Cork the muskrat got his name because he's a natural in the water. Not so his friend Fuzz the possum. He sinks like lead. So when Cork invites Fuzz to his house to play, Fuzz regretfully declines. Cork, however, is determined to teach his friend how to swim. Like any landlubber, Fuzz doesn't even want to get his feet wet. So Cork starts by teaching him on the grass. When faced with actual water, Fuzz chickens out and decides it would be safer to crawl along a long branch that reaches almost to Cork's lodge and then jump down. Except it doesn't quite work out that way. Fuzz topples from the branch straight into the lake below. With Cork shouting instructions, he puts the lessons he learned to good use and paddles to Cork's house. Success! Tomorrow brings a new challenge. That's the day Fuzz plans on teaching Cork how to climb a tree. Uh-oh!
Dori Chaconas has fashioned another fun tale about this unlikely duo for beginning readers. Like the best early readers, most of the text is conveyed through natural-sounding dialog and key vocabulary words are seamlessly repeated without appearing obvious.
Lisa McCue is a wizard at portraying appealing looking critters, and her muskrat and possum characters are no exception.
Cork & Fuzz: The Swimming Lesson
by Dori Chaconas
illustrations by Liza McCue
Viking, 32 pages
Published: 2011
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: April 4, 2011
Spring brings warmer weather, fragrant and bright colored flowers, adorable baby farm animals, and taller children. Spring also brings more books—books that encompass all of those topics and more, for our taller children with blossoming minds. It’s time to select a book that matches the tone of the season, grab a blanket and find a nice spot outside for a spring story time session.
From bunnies to eggs to butterflies to chicks and even a spring shower, these books that have been selected all harness some kind of special spring power and celebrate Easter in its secular form.
Picture Books
Quiet Bunny’s Many Colors
By Lisa McCue
Reading level: Ages 4-6
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Sterling (March 1, 2011)
Source: Publisher
Hands down, the best spring book of 2011. The colors, the critters, the bugs, every illustration captures the essence of spring. The story is light and bounces with fun read-aloud words and finishes with a gentle-but-powerful message of self-acceptance. Simply gorgeous!
Add this book to your collection: Quiet Bunny’s Many Colors
Little White Rabbit
By Kevin Henkes
Reading level: Ages 2-7
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (January 25, 2011)
Source: Publisher
Kevin Henkes is brilliant and so is Little White Rabbit. The pastel colors of the pencils and acrylic paint give off friendly charm as the rabbit explores nature and his own abilities. The gentle details given to the rabbit’s face allow the readers to truly experience the delicate emotions experienced on every page—especially the bliss of true devotion from his mother. The double-page spread of Rabbit imagining what it would be like to flutter through the air with butterflies provides sheer elation.
Illustration by Kevin Henkes
Add this book to your collection: Little White Rabbit
An interactive reading experience allows toddlers to touch, feel, and move the book and its pages while you are reading the story or sounds involved.
Non-swimmer me, with my fear of the water, can relate to this one. I'll be sure to keep off any branches hanging over water.
One of the Cork & Fuzz books is on our library's summer reading list.