This review contains spoilers for various picture books.
Full disclosure: I actually read these in the final days of 2015. But they're being reviewed in 2016, so I think it's perfectly reasonable to put them under the umbrella of 2016 regardless.
I Will Take a Nap! by Mo Willems
Did I just take acid? What the fuck just happened to me? It starts out with the same kind of "let me sleep!" plot line that Goodnight, Already! had, but then this takes a distinct turn for the strange. The illustrations are great, and... I kind of want to just hand this to someone when they're tripping and see what they make of it. (Is that a odd thought to have?)
...and that's my roundabout way of saying this was super amusing in the weirdest way.
Otter in Space by Sam Garton
This is a children's book that apparently ties into the author's blog, I Am Otter: The Unheard Ramblings of a Modern Day Domestic Otter. I can only imagine this story is more endearing if you're familiar with that, because as it stands alone… I'm not really affected either way. I'm not interested, amused, put off, or anything. I have genuinely zero opinions about this book and am only left with the sense that I'm missing some kind of context I need to actually enjoy it.
What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss
Honestly, the Seuss biography in the back, which included information on his various pets and how this manuscript came to be discovered and published, was more interesting than the book itself. But it's probably a fun read for an animal lover or a child expecting to get a pet soon. It's likely the perfect way, in fact, to get a child thinking seriously about what kind of pet they want (and from there, you can do some actual research into caring for their chosen animal before you go out and grab one, unlike the children in this story).
Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood
Guys, I genuinely cannot gush about this enough. I don't give out many five star ratings, but this easily snatches one up for itself.
The art is spectacular, and the concept is great. It's like a punk-ish space fantasy (Is spacepunk a thing? Can we make it a thing?) with a feminist angle; here we have a fairy
The only flaw I can possibly come up with is that a child will likely have to be familiar with the Disney (or Disney-esque) retelling to fully appreciate this. But, seriously, there's no way to prevent a child from eventually hearing that (and I'd argue there shouldn't be, since it's a cultural cornerstone for better or worse), so that shouldn't be a problem.
Waiting by Kevin Henkes
It's a super simple story about toys sitting on a windowsill as the seasons--and years, presumably--pass them by. There's not much to it, but it's kind of cute and sweet.
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