Sending Sun to Boston

I wonder if Catie can find her mailbox?  I wonder if its been buried so deep the mailman can’t even find it.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will stop G’ma from popping a bit of book cheer in the mail tomorrow. Some of the most cheering characters around are Olivier Dunrea’s gosling best friends, Gossie and Gertie (Houghton Mifflin board book, ages 1-3).  This simple story shows the two best friends exploring their small world.  Gossie, larger and seemingly elder, leads the way crying “Follow me!”  and Gertie follows—until she doesn’t.

When Gossie jumps into a mud puddle.  “Gertie did not follow.”  And the gosling illustrations, minimal as they are, show her looking after her friend with questioning, blank-eyed stare.  Again Gossie cries “Follow me!” but Gertie follows a hopping frog, a butterfly, a shiny blue beetle. Each time she denies his orders Gossie gets a little more perturbed until his feathers fly with frustration.  Finally Gertie takes the lead “Follow me! It’s dinnertime!” and “Gossie followed.”

Catie should be able to “read” Zach Janik Coat’s Rhymoceros (Abrams, ages 1-2) after a quick cruise through this playful rhyming book.  A graphically strong blue rhino model word pairs as he gazes up at a “moon” and holds a bright red “balloon.”  Other pairs show “shower” and “flower”, and the rhino shines in “bold” and “gold.”  Texture arrives in “grumpy” and “bumpy” and “furry” and “blurry.”  This is one of the simple books as pleasing to parents as children.  The images vary from the concrete to illustrations like “caring” as rhino walks a dog to ”daring” as he tightropes across two buildings.