School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-These three easy-readers combine brightly colored illustrations with short simple stories. Readability is determined using the Reading Recovery model, and each book features a meet-the-author section. In Sometimes, an alligator engages in all sorts of activities, such as cooking, ice fishing, and playing the banjo. The text is repetitive: "Sometimes I am happy. Sometimes I am sad." The reptile has lots of expression, and even nonreaders could recite/read this story after hearing it once or twice. Catch Me features a T-rex that frightens all of the other dinosaurs, except for one, who turns out to be his loving grandchild. The illustrations, done in markers, reflect Most's typical flat style. Written in rhyming couplets, Shoe Town is the best of the bunch. After her children move out, a mother mouse just wants to relax in her shoe home. Various nursery-rhyme characters ask to move in, but she insists they get their own shoes. The cow jumping over the moon keeps a count of the population of "Shoe Town" as it grows. Stevens's illustrations are irresistible, and the tale works well as a read-aloud or read-alone.-Sharon R. Pearce, formerly at San Antonio Public Library, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 1. Mama Mouse just wants to fill her empty nest (a purple shoe) with water and take a nice, hot bath. But there's barely a trickle from the garden hose before fairy-tale friends of various sorts (the hare and the tortoise, etc.) show up wanting to share her space. Janet Stevens' illustrations aren't nearly as polished as her usual pictures, and the rhyming text doesn't quite scan. That's somewhat balanced, however, by the appealing idea of this Green Light Reader. --Stephanie Zvirin
