Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner

 Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner

Rating: 5 stars

We read this library book--another of Lorelei's quality check-outs--and bought it a few hours later.  We liked it that much!

I only bought it (read: let me justify my purchase to you) because I was really happy to find the board book version.  The number of words on each page, nice, rollicking rhyme, and hilarious pictures make it a fantastic choice for Kiefer right now.  He's nearly 19 months and definitely into books.  He walks up to me, book in hand, sees me sitting "criss-cross-applesauce" and turns around a full two feet in front of me, backs up, and then plops down happily when his feet hit my legs.  I find it altogether adorable, makes me want to freeze time.

But what does Kiefer like even more than the laps of his parents?  The laps of his siblings, of course.  Just today he sat in Ben's lap for the first time.  Both boys grinned wildly as Ben "read" the book to him, trying to balance a boy almost equal his size and remember to turn the pages of the book.  I find THAT equally adorable, makes me want to freeze time some more.

So if there's a book that is going to cause more of these cute moments to happen, I'm buying it!

On stormy evenings I would play / My favorite games with him;
On sunny days I'd teach him how / To dive and how to swim.

This wonderful, silly book is about a boy who wishes he his snowman could stay with him all year long instead of melting when the warm sun comes out.  The whole book is about what the boy would do with him.  The huge illustrations are so great and fun!  You see boy and snowman flying kites, playing pirates, going to the zoo, riding a roller coaster, watching fireworks, playing chess, getting buried in the sand.

For Ben it is laugh-out-loud silly, and SO FUN to be the parent who gets to read it, and gets to ask, "Have you ever seen a snowman at the zoo?!" and then go on and on (and on and on) about all the other things that would be fun to do with a snowman that are not in the book.  The things on our list: throw rocks in the creek, go to the library, play soccer, ride on a train.

This is a fantastic book for any age kid--or, like in our house, every age kid.  I've heard through the grapevine that the kids are getting Snowmen At Christmas from Grammy...  I hope the gift-opening will pause long enough for us to read it on Christmas morning, because I'm excited to read it.

Superdog: The Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Bu

Superdog: The Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner

Rating: 4.5 stars

All right, let the superhero book reviews begin!

Who doesn't love an underdog?  Especially when the underdog is a little sausage of a dog who receives ridicule from dogs and cats alike.  But Dex longs to be more than the butt of jokes.  He wants to be a superhero so badly that he decides to MAKE IT HAPPEN.  That's my kind of thinking.  With a lot of hard work building his muscles and one well-fitting superdog costume, he becomes what he wants to be: Superdog.

While his friends continue to chuckle he finds heaps of ways to help: he finds a lost kitten, tracks down a lost wallet, tackles a purse-snatcher, and fixes his neighbor's sprinkler.

But when his arch nemesis Cleevis (of course it's a cat who is just evil enough not to like) gets stuck in a tree and needs rescuing, Superdog doesn't think twice.  He charges over to Cleevis the cat, has his friends jump on the opposite side of the teeter totter to catapult him into the air, and makes his cape into a parachute so that Cleevis can land gently rather than with a thud.

And then Cleevis the cat asks if he can be his partner.  Dex says yes again, and the last picture is of them romping off together.

A note on the illustrations: If you don't smile at the cover, you are either completely humorless or having a really bad day.  An awkward dachshund dog hovering over the sidewalk, looking fierce and funny...makes me crack a smile and I've looked at it a dozen times already.  The pictures poke fun at little Dex but you like him too much to laugh at him--Mark Buehner did a great job.

What I love most about this story is that there was no magic anything to make Superdog a superhero.  He didn't eat, find, or fall into something.  Nope, he CHOSE to be a superhero.  He knew what he wanted and earned it through canine blood, sweat, and tears.  It was great to point this out to my kids, showing them the difference of happening upon some skill/power (which still would require responsibility to use it wisely) versus putting your mind to it and achieving that goal.  Such an important lesson; one that I believe should be taught from early in the preschool years.

This book is not as good as Max but it is definitely in the same realm of quality, nonviolent superhero books. There aren't too many, so...better grab this one, too, if your kids are into capes and emblems.