A New-to-Us Author + Spring Books for Preschoolers

I am so excited to have found a new (to us) children's author whose work I love!

I am a little picky about kids' books. I feel like so much of what's out there now is too dramatic, complicated, and commercial. The characters are too sassy or sarcastic. The illustrations are too busy and there are too many words on the page. Sometimes I feel like the author isn't writing for a child at all.

Books I like are simple. There is a lot of white space. The illustrations are usually hand-done. The pacing is slow, and there isn't a lot of dialogue. Even for some of the ones that pass muster, I still have been known to do a lot of "editing" as I read.

Most of the books that bypass all of my nitpicking seem to be written pre-1960, so that's what we have. Lots of Little Golden Books (the best). But sometimes it's nice to feel a little bit modern and with the times, and I'm always searching for new-to-us kids' books.

Today at the library I picked up:

and

Two big hits! Both books are sweet and simple enough for Amelia (age 1.5) yet deal with interesting enough topics for Eloise (3.5).

As much as I love books, I don't like owning too many of them unless we will truly read them over and over again, but I can see these being in the "own" category. These would also be perfect for the Easter baskets! (More Easter ideas, in case you missed them.)

After a little Amazon-ing, I'm so excited to see the author has written and illustrated almost 50 books! And has won all sorts of awards. (The former editor in me is feeling a little gleeful that I can still spot a winner.)

Do you have any favorite children's authors? Any surprising library finds recently? I'd love to hear!