MOMMY'S LITTLE SUNFLOWERS

A tale of two young mice that go off on an adventure to first replace then plant a sunflower seed, from the pair who created Yuck! That’s Not a Monster! (2010).

Brothers Scurry and Scamp are a cuddly yet determined duo. The first page launches readers into a lengthy tale about how they get the oversized bloom to give to their mother. When younger Scamp nibbles the seed that Scurry brought home from school to plant, his hopes of growing a “funflower”—according to Scamp—are slim. But then Blackbird swoops down and tells the mice where they can find a field of sunflowers. The quest begins. On the way, the siblings are challenged with physical obstacles and must cooperate with each other to get the desired result. Ample dialogue is dominated by exclamation points: “Suddenly they heard a ‘MOO!’ ‘Look! It’s a cow! She’ll help us!’ cried Scamp. ‘Watch out!’ squeaked Scurry. ‘We’ll get SQUASHED!’ ” Unsurprisingly, the initially scary cow comes to the mice’s aid. As the story draws to a close, the two mice decide to put their creative talents to work to surprise their mother, since growing the plant did not work out as planned. The forced melodrama and rather pedestrian, consciously cute pictures fail to impress.

Sure to appeal to those who like their children’s books saccharine. Everyone else should pass.