The Ultimate Companion

As the snow piles deeper, so do the boxes of books that surround us in the back.  It can be exciting, even when a maze of books towers just above your line of sight.  But, what's more exciting is when those boxes contain fabulous new releases.  Here we go, top three picturebooks of my week:

I Must Have Bobo by Eileen Rosenthal, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

Even cats know that sock monkeys are the ulitmate companion.  Earl drags Bobo, the lovely sock monkey, around everywhere.  There's one problem.  This monkey does NOT belong to Earl the cat.  It is Willy's! Who else can he brave the slide with or build a block fort with?  Was Bobo stolen by pirates again?  Nope.  It was that rascally Earl.




A Pet for Petunia by Paul Schmid

Petunia likes, no, loves, loves, LOVES skunks.  Not just her stuffed skunk who is always by her side, but a "REAL pet skunk."  Skunks don't stink.  They are cute!  One day, when Petunia takes a walk through the forest, who does she find but a creature who is: "Black and white [with a] cute litle nose.  Big black eyes. [and] Stripes."  But why does Petunia run away...and then return back to the forest?



Spork by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

He's just a spork.  Not a spoon, even though his mother is.  And, he's not a fork, even though his father is.  No matter how hard Spork tries, he can't fit in anywhere.  "Spork wonder[s] if there were other lonely creatures out there with no matching kind, who never got chosen to be at the table."  Will Spork ever find his place in the world and be a somebody instead of a nobody?