Picture Book of the Day: Ah Ha!, written and illustrated by Jeff Mack

After giving us the hilarious Good News! Bad News! last year, Mack returns with an action-packed book that tells a fun story with very few words and only two letters (the letters "a" and "h").  A frog only wants to enjoy a peaceful swim ("aaaaah" it sighs contentedly) but soon a pesky kid harshes its mellow by catching it in a jar ("aaaaaah!" it screams).  The frog escapes this imprisonment ("ah ha!") but soon finds itself in the clutches of various animals (a turtle, a gator, a flamingo) who yell "Ah ha!" when they attack.  The slapstick comedy builds to a wild conclusion as all of this creatures close in, but frog gets the final laugh ("ha ha!") when it makes one last escape.  The book, with its eyepopping cartoonish illustrations that are perfect for storytimes, comes full circle and children love seeing the frog sigh with contentment once again.  A great near-wordless book that can be paired with the newly released Moo!

Picture Book of the Day: Carnivores, written by Aaron Reyonlds, illustrated by Dan Santat

With this hilarious book just out and the wild Battle Bunny around the corner, well, it's been a fun season for outlandish, subversive humor.  Aaron Reynolds does a great job spoofing those stories where a predator wonders why other creatures don't like him and then does something to prove that he can be trusted.  A wolf, lion, and shark experience an existential crisis when their prey run away, refusing to play with them.  Feeling friendless, they decide to embrace vegetarianism...and that doesn't exactly work.  In a moment that joins the list of funniest great all-time moments in a comical picture book, they join a self-help group, led by a proud yet doomed Owl who teaches them it's OK to say I'M A CARNIVORE!!!  The book gleefully turns the whole message of self-acceptance on its head.  Even though I'm a vegetarian myself, I found this book absolutely nifty and laugh-out loud funny.  Dan Santat's illustrations burst with zest and are packed with clever touches (the shark wears a helmet filled with water when on land, the fact that the bunnies the wolf eats look goofily arrogant, and so on).  Bon appetite!!!