to take a photo of an original artwork and edit Kitten in digitally. It was a greater challenge, and a whole lot more fun, to see if I could actually make pieces of art that looked like the originals in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and blend Kitten’s headlong pursuit of the mouse into them. Everything you see Kitten encountering and exploring in this book was handmade, using acrylic and oil paints, gouache, ink, plaster, wood, gold leaf, clay, paper, glass, lead, and more. Some of the techniques I used were ones that I’d done before, and some were new to me.

So yes, it could have been done digitally. And now, artificial intelligence even allows us to enter a description of what we want, and in seconds, the computer spits out an image. But wheres the satisfaction in that? The computer created it, not us.

If you like making things, practice. Practice makes better! It takes time to develop skills so things turn out the way you want them to; the way you see them in your imagination – you can’t simply leap ahead and skip all that work. But it’s fun to write stories and to make pictures and build things, and I hope you’ll do these things because they’re satisfying. Focus on the enjoyment you get while your skills are coming along. You can make pretty much anything you want to, if you teach yourself how.

If people before us could do it, why not me? Why not you?

Oh yes, and besides that wonderful Author’s Note, the book gives an engaging story. What’s not to like about a kitten chasing a mouse through entertaining obstacles? I love the way the kitten finds his way back home – the sound of cat food being poured into his bowl.

brianlies.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Review of Oh Dear, Look What I Got! by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

by Michael Rosen
illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Candlewick Press, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written September 16, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Looks to me like we’ve got a new storytime classic here! Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, the creators of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt have teamed up for this new picture book.

The situation is simple and silly, illustrated on the first few pages:

I went to the shop
to get me a carrot.

Oh dear, they gave me . . .

a parrot!

Oh dear,
look what I got!

Do I want that?

No, I do NOT!

This text repeats six times, each time with a different object and a different rhyming animal. It builds to delightful chaos, and then all the shopkeepers come, bringing the correct object, and are pictured leading away the animals.

Does it make any sense? Could this ever happen? Not really.

Do I want to read it aloud?

YES, I DO!

Maybe it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I predict you can get a whole roomful of preschoolers chanting along with the fun.

Check it out, and see if you aren’t charmed!

michaelrosen.co.uk
helenoxenbury.co.uk
candlewick.com

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Review of Bob the Vampire Snail, by Andrea Zuill

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 0

Bob the Vampire Snail

by Andrea Zuill

Random House Studio, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written August 19, 2025, from a library book.

I read a lot more picture books than I review – but when I am compelled to read bits of a book to my coworkers, as I did with this one – that one’s worth telling the world about.

What got me laughing out loud was the little bug with speech bubbles presenting “facts,” beginning on the very first page, even before the title page. We see a posted sign:

Did you know that all snails are named Bob?
It’s true!
They feel that having the same name helps keep their lives simple. Snails like a straightforward, bland, uncomplicated life. They take to heart that they are not the life of the party, which, by the way, they wouldn’t go to even if they were invited.

And then the bug comments:

Excuse me! I don’t know where the creator of this book gets their information, but none of this is true.

The story that follows is a completely silly one about a snail named Bob who gets turned into a vampire with wings, fangs, no reflection, and a dollop of invincibility. When it first happens, he turns to the other Bobs for help, but he’s way too complicated for them. And the bug comments:

If you’re ever in trouble, snails should never be the first choice when seeking help.

The main story in the book is about Bob figuring out his new life and what he now likes to eat. And trying to find a friend who will hang out with a vampire snail. Nothing deep or profound here. But plenty that’s very, very silly.

andreazuill.org

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Review of Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash!, by Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Downpour

Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash!

by Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata
translated by Emily Balistrieri

Red Comet Press, 2025. Originally published in Japan in 2018. 36 pages.
Review written July 3, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

The onomatopoeia in the subtitle of this book foreshadows much to come. This is a picture book about a torrential rainstorm. The pictures and the wide variety of onomatopoeia used are incredibly evocative. As is the emotion on the boy’s face who’s caught in the rain.

And that’s what this story covers: A boy is caught in the rain. But this wife-husband pair of creators makes the book so much more than that.

It starts with burning hot pavement and a looming cloud. Then big, fat drops fall, bringing their own music and their own smells.

