Spring is in her full finery, and we will soon find ourselves sliding into Summer. Treat yourself to a few of these lovely Spring books for toddlers and preschoolers...before the heat sets in! 

Award winning children's author Kevin Henkes teams up with Laura Dronzek, his spouse who is a painter, for a lovely look at the many signs of Spring. Dronzek's art is in color saturated pastels with strong black outlines that will appeal to tiny ones and preschoolers will love reading about, and looking for sights, sounds and smells of the season. This is a great companion book to their previous book, Birds. 

MacLennan loves the sound of language and her books make super read-alouds for groups. The artwork paints bright colors that really pop and shine from a background made of plain brown cardboard. Catkins, the fuzzy blossoms on a pussy willow branch, come alive as little kitty cats peeking from a kitten tree. The words of the book fairly dance across the page, providing lots of interesting print for little eyes to follow. You simply can't get more bouncy and bright than this!

Spring is the time when the garden calls to me for digging, finding worms who are just wiggling and waking up. McKloskey, like MacLennan, uses recycled brown bags painted with bright colors to present lots of facts and answer kid's questions about our earthy little friends. This is a great one to read before the spring rains hit and all the worms can be found curled up on the wet sidewalks. As a first science book, this one can't be beat! Pair it with Doreen Cronin's Dairy of a Worm.