Hornbeam All In

Starred review from July 1, 2023

Gr 1-4-From the team that brought you "Gooseberry Park" and "Mr. Putter and Tabby" comes a new set of friends ready to charm beginning readers. In this book told in three chapters, readers get to know Hornbeam the moose and his friends, Eureka the goose, Cuddy the cow, and Adorabelle the skunk. Eureka takes Hornbeam on a picnic, where Hornbeam is hoping for potato salad and ends up meeting a lot of relatives. Cuddy the cow helps out when Hornbeam's heat goes out. Adorabelle introduces Hornbeam to the joys of swimming. The artwork perfectly connects young readers to the text; watercolor over ink drawings will be familiar to some readers of the other series. These new characters have so much personality and pizazz that readers will seek the earlier books out, too. VERDICT An excellent new series of beginning chapter books.-Debbie Tanner

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2023
Preschool-Grade 2 *Starred Review* Hornbeam, a friendly moose, is invited to a picnic by Eureka, a neighbor. After determining that potato salad will be served, he accepts. When they arrive at the park and Eureka introduces him to 100 cousins, he's initially daunted but soon overwhelmed by their kindness in telling Hornbeam everything nice that Eureka has said about him. Happy but abashed that "all he really came for was the potato salad," he gives the last available spoonful to a little gosling. This is the first of three chapters about Hornbeam. In the second, he spends the night at a friend's house but keeps him awake with loud snoring. In the third, Hornbeam reluctantly takes swimming lessons. Rylant has a talent for creating characters who are easy to relate to because of their very human shortcomings, despite their good intentions. Each chapter tells a complete story about Hornbeam interacting with others. And each succeeds, partly because Howard's expressive illustrations, created with colored pencil, watercolor, and gouache, portray potentially awkward situations with wit and the characters' emotions with sensitivity. Rylant and Howard's previous collaborations include the Mr. Putter & Tabby books for beginning readers. Here's the first volume of a welcome new picture-book series with amiable characters and amusing story lines.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 2, 2023
A cautious moose named Hornbeam stars in this warmly rendered series kickoff comprising three gently comedic stories by Rylant and Howard, cocreators of the Motor Mouse books. Expressive colored pencil, watercolor, and gouache spreads capture Hornbeam’s reactions, zeroing in throughout the first tale on the moose’s apprehension as he and friend Eureka the goose head to a picnic that features more warmth, but less potato salad, than Hornbeam had anticipated. The protagonist sleeps—and snores—through most of the second story: when Hornbeam’s furnace stops working during a snowstorm, his overnight host Cuddy the cow graciously chooses to make the best of a sleepless night. The final tale traces the ripples created when Hornbeam’s skunk friend Adorabelle, an enthusiastic swimmer, insists that he learn to swim. In a moving moment that renders this story particularly strong, Hornbeam bravely “put a foot into the water. Then another foot. Then his whole moose self. Hornbeam was all in.” His persistence, and his friends’ support, earns him a skill and gives him something to be proud of. The creators plunge into the stories with characters and situations that are immediately relatable, and readers will follow Hornbeam wherever he goes. Ages up to 8.

Starred review from October 15, 2023
An early reader with a big heart. Hornbeam, an anthropomorphic moose, has many animal friends. In this series opener, which consists of three stories, Rylant uses controlled vocabulary to highlight a trio of especially important friends. The first is Eureka, a goose, who brings Hornbeam to a picnic that turns out to be a great big goose family reunion. In fact, it's so big that Hornbeam humorously misses out on enjoying much-desired potato salad (giving the last bite to a gosling), since he's preoccupied with meeting each individual bird. In the second story, Hornbeam's furnace breaks, and his friend Cuddy (a bull) lets him spend the night. When Hornbeam's snoring keeps Cuddy awake all night, the good-natured bull displays the same generosity of spirit that Hornbeam did in the first story. Finally, in the third tale, Hornbeam, Eureka, and Cuddy go to the pool to cheer on their skunk friend, Adorabelle, at a swim meet. During the course of events, Hornbeam discloses that he cannot swim, and his friends lovingly encourage him to overcome his anxieties to learn. As in previous Rylant-Howard collaborations, the illustrations ramp up the gentle humor in the text, with funny details like the quadruped moose wearing shoes only on his hind hooves, bumper stickers on animals' vehicles, and especially snazzy attire for the geese (berets, turtlenecks, glasses). All in for this dazzling series starter! (Early reader. 5-8)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2023
This cozy transitional reader introduces a new character in prolific author Rylant's pantheon: Hornbeam, a moose who loves his friends, sleeping, and potato salad. Three short chapters tell everyday stories: Hornbeam attends a friend's family reunion, he sleeps over at another friend's house, and he learns how to swim. This is for new readers who have mastered phonics and are tiptoeing their way into independent reading. The book has a lot of repetition and only a handful of sentences per page, but there are also compound sentences, multisyllabic words, and phonetic challenges (Eureka, Gladys, spaghetti). Frequent collaborator Howard's loose lines, soft watercolors, and goofy details match Rylant's vibe. Hornbeam trying on swimsuits and caps, for instance, is sure to spark smiles, as will the detail that friend Adorabelle is a skunk who is into competitive swimming. The stories have the feeling of a happy, full life in progress. Hornbeam goes to the sleepover because his furnace breaks on a cold day, and when his snoring keeps his friend up all night, the friend uses the time to catch up on chores like scrubbing the floor. Another winner from a proven team. Adrienne L. Pettinelli

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)