Children’s books celebrate rites of spring

With the onset of spring, nature’s little creatures come alive. Then they apparently leap onto the pages of children’s picture books. Cute critters dominate the seasonal releases:

“Busy in the Garden” (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, $15.99, ages 3 and up) by George Shannon and illustrated by Sam Williams. Everyone who’s anyone on the farm gets their own cute, kid-friendly poem in this book. The rooster’s is called “Spring Alarm!” Two bunnies who want more carrots come up with a charming chant in “Garden Math,” and even rutabaga, not a word that normally rolls off the tongues of young readers, co-stars with turnips, carrots, corn cobs and squash in “Stew.”

“Buzz-Buzz, Busy Bees” (Little Simon, $5.99, ages 3-7) by Dawn Bentley and illustrated by Heather Cahoon. Bees are very busy indeed. They don’t have time to play with roosters, race the horses or watch a sheep jump the gate. They are worker bees, after all, making golden honey for the farmer and everyone else to enjoy.

“Nutmeg and Barley: A Budding Friendship” (Candlewick, $15.99, ages 4-7) by Janie Bynum. Barley the mouse works hard on his garden each and every day, while Nutmeg the squirrel soaks up the sun. Barley knows he could make a friend out of Nutmeg, and a bunch of fresh flowers seems to do the trick — until there’s a bit of miscommunication. But it takes more than that to derail a friendship that’s meant to be.

“I Can Name 50 Trees Today!” (Random House, $8.99, ages 5-8) by Bonnie Worth and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz and Joe Mathieu. If anyone could make learning about branches and bark fun, it’s the folks at The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, which produced this book. And how many parents out there know this much about the albizia falcata? “Here’s a fast grower; this will surely amaze ya. Over one inch each day, this tree grows in Malaysia.”

“Holey Moley” (North/South, $16.95, ages 4-8) by Marcus Pfister. Two brothers want to play, but they each go their separate ways when they can’t agree what to do: Build a hill or dig a hole? What they realize — after spending too much time alone and frustrated doing their own things — is that they’re really doing the same things. They also realize they did make a mountain out of a mole hill.

“Duck & Goose” (Schwartz & Wade, $14.95, ages 3-7) by Tad Hills. Apparently neither Duck nor Goose played soccer when they were young. The two bicker over who is going to care for a giant spotted “egg.” But when they start talking about all the things the baby inside the egg will learn once he hatches, it becomes “our egg.” That is, until a little blue bird kicks that fantasy right out from under them.