Snail and Worm, of course

The Geisel Honor--winning series Snail and Worm gets a fourth installment with this new short-story collection about friendship. In the first story, Snail and Worm observe beautiful things in nature, such as clouds and a dandelion puff, but Snail grows worried when they start changing in the wind. Worm kindly reassures Snail that even when things around them change, their friendship is constant. The second story sees Snail give Worm a thoughtful but impractical gift, and the final tale offers a silly but comforting take on finding one's place in the world. This beginning reader is perfect for those who have moved beyond Elephant and Piggie and are ready for a higher reading level. The text is written in a simple dialogue format using contrasting colors that make it easy to distinguish who is speaking. Simple illustrations employ a muted but cheerful color palette and a variety of layouts, from full- and double-page spreads to spot art. Most important, they reflect the story's text very well, ensuring developing readers have the support they need.

Snail and Worm strike again, with another standout early reader. In this latest installment of the series, Kügler delivers another bighearted trio of stories about two small friends. The controlled text is told through dialogue only, with careful text placement rather than speech tags indicating the speaker. As in previous titles, the characters' expressions and posturing enhance the text's gentle humor in the pals' interactions, which often hinges on Snail's naïveté. Achieving expressiveness with anthropomorphic invertebrate body language is an impressive feat, and Kügler's deft use of simple dots and circles for eyes (or, in Snail's case, eyestalks) seems akin to character illustrations by James Marshall and Jon Klassen. Characters' simple faces display a range of emotions, from dismay to uncertainty, sadness, fear, and joy, as Worm helps Snail grapple with the ephemeral nature of a cloud and a dandelion gone to seed, and they both confront the feeling of being too small in a big world. The throughline of the book is reciprocal affection, which expands to include a new friend by book's end when a turtle approaches Snail and Worm and asks to play with them. Should you read this terrific book? Of course! (Early reader. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.