Randy Cecil Bücher

A lonely gator, a carousel animal, goes on a courageous journey, finds what he is looking for, and becomes a hero along the way.Gator loves everything about being a carousel animal - the flashing lights, the calliope music, and most of all, the laughter. But day by day, week by week, fewer and fewer people come to the amusement park, until one day, no one comes at all. And so begins an extraordinary odyssey, as Gator leaves behind the only life he's ever known and sets off through some deep, dark woods to a place wit real alligators - and a wonderful, familiar sound.

"A tiny Spaceman arrives on a new planet, ready to perform his monotonous tasks--collecting samples, labeling and filing them, and moving on to the next planet. But pausing to look around, the Spaceman is dazzled by the beauty of his surroundings. And when a large bird makes off with his ship, he's forced to venture out into this new world--planet Earth--on foot. Marveling at a varied landscape of flowers, butterflies, and other wondrous creatures, he finds a pond to float in and a goofy, slobbery beast who seems to want to be his friend. Could it be that the Spaceman has found a new home? This simple and sophisticated story filled with deadpan humor offers surprises on each lively spread. From a veteran creator comes a delightfully droll story radiating warmth and the wonder of the new, reminding us to look up from our mundane lives and embrace discovery.

An ear-tickling, eye-teasing romp for little listeners, led by an award-winning author and illustratorDo you really, really want to see a moose — a long-leggy moose — a branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose? Spurred by Phyllis Root's sing-songy text and Randy Cecil's buoyant illustrations, this hunt for an elusive moose through woods, swamps, bushes, and hills is just as fun as the final surprise discovery of moose en masse. Children will laugh at the running visual joke — what is that little dog looking at? — and ask for repeated reads of this satisfying tale.