By Nick Bruel
Take a young imaginative girl, her faithful dog, her sleepy cat, a purply pink hippo named Louise, a talking tree, a can of beans (who has its own TV show), and the 4 seasons of the year, bring them together in four interrelated stories, and you have A Wonderful Year, a new picture book by Nick Bruel, bestselling author of Bad Kitty. These stories are wonderfully weird and strange, and very funny in a bizarre sort of way. The reader moves from Winter to Spring to Summer, and then Fall, following the adventures of this little girl, who is described as a demented fairy and her unusual assortment of friends. There are really only three more words to describe all this: clever, creative and imaginative. This book just has to be read to understand. The illustrations are very bright and very colorful and add so much to each story. I loved them! Each story is mostly told in three to four panels per page which I liked reading on my own, but found harder for children to follow in a read aloud setting. You must experience A Wonderful Year for yourself. I found myself feeling like the cat on the back cover!
Review by Renee Larsen, Hillside Elementary Media Center
Rating: ★★★★✩ (4 stars)
Interest Level: Grade K-3
Author Website: http://www.nickbruel.com/
A Wonderful Year
By Nick Bruel
Roaring Brook Press
40 pages
Release Date: January 6, 2015
