You don't need to talk about how they lick the stars and have "green-pickled tongues" and "swing on branches, da-de-da, and feel the air move cool against their pockmarked stone. In this somewhat treacly memoir, a girl saves a caterpillar, ""a small black creature/ like a tiny worm,/ . Old Badger awakens his little one with a special surprise in Little Badger's Just- About Birthday by Eve Bunting, illus. Nostalgia and timeliness merge seamlessly in this uncommonly evocative picture book,"" said PW in a starred review. A boy lies to secure work for his grandfather, newly arrived from Mexico; Himler's ""expressive, gestural watercolors.

David Wiesner is one of the best-loved and most highly acclaimed picture book creators in the world. In a starred review of this 1995 Caldecott winner, PW praised the ""thought-provoking"" and ""thoroughly believable"" text, about urban violence, and the ""dazzling"" mixed-media collages.His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have won numerous awards in the United States and abroad.

A dread sense of the inevitable drives this taut disaster story-and makes it nearly impossible to put down.I was reminded of another gargoyle-centered picture book I have read and enjoyed—Dav Pilkey's God Bless the Gargoyles. He creates three-dimensional models of objects he can't observe in real life, such as flying pigs and lizards standing upright, to add authenticity to his drawings.