Artist and poet Douglas Florian has created numerous award-winning picture books over the years, including Dinothesaurus and Insectlopedia. A book by Florian is often destined to become part of family lore, lovingly passed down from child to child to grandchild. And that’s certainly true of his newest title, Windsongs: Poems about Weather. 

Each poem in this appealing collection appears in white lettering on a bright page, opposite illustrations rendered with gouache paint, colored pencils and rubber stamps on primed paper bags, giving the volume a cheerful, homespun feel. Weather, of course, fascinates everyone, and after reading this book, kids and parents alike might find themselves creating their own poems, inspired by Florian’s poetry about the dew, drought, thunder and frost, among other topics. 

Some of the poems here are silly, others playful or evocative. A poem entitled “Fog” begins: “The fog is just a cloud that’s lost. / A cloud that’s gone astray. / It woke up in a hazy daze / and slowly lost its way.” The collection concludes with a poem about climate change, including a reminder that “Mars is too cold, and Venus too hot. / Our blue planet Earth is all that we’ve got.” Back matter includes a glossary and weather websites for kids. Windsongs is a gift for the whole family!

In London, Nate Macabuag designs and builds prosthetics for people with limb differences. “To be able to give someone something that they didn’t have access to before—it’s a good feeling,” he says. At Chicago’s Field Museum, Lauren Nassef helps care for specimens used in scientific research. And in the Bronx, shopkeepers Dan Treiber and Reina Mia Brill spend their days surrounded by toys. “We sell things that bring people joy,” Dan says. “We sell happiness!” 

Those are just a few of the 28 professions depicted in Shaina Feinberg and Julia Rothman’s fascinating and inspiring Work: Interviews with People Doing Jobs They Love. 

The duo, who write and illustrate the New York Times’ popular Scratch column (about “money—and the people who deal with it”), previously teamed up for How We Got By, a collection of 111 personal accounts about getting through hardships. This time, they wanted to create a book for kids in the vein of their newspaper column. 

For Work, Feinberg and Rothman interviewed people around the world about their skills, motivations, daily tasks and favorite aspects of their careers. The answers are varied and intriguing, presented in brief biographies that also include discussion prompts such as “If you could invent anything, what would it be?” Rothman’s art is detailed and vibrant, ranging from portraits of people at their jobs, to illustrations of a wildland firefighter’s helicopter and a cobbler’s custom shoes.

Those looking for answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” will delight in learning how youthful propensities might translate into grown-up jobs: For example, an artist who climbed trees as a child now paints murals on very tall buildings. They’ll also gain insight into Rothman’s and Feinberg’s own work via the final entries in this engaging, illuminating collection, as well as the “How We Made This Book” section that follows. 

Another nice touch: The duo note that many illustrations were based on photos, and include credits for each one, ensuring that, from start to finish, their book explores, celebrates and values work and the people who undertake it. Work is a helpful resource and entertaining read that’s sure to broaden horizons and inspire exploration.

With nearly 50 books under his belt, beloved author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg turns his attention to canines in his latest zany offering, The Smell of Wet Dog: And Other Dog Poems and Drawings. He proclaims his love in the first poem, “I Love Dogs,” followed by the title verse, which describes their odor as “Imagine moose and skunk perfume. / An odiferous stench, a paint-peeling plume.”

Young readers will relish these often rip-roaringly funny short poems, with lines like “A long stretchy / drizzle of slobbery ooze / dribbles and splats / on my favorite shoes.” Kids will readily identify with lines like “It’s hard to sit. / It’s hard to stay. / Who makes these rules up, anyway?”

This is a celebration of all things dog—the good, the bad and the smelly—that adult dog lovers will enjoy as well. Saltzberg’s endearing spot illustrations complete the package, with big-eyed dogs of all shapes and sizes cavorting, rolling around in messes, leaping into the air and staring pleadingly at each other and the reader. How can you not fall in love? There are poignant moments as well, with poems about a lost dog, an aging pet and the undying adoration that dogs have for their owners—and vice versa. (Cat lovers: a sequel is likely in store, as the last page features a cat saying, “You forgot . . . / the cat!”)

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife is an inspirational treasure trove that introduces young readers to the concept of rewilding, showing how cities and communities around the world are repairing some of the environmental damage caused by human habitation. Focusing on 11 intriguing examples, Erica Silverman has created a unique blend of poetry, science, civics and activism. 

Each story is compelling: a honeybee highway in Oslo, Norway; a Los Angeles school that tore up their asphalt playground to create a natural oasis; and cities in Australia that built rope bridges over highways so that western ringtail possums might safely cross. Silverman introduces each short lesson with a poem celebrating an ecological achievement, accompanied by a prose explanation of the specific details. It’s a winning combination that succinctly informs and delights, while helpful back matter provides additional resources. Both the poetry and prose of The City Sings Green are widely accessible.

Ginnie Hsu’s cheery illustrations are an ecological feast, filled with bright colors that readily convey the benefits of each endeavor. Her art is particularly immersive, leaving readers feeling as though they’ve practically taken a walk through many of the places described, often seen from an animal’s point of view.  

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature.