Skip to main content

Pig & Goose and the First Day of Spring



Pig & Goose and the First Day of Spring
By Rebecca Bond
Charlesbridge, 2017. Easy reader. 48p.

On the first day of spring, Pig makes a nice picnic for herself by the pond and meets Goose. Pig admires Goose’s flying and swimming abilities and is disappointed when her efforts to imitate him fail. But when Pig invites Goose to a spring party, we learn that Pig has some very amazing talents of her own.

This beginning reader book is a lovely start to a new animal friendship duo in the tradition of Frog and Toad. It has a very nostalgic feel, with a safe and friendly world, gentle humor, warm companionship, lots of time spent in nature, and small setbacks being overcome by a sincere and joyful outlook on life. The pastoral watercolor illustrations are soft and dreamy, and the text is simple but by no means simplistic. A great choice as a very early chapter book or as a read-aloud.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...