Ready, steady, go! “I Got a Chicken for My Birthday,” by Laura Gehl, with illustrations by Sarah Horne (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner, 2018, ages 4-8, $17.99). Why are chicken books so funny? I have no idea, peeps. (Get it? Chicken joke.) But chicken books are funny. Ana wants to go to the amusement park for her birthday. Instead, her Abuela Lola sends her a chicken, and that chicken? Puts everyone to work. Even the hamster. Kids will love the funny, vibrant pictures and the story that keeps you guessing; the grown-ups will love the goofiness and the story.

Gehl’s other new book is another in the Peep and Egg series. “I’m Not Using the Potty” (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner, 2018, ages 4-8, $17.99), illustrated by Joyce Wan, is a great one for the reluctant potty trainers. We know you’re out there. We see you doing the Potty Dance. Please stop peeing on trees and learn to use the toilet like the civilized people, would ya, now? Egg won’t use the potty, Peep keeps trying to talk them into it.

“Too slippery!” said Egg.
“I’m NOT using the potty.”

Doesn’t want to throw the toilet paper in the potty, either.

“Too tangly!” said Egg.

Sweet book, sweet story, and encouragement is always appreciated. There you go.

“Ten Magic Butterflies,” by Danica McKellar, with illustrations by Jennifer Bricking (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2018, ages 2-5, 30 pages, $8.99), will help the kiddos with their math, and they won’t even notice it’s happening.

The ten flower friends are happy, but they yearn for just a little more in life.

But sometimes we find out things were best just the way they were. The fairies are beautiful, and a little tricky. The flowers? They just want to play.

Lots of bright garden colors, purple, green, yellow and pink, brighten up the pages. And the math? Bonus.

Bon appetit, babies.

— WM

Rick Riordan, you writing machine you. His latest is called, for short, “The Ship of the Dead.” For long, it’s called “Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead, Book Three in the Series.” (Disney-Hyperion, 2017, 421 pages, $19.99.)

It’s pretty fantastic, as are all of his series. Riordan knows how to keep the readers happy. He starts with funny chapter titles, for example: “I Have a Nightmare About Toenails,” (weird, me, too!), “I Roll Play-Doh to the Death,” “Mallory Gets Nuts,” (followed, of course, by) “Mallory Also Gets Fruit,” “I Become as Poetic as… Like, a Poetic Person,” etc.

Riordan’s other series are “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “The Demigod Files,” “Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods,” “The Kane Chronicles,” “The Heroes of Olympus,” “The Demigod Diaries,” “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” and “The Trials of Apollo.”

Next up:

“Frenemies in the Family: Famous Brothers and Sisters Who Butted Heads and Had Each Other’s Back.” (Crown/New York, 2018, by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Maple Lam, ages 8-12, 229 pages, $17.99.) I wouldn’t limit this one to any specific age group. People often think that kids (and some adults, for that matter) don’t enjoy learning about history. They do. You just need to lively it up is all. This book does that, handily. I love it — I’ve read about half the bios already and will read the rest, too. Favorites so far: Theo and Vincent Van Gogh, art dealer and artist; Chang and Eng Bunker, the conjoined twins; Queens Elizabeth I and Mary I (Bloody Mary)… sooooo good.

Bon appetit, babies. Happy reading!

— WM

This pair of board books, by W.C. Bauers and Marta Costa, are part of the Tiny Bible Tales series. (Grosset & Dunlap, 2018, ages 3-5, $7.99.) (Buy them for the little babies, too, though. Babies need books. Only keep an eye on them so they don’t become teething toys. This public service announcement brought to you by moi, Wacky Mommy.)

“David and the Lost Lamb” retells the story of David, his sheep, and one big, hungry lion. He also has a dog who looks like mine. Kid and dog and God to the rescue!

In “Jonah and the Whale,” Jonah gets a message from God, “Help the people to obey.” At first, he doesn’t want to listen. But then a whale comes along, and things change…

Sunny illustrations, and chipper, rhyming text will keep the kids entertained.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel, y’all, is the message of “When God Made Light,” the second collaboration between Matthew Paul Turner and David Catrow. I like their work together. Here’s Wacky Mommy’s review of their first book, “When God Made You.”) The art lifts right up off the page, gold and blue and purple and green. Two beautiful sisters, and a funny dog.

Have a great day, honeys.

xo and bon appetit!

WM

When my babies were little, little, yummy and little, we loved Sesame Street (Elmo!), and some crazy show on PBS about the Revolutionary War?, and Reading Rainbow.

(SHOUT-OUT! “LeVar Burton Reads” my new favorite thing…)

My daughter would yell, Mommy, quick! Get a piece of paper! And we’d write down all the titles of the books from that day’s episode. This is when libraries rock. We loved to reserve the titles, and it was the coolest thing to stop by the library for pick-up, when we got the notices that the titles were in.

Yeah, we’re geeks, shut up.

Then one day, something horrible happened. My daughter, my sweet, beautiful daughter, developed an aversion to goats. They terrified her.

“Is it their devil eyes?” I asked. “Because I get that.”

“No, nothing, never mind, goats are horrible, I don’t wanna talk about it,” and that was that. Years later she told me it was because of an episode of “Reading Rainbow.”

“Gregory the Terrible Eater,” it turns out, was to blame.

She’s over it now. I send her funny pictures of goats from Instagram, links to the Goat Yoga site, cartoons about goats, and it’s pretty funny. But for awhile there? Scary.

So people, as you’re navigating the treacherous waters of parenthood, remember this: You can have the best of intentions. No refined sugar, PBS only, no whole grapes because omg they might choke, and they’re still gonna get traumatized somehow. Just deal.

* “Gregory the Terrible Eater” by Mitchell Sharmat, illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, is a freaking great book, but your child may suffer needless years of trauma, somehow, randomly, because of it.

* “The Perfect Pillow,” (Disney-Hyperion, 2018, written by Eric Pinder and illustrated by Chris Sheban, ages 3-5, 32 pages, $16.99) is one of those cool nighttime books that kids love and parents are somewhat terrified by. Brody has a stuffed dragon named Horst, a new house, and a lot on his mind. He will crawl out his window, he will sort it out. He will settle down near the edge of a pond, like Moses in the bulrushes. Beautiful story, beautifully illustrated. #love

* “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,” story and pictures by Virginia Lee Burton (Dedicated “To Mike,” Houghton Mifflin Co., 1939). Have you read this book? Have you read “The Little House”? Burton is a genius, go buy her books for your kids, grandkids, the neighbor kids, some random kid you see at the store, I don’t really care. I’m not fussy. Just do it!

Here is my disclaimer, by the way. I don’t run ads on this site any more, but if I did, they wouldn’t influence what I write. I receive books (for free) to review, but no cash compensation. #doyoudoitforthemoneyhoney? No, I just like books.

Bon appetit, peace, love, and Bobby Sherman,

WM

Super cute new board books from Jill McDonald, from her “Hello, World!” series. “Dinosaurs” and “My Body.” (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2018, ages 0-3 years, $7.99 each.)

“Sleepover Duck!” needs a friend. And he found one. But who is doing all that hooting? And will they be able to get any shut-eye? A good way to talk about sleepover worries with the kiddos. (Random House Children’s Books, 2018, ages 3-7, 40 pages, $17.99.)

“The Science of Breakable Things” is for kids ages 8 and older and addresses the struggle of having a depressed parent. It’s thoughtfully handled and takes on a subject that a lot of folks shy away from. (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2018, ages 8 and older, $16.99.)