I write my reviews before I post. I might miss a few things (I am a horrible editor for myself), but I try to organize my thoughts. But when I counted out my review for The Noisy Puddle, it was less than 170 words. To fill the quota I’ve added a fiction book to go with the non-fiction one. Besides, it’s twice the fun in one review! And while many probably will like the first book, if you’re like Heloise, you don’t always follow the crowd.
The Noisy Puddle: A Vernal Pool Through the Seasons by Linda Booth Sweeney and illustrated by Miki Sato is a poetry and science book. (It is also a book that is currently available but I read via an online reader copy). This picture book is a nice one-story poem (but each line has a page to itself), that shows you how a puddle or pool has a cycle and a life. Not only does the pool have a story, there is life and stories within it, around it and even above and below. We see tadpoles, snakes, birds, and more as the water in the pond slowly starts to evaporate, disappear. We start with one season, and move through all of them, ending up where we started. The facts are presented in a child friendly way that allows it to be adapted as the child grows. Best for the toddler to around seven or eight year old readers (or listeners), it makes learning about a “puddle” fun. 
Onto our penguin gal Heloise, in No Huddles for Heloise by Deborah Kerbel and illustrated by Udayana Lugo. Also currently available I read this also by an online reader copy. This is not a new theme, but the ways Kerbel makes Heloise a penguin who loves her friends, but does not like to be “too close” or “huddled together” fun and new. The exploration of Heloise trying to find her place in the world is literal while our readers might have to live via Heloise, but the tactics her friends use to show they care and everyone can have a good time can be adapted into the real world.
The illustrations of both books really set the mood of things. The pool book is sweet, young, and a little cartoonish, but also an odd reality to it as well. Whereas Heloise is totally goofy and unrealistic. Things are open and minimal details and colors, but allows for a full story.