Long-time subscribers may recall that a few years ago I reviewed a book every week from an independent publisher. I haven’t kept up with it recently, but a few of those publishers still reach out to me from time to time. I recently received these two excellent books from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. They are a great reminder of the unique and beautiful work being produced by smaller publishers. Both books will be released in September.

Counting Winter by Nancy White Carlstrom, illustrated by Claudia McGhee (44 pages, ages 4-8). Nancy White Carlstrom drew on her eighteen years in Alaska to create this counting book that includes eleven different animals, with verses written in similar fashion: “One red fox walks/across the white snow/quietly/stalking winter.” These could be used as models for kids to write their own four-line poems about animals with a similar combination of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. The stunning scratch board and watercolor illustrations perfectly capture the animals and the snowy landscapes. When the counting reached eleven, I started to think it was going all the way to twenty, but the last page features twelve excited children, which was the perfect stopping place. Includes a wordless two page spread showing all the animals, two pages of animal profiles, and notes from the author and illustrator.

Fast Cheetah, Slow Tortoise: Poems of Animal Opposites by Bette Westera and Mies van Hout, illustrated by David Colmer. (40 pages, grades K-4). This Dutch import pairs animal poems that illustrate antonyms; a two-page spread features the tortoise in a poem entitled “Slow” with the cheetah, which is “Fast.” Others are noisy and quiet (cricket and pill bug), relaxed and busy (sloth and ant), and bossy and meek (gorilla and lesula). As this last example shows, there are some animals that may be new to kids. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration, which will help kids visualize those unfamiliar animals. This would be fun to share by reading a poem and having kids guess the animal and maybe the antonym as well. Unfortunately, there’s no back matter that could have offered more information on the animals.