I should write a lot but I'll not. Suffice to say the rhyme I loved, especially the play between line lengths (and the part about the cliff). 

Gus Gordon's illustrations were quite a sensation, with mixed styles combined into a single creation.  

I loved the pictures, I loved the rhyme--this book is definitely worth your time.

Just an all-around fun read that's packed full of rhyming descriptions accurate to bat behavior but mixed with a fun fantasy about what a bat concert would be like.  My favorite thing about the text is how Brian Lies describes the various styles of music:

Next up, there's a country song--

some lonesome bat done someone wrong.

As the styles of music shift, the acrylic paintings also adjust in tone and color so that the rhyming lines and images combine to really give a feel for the the mood of that music. This book would be great for a music teacher wanting to talk about different musical genres or a science teacher wanting to talk about sound waves and chiroptera.

Of the books I've read this month, this is one of the most text heavy, with most pages featuring one 4-line stanza but some pages featuring up to two stanzas (8 lines) but since the text is fun to read, it doesn't feel overwhelming.

It's a beautiful day of blue sky and white clouds when a storm rolls in. This rhyming picture book shares the entire experience of the storm for a farm family using 119 words arranged into simple, carefully selected phrases. The scratchboard and watercolor illustrations by Caldecott Medal winner Beth Krommes feature such things as idyllic country scenes, farm animals, and a puppy and child playing in the ensuing mud.

One of the really nice touches to this book is that the illustrations span even the publication and acknowledgement pages...and the truth is that I love this book for the illustrations, especially the arial views.  Beth Krommes' style, media, and technique are unique unique and a bit reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints and books like Ed Emberly's Drummer Hoff.   

Do you love words, both old and new? If so, Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus is a good book for you. You'll be the one with a "snip-snap grin" as you flip through the pages and practice your tail spin. If movement or sound is your delight, this one has both--no need to listen while sitting tight. Kinetic kids can shiver and loop as they let their inner dino out of the coop. The alliteration is pretty insane and almost every spread has a great refrain that readers will memorize and say by heart...just read the book once, that's a good start. There's one page, about a third of the way in, that reminds me of another book that left me with a grin: The Farmer's Away, Baa! Neigh!  Love the dino rumpus for the dino words, the flow of the sounds, or the review you've heard, but equal to all are the pictures you see, pictures by Guy Parker-Rees.  Pictures with colors bright, ending with dinos curled up tight...

Fans of Toy Story will like this rhyming wake-up story where toys set off for a drive across the room to the windowsill to watch the sunrise. On my inattentive first read through I didn't realize it was the toys doing the driving until close to the end of the book. The "Honk Honk! Beep Beep!" refrain scattered throughout will be fun for kids to jump in and say.