Little Bea

With its digital art and low-impact narration, Roode's debut may seem fluffy, but it's a solid choice for very young readers. The spreads unspool from left to right as Little Bea (she's a bee) plays with a family of ducks ("Now we're going to chase you, Little Bea!"), helps Beaver gather pears ("Come back for pie tomorrow!"), and pulls carrots in Rabbit's garden. Roode's computer-generated images are highly stylized; it's a Teletubbies kind of world, with flowing green hills, a smiling sun and moon, and crisp-edged flowers and trees, which are given slight depth with gradients. The text is full of sounds ("Pitter. Patter. Drop. Drip. Drop"), internal rhymes (" ‘One, two, carrots for you!' Munch, munch, crunch. ‘Thank you for lunch, Little Bea' "), and the simple pleasures of knock-knock jokes and games of "duck, duck, goose" and "peekaboo" (" ‘Peekaboo! I see you!' ‘I see you, too,' says Deer"); there's reassurance and contentment throughout. Friendly, fuzzy creatures abound; the lives of characters who live in a tightly knit community of friends they see and enjoy every day is a satisfying theme. Ages 2–5. (Apr.)