Then the sound of the rain takes over the book – except the boy doesn’t let that be the only thing, first noticing his umbrella is a drum, but then putting the umbrella aside to run, kick, and jump in the abundant puddles.

I love the way every picture takes a different angle on the boy and on the rain. We have how it looks as it hits, how it looks falling, and how the drops bounce off the child. We see everything sopping wet – and feel the great delight the boy feels in the whole experience.

This is one you need to pick up and see for yourself! A picture book about a joyful storm.

RedCometPress.com

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Review of John the Skeleton, by Triinu Laan, illustrated by Marja-Liisa Plats

Award Winners, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

John the Skeleton

by Triinu Laan
illustrated by Marja-Liisa Plats
translated from the Estonian by Adam Cullen

Restless Books, 2024. First published in Estonia in 2020. 58 pages.
Review written July 3, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Winner

John the Skeleton is in picture book format, but it was originally published in Estonia, and is for older readers than a typical American picture book. I’d say it’s for Kindergarten to second grade kids having it read to them, though the lucky person reading it to them will be charmed, too.

I’ll be honest – I was completely put off by the cover picture of snails crawling on a skeleton and hadn’t ordered it for our library system until it won the Batchelder Award for a book in translation. I put a note to show it to me and decided to put it with the JFIC books instead of the picture books, since it’s got more words on a page than a typical picture book. But looking at the book convinced me I had to read it more closely, so I placed a hold on it and finally got to give it a proper reading.

And what a delight it is! John is a skeleton used in a classroom (not a real human skeleton, but constructed as a teaching tool). But after John got a few broken bones, the teacher let him retire after long years of service – and he retired to a cottage with Grams and Gramps deep in the woods.

The book simply tells of their adventures together. Gramps dresses John nicely and John helps scare off robbers. He plays with their grandchildren and goes with the family to hear the lake sing, among many other charming stories about John the Skeleton’s simple life with Grams and Gramps. The book ends with a poignant note, but we are assured that John is still bringing Gramps comfort and companionship.

And the note at the back tells us the story is based on a real bone man who retired from a school.

An ordinary Estonian’s dream is to live in a house where their closest neighbors are at least half a kilometer away. When John got the chance to retire and live on a farm in Vörumaa, which is one of the farthest corners of the country, his dream came true.

Trust me. This is another one you should read for yourself. I think you will be charmed.

restlessbooks.org

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Review of Fireworks, words by Matthew Burgess, pictures by Cátia Chien

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Fireworks

words by Matthew Burgess
pictures by Cátia Chien

Clarion Books, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written July 15, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

The world needed a truly excellent picture book about the Fourth of July, and now we have one. Though in fact, the book doesn’t mention the name of the holiday, so we had a bit of discussion whether to shelve it with holiday books here in the library. But books for Independence Day are few and far between – and this one begins with a hot summer day, so it definitely fits.

And the book is so evocative! It begins as two brown-skinned siblings wake up and venture out “across steamy city sidewalks.” The impressionistic pictures by Cátia Chien make you feel the steam – and feel the joy when later the kids play in a fire hydrant that sprung a leak.

Besides the wonderful illustrations, the descriptions are full of onomatopoeia. We’ve got “plip plop plip” on this page with an illustration full of juice and joy:

And in the thirsty afternoon
we watch the knife slice
the great green watermelon
into shining red wedges.

Chins drip sweet drips.

We also hear sounds from street performers playing music and Grandma cooking dinner in a pan.

But no surprise that the highlight of it all is when the kids climb to the rooftop of their building and see fireworks streak across the sky.

We’ve got all sorts of firework sounds and now an accent of florescent pink that we saw on the cover and the endpapers. And the kids dancing with joy far below. It brings you right into a fireworks display.

Then there’s a close-up on the kids’ wide-eyed faces before a fold-out page gives you the Finale.

And it ends like every good picture book – snug in bed – but this time with visions of fireworks dancing in their heads.

This is for sure destined to become a summertime classic. And don’t miss the opportunity to explain to little ones how fireworks shows will go before they experience their first. They’ll know to expect bright lights and loud sounds – and exuberant joy.

matthewjohnburgess.com
catiachien.com

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