PROBLEM SOLVED!

Porcupine Pete knows just how to fix Rabbit’s problem.

Rabbit’s room is a mess—Rabbit can’t go “hippity-hoppity” without stepping on something. But Porcupine Pete is here to help. Porcupine Pete’s ideas range in success. Carefully folding all of Rabbit’s shirts is a good idea, but feeding those shirts to the goldfish is not—despite Porcupine Pete’s enthusiastic “PROBLEM SOLVED!” Luckily, Rabbit steps in and places the shirts neatly in the dresser. Stacking all the blocks helps tidy the room, but Pete’s suggestion of flushing them down the toilet is less than ideal. Again, Rabbit catches Pete in time and stows the toys safely. It’s unclear whether Pete has poor problem-solving skills or is using reverse psychology, but either way, Rabbit modifies each of Pete’s giggleworthy suggestions, and soon every object is in its rightful place. (Caregivers may pick up ideas for encouraging little ones to clean up their own rooms.) It looks like Pete is out of a job until the friends read a newspaper reporting that scientists on Mars are in need of help. Will the scientists there be able to cope with Porcupine Pete’s wild ideas? This goofy tale has just a few well-selected words per page; the text is primarily made up of speech bubbles. Thick-lined cartoon illustrations set against solid backgrounds are rich with emotion, action, and humor. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Will help parents solve a perennial problem with humor and empower children to turn cluttered rooms into neat ones.