Books for Kids

DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW?

By Caroline Jayne Church

Scholastic/Chicken House:

32 pp., $15.95

Caroline Jayne Church (“Hungry Hen”) pictures two long-eared pups’ playful romp in this reprise of a ridiculously catchy rhyme. Beginning with the title line, “Do your ears hang low?,” a brown hound strolls up a hill alone. In the next spread, “Do they wobble to and fro?,” a gray-spotted dog approaches from the other direction. When the dogs see one another, their ribbony ears fly up in surprise and become tangled (“Can you tie them in a knot?/Can you tie them in a bow?”).

They play a shy game of hide-and-seek to a second verse of “Do your ears hang high?/Do they reach up to the sky?” Ultimately, a gatefold opens to show the new friends cheek-to-cheek, shaping a heart with their plume-like ears. The sequence concludes with instructions for hand gestures to accompany the song and leaves the musical accompaniment to experienced singers.

Church draws in a thick, squiggly black line on paper made from torn newsprint and flower petals Her innocuous artwork and use of a familiar chant will suit any sing-along occasion, and her theme would endear her to the star of the equally comical “Dog Eared.” (Ages 2 and older)

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THE RECESS QUEEN

By Alexis O’Neill

Illustrated by Laura

Huliska-Beith

Scholastic:

32 pp., $15.95

A schoolyard bully is enlightened by the new kid in class in this lively story about the power of kindness and friendship. “Mean Jean was Recess Queen/ and nobody said any different,” the tale begins. Each day at recess, Mean Jean blasts through the playground--and her cowering classmates--so she can kick, swing and bounce before anyone else. No one dares cross her path: “She’d push ‘em and smoosh ‘em, lollapaloosh ‘em.”

But when tiny Katie Sue, a new student, arrives, all bets are off. Unaware of the playground hierarchy, the new girl enthusiastically kicks, swings and bounces before the “Recess Queen” gets the chance. Her role usurped, Mean Jean moves toward a meltdown until Katie Sue makes her an offer she finds difficult to refuse: an invitation to play together.

Alexis O’Neill’s (“Loud Emily”) text brims with fun-to-say phrases that fit a rollicking rhythm, and her assessment of recess dynamics feels authentic. Laura Huliska-Beith’s (“The Book of Bad Ideas”) memorable Jean busts out of the pages, all sneer, bluster and freckles. Swirling perspectives in the gouache-and-collage artwork provide a sense of movement and largess. And humorous details, such as steam coming from Mean Jean’s ears or her bouncing another child like a ball, playfully convey the underlying drama of the situation. (Ages 3-7)

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SEASONS

A Book of Poems

By Charlotte Zolotow

Illustrated by Erik Blegvad

HarperCollins:

64 pp., $14.95

Looking through this reassuring beginning reader is like taking a nostalgic stroll through a miniature Norman Rockwell painting. The quiet poems and etched pen-and-ink drawings from this team, previously paired for “I Like to Be Little,” seem vaguely familiar--children huddle in yellow raincoats under an umbrella, ride bareback on a brown farm horse or watch stars on the porch of a Victorian house. The images hark back to an uncomplicated childhood in which mothers hang out the wash on a windy day and desks have no computers.

Charlotte Zolotow filters each poem through the lens of a child’s sense of wonder, as she describes a cat as “a furry purry lovely/mystery” or the “special kind of quiet” that accompanies the first snow of the season. The tranquil simplicity of the verses is particularly suitable for struggling new readers.

The poet captures the ineffable promise of things to come in “The Crickets” that “fill the night/with their voices--/It is like/a message/in another language/spoken to a part/of me/who hasn’t/happened yet.” Loosely organized around the seasons, the book is liberally plumped up with everyday poems about birthdays, anger, grown-ups, parents and more. Erik Blegvad’s landscapes gleam with the colors of the seasons and provide an ideal accompaniment for Zolotow’s gentle, comforting verses. (Ages 4-8)

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EMILY DICKINSON’S LETTERS TO THE WORLD

By Jeanette Winter

Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Foster:

40 pp., $16

“My sister Emily was buried today,” begins this wisp of a picture book, part thumbnail biography and part miniature poetry anthology. For the next several pages, a mournful Lavinia reminisces about her reclusive sister (“Emily never went anywhere. Townsfolk thought her strange”), roots through her dresser (“Here are the dresses she wore--only white--in summer and winter”) and ultimately discovers a cache of poems (“There must be hundreds!”).

The remainder of the book offers a selection of Dickinson’s best-known and perhaps most approachable work, beginning with “This is my letter to the World/That never wrote to Me--” and including “There is no Frigate like a Book/To take us Lands away” and “I’m Nobody! Who are you?/Are you--Nobody--Too?” Verses about nature predominate (“A Spider sewed at Night/Without a Light/Upon an Arc of White”), but Jeanette Winter does not shy away from more metaphysical themes (“Exultation is the going/Of an inland soul to sea,/Past the houses--past the headlands--/Into deep Eternity--”).

With her trademark folk-art style, Winter demurely dresses the pages in shades of lavenders, periwinkle and soft green. The scanty biographical information may leave the curious wanting more, but this is nevertheless a visually pleasing introduction to Dickinson and her work. Pair this with Elizabeth Spires’ “The Mouse of Amherst” for a more complete picture of the poet. (Ages 5 and older)