Poetry Friday: Best Friends Pretend!

I love it! Best Friends Pretend! is fun, catchy, adorable and portrays girls having adventures through their imaginations. Girls can be princesses, but they can also be astronauts, superheroes, explorers, and moms.

Boom! I'm off!
Will you come, too?
I'm the captain
you're the crew.

We'll zoom through space
and gather stars,
then bring them home
to keep in jars.

I hope this work finds a wide audience. It deserves it! Happy Poetry Friday!

Best Friends Pretend!
by Linda Leopold Strauss
illustrated by Lynn Musinger
Cartwheel, Scholastic, 2013

Preschool Day Hooray! Linda Leopold Strauss

I was attracted to this book because I've been a fan of Hiroe Nakata's illustrations since she illustrated my easy reader The Garden That We Grew. Her watercolor style is simple, expressive, and delightful. Perfect for totz. I really like the rhyming story here, too. It's not stiff and uses words like "drippy" and "painty" as adjectives, as we enjoy a day at preschool with a boy, from from the time he departs home in a rush to the end of school when it's once again "Mommy time!"

Painty hands and gooey glue.
Tricky puzzles I can do.

I think this book will be a comfort to totz contemplating a future in school and will help get them excited about the prospect of the activities they might do, which are portrayed in a breezy, charming style here.

The pages of this 8x8 " book are sturdier than those in a picture book, but are not cardboard-stiff as in a true board book. This book hits the mark in style and substance. Hooray for Linda Strauss and Hiroe Nikata!

Preschool Day Hooray!
Author: Linda Leopold Strauss
Illustrator: Hiroe Nakata
Publisher: Scholastic, Cartwheel Books, 2010