The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day was published in October 2016 by Frances Lincoln Children's Books. It is both a visual and auditory trip through all four of the seasons, accompanied by musical snippets from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

The first thing I noticed about this book is how vibrant the illustrations are. The color pallete changes from warm to cool to correspond with the general feel of each season. The story follows a girl named Isabelle, her small apple tree, and her dog Pickle as they journey and experience changes through all four seasons in one day. The illustrations depict spring showers and new babies, summer flowers and a thunderstorm, autumn harvest and migration, and winter's chill and snow.

In addition to the visual feast, each page has a "button" to push to hear a small snippet from the corresponding "season" of Vivaldi's music. The button is printed on the page, but when you press it (with the page lying flat), the back cover plays the music. Even though I'm not an orchestral music buff, I still recognized some of these memorable tunes. The thunderstorm one was especially fitting. And the sound quality is very good -- much better than a typical preschooler "sound book."

On the last page, there is a short biography of Vivaldi, and we get to see all the buttons together, this time with descriptions of each snippet of music that can help us to speculate on why each season's music was written the way it was. We're invited to "hear" the shivering in the cold during the winter piece, and to listen for the slower pacing in the summer piece.

Overall, this book is not only beautifully illustrated and informative, but it is a great way to introduce children to a wonderful piece of music, and the famous composer who wrote it.

Scrounged From: A Christmas present

Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Jessica Courtney-Tickle
Pages: 24
Content Advisory: None

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Book Scrounger's note: The following is a guest review by Doug, a.k.a Professor Puzzler:

I just wrote a book review for Little Beaver and the Echo; this is another book that I absolutely love the pairing of text (by Sherri Duskey Rinker) and illustrations (by Tom Lichtenheld). As a matter of fact, in Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, I would say that I like the illustrations more than the text. Don't get me wrong, I do like the text -- although there are some rhythmic stumbles in the poetry that caught me off-guard the first couple times I read it. But when I'm reading this book to my kids, I'm barely paying attention to the words I'm reading, because I'm looking at all those delightful illustrations.

The use of color is great, and in particular, the illustrator used different tinted papers for the various "times of day" illustrations, which resulted in all the daytime pictures, all the sunset pictures, and all the nighttime pictures each having the appropriate color warmth to them, because each shared a base color.

The story (which isn't really a story; there's no real plot to the book) focuses on the activities of five construction vehicles: a crane truck, a cement mixer, a dump truck, a bulldozer, and an excavator. Each machine (you can see the excavator in the picture here) has its own unique personality and facial features. Each vehicle has a section of the book, ending with the vehicle snuggling up for a good night's sleep after a long day's work. After each section, the book ends with a couple pages of wishing the team a good night.

If you have young children who are fascinated with construction vehicles, you should not be without this book!

Scrounged From: Amazon, for our four-year-old

Format: Hardcover
Author: Sherri Duskey Rinker
Illustrator: Tom Lichtenheld
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Book Scrounger's note: The following is a guest review by Doug, a.k.a. Professor Puzzler.

Little Beaver and the Echo is a wonderful picture book that tells the story of a lonely little beaver who -- while crying about how lonely he is -- hears a voice from across the pond crying about the same thing. Surprised, he sets off in his canoe to see if he can find that lonely little animal on the other side of the pond.

Along the way he makes new friends, and learns that the creature on the other side of the pond has also made new friends. It's a wonderful story about the simplicity with which friendships can be discovered, formed, and cultivated.

My children enjoy the story, and I love the combination of text and beautiful artwork.

This fall I took my 4-year-old son to a "kinderkonzert" -- a concert for children. We chose to go specifically because the concert was going to involve the telling of the story of Little Beaver and the Echo. What I didn't know was that the author, Amy MacDonald, was going to be present, and would be narrating the story herself. That was a wonderful surprise.

After the concert, my son and I spoke with her for a few minutes, and told her how much we enjoyed her book. I said, "And it's not just the story -- you had a wonderful illustrator to work with for this book!" 

Her response: "Yes, I consider myself quite blessed in the choice of illustrators."

Blessed indeed. The combination of text and illustrations is delightful. I just found out, while writing this review, that there is a sequel to this book: Little Beaver and the Big Front Tooth, with the same illustrator!

Scrounged From: A gift to our two-year-old

Format: Paperback
Author: Amy MacDonald
Illustrator: Sarah Fox-Davies
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World was written by Faith McNulty, and illustrated by Marc Simont in 1979. This book is the perfect mix of silliness and scientific instruction for children, and is recommended for ages 4 to 8. 

I remember, as a child, wondering if it was possible to dig a hole "to China" (never mind that I'm not geographically opposite China -- that was always "the other side of the world" to us). I think every child wonders this at some point. This book explores the challenges we would face in digging such a hole, and describes the things we would discover as we did so.

Along the way, we learn about different kinds of rocks, and about volcanoes and geysers, which gave rise to all sorts of questions when we read this to our then-3-year-old.

As you progress in your journey through the earth, you have to go from digging with a shovel to digging with a jackhammer, to wearing an asbestos suit (this book was written before asbestos-based fire-proximity suits were phased out in favor of other materials), to riding in a submarine with a super-cooling system, a fireproof skin, and a drilling mechanism. 

All in all, this book does a great job of introducing young children to the size and structure of our planet in an engaging way, and provides launching points for discussion of further topics. 

Scrounged From: PaperbackSwap.com

Format: Paperback
Author: Faith McNulty
Illustrator: Marc Simont
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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The Goodnight Train is a charming bedtime book that we have been reading to our 13-month-old son quite often since he got it for his first birthday. 

It tells the simple story of a train setting off from its station with some children in tow, who appear ready for bed, but not quite ready to sleep yet. It starts off slowly creeping up a hill like a roller coaster, and then whooshes right down, past several interesting sights, before eventually slowing down again and bringing the children safely back to the station, snug in their beds, and ready to sleep.

The story is written in rhyme, which is particularly fitting for a book about a train, because it sets a very believable rhythm, especially when accompanied by the various "train sounds" that the reader is encouraged to make. I always find myself reading the fast parts quickly and with a lot of rhythm, and then slowing down and stretching things out as it gets toward the end, which I think is due to some well-crafted poetry and attention to detail.

Speaking of details, the illustrations are quite charming as well. It seems that each time I read it, I notice some new little part of the picture that I hadn't seen before -- be it the mermaid applying her night cream in the river under the bridge, or the porter sitting on the last car holding a sign that says "on break," or the squirrel in his tree opening up the fridge to find a midnight snack. 

These humorous bits add different layers to the story, and make it about more than just a train. Though the train and children are well illustrated too, and will certainly help the reader to experience the fun of being a child whose bed has become a train car on a wild pre-bed ride. 

Scrounged From: Amazon.com

Format: Board book
Author: June Sobel
Illustrator: Laura Huliska-Beith
Pages: 28
Content Advisory: None

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