Bustle in the Bushes

Friendly backyard creatures are the focus of the short, accessible poems in this energetically illustrated book. “I like to feed on tasty plants/ And trees that have gone rotten./ But the weirdest thing about me/ Is these pinchers on my bottom!” announces a cute, purple earwig, seen staring down at a green beetle. Elsewhere, black slugs greet a brightly painted snail as they slide along a flowerpot (“We’re sticky and we’re slimy/ And we don’t have any bones”) and flies buzz around a spider’s web, the spider smiling (genuinely) at them. Though flap copy incorrectly identifies all 15 creatures as insects, Wojtowycz’s color palette is contagiously happy, and Andreae’s breezy rhymes beg to be read aloud. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)