Once Around the Sun

Spring figures predominantly in the clever new collection from Bobbi Katz, Once Around the Sun, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, which follows a brother and sister through the months of the year. January finds them sledding, until your nose is a dull cold pain and your big toe starts to complain about the hole in your sock. In April we see the children running through daffodils to visit their grandmother:April is when your blue slicker collects beads ofmisty drizzle and the walk to Grandma's house is askip-splash-dance! And when you get there, Grandma tells you how each springshe falls in love with the world all over again and you understand.Each month brings with it a new activity and a new poem, until Earth starts to loop around the distant sun again. This book would make a great read-aloud, a title to return to again and again throughout the year. Deborah Hopkinson's new book, a Junior Library Guild selection entitled Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America, will be published this month.