In four entertaining tales, author/artist Nick Bruel, perhaps best known for his Bad Kitty books, chronicles the adventures of a young girl over the course of a single year. From Winter Wear, in which the girl is prepared so thoroughly for the cold weather that by the time she gets outside her opportunity for play has passed, to Spring Splendor, in the girl and her dog drag an unwilling cat into a game of make-believe, all four seasons are covered. Rounding out the selections are Summer Sidewalks, in which Louise the purple hippopotamus freezes and unfreezes the girl, and Fall Foliage, in which the girl uses storytelling to reassure her favorite arboreal friend about the transformation he is undergoing as the season progresses.

With a delightfully quirky sense of humor and appealing, cartoon-strip style illustrations, A Wonderful Year captures the beauty and joy of the changing seasons, and one girl's experiences as time marches on around her. There were moments here - when Louise the purple hippo falls asleep while the (melted) girl is "freezing" back into shape! - that had my chuckling, and others - the tree listening attentively to the girl's story about a brave arboreal hero who isn't afraid of his changing colors - that struck me with their sharp sense of poignancy. My favorite story was Fall Foliage, both because autumn is my favorite season, and because the artwork here - it looked almost like cut-paper illustrations - appealed to me the most strongly. Recommended to anyone looking for entertaining and engaging picture-books about the changing seasons, and about creative girls and their imaginary games. ( )

This book was a combination of a comic strip, picture book, and poetry. At first, I didn’t really like the structure of the book because it seemed confusing, but towards the end, I appreciated the style that the author was going for, and I can see how he used specific language patterns, various writing styles, and illustrations to capture the attention of the readers. The language that he used was in dialogue form where the different interactions between characters guide the reader to discover different aspects of each season. For example, in the winter season, each character gave the girl another piece of winter clothing to put on (scarf, mittens, ear muffs) to demonstrate how cold it is outside in the wintery brisk. With the writing, it seemed almost like a sing – song type of writing where it had a sort of repetition and rhythm to the dialogue: “Behold a yellow daffodil! A daffodil! A daffodil! Behold a yellow daffodil, as pretty as can be!” This kind of writing seemed a bit boring to me after it was repeated so many times; it made me lose interest. But I liked how the ‘songs’ flow together overall. The illustrations were vibrant and had sort of a comic book style look to it which I thought was pretty interesting because it’s not something you would have expected from just the cover of the book. The drawings highlighted certain characteristics of each season. For example, in the fall season, each section of the page showed the progression of the leaves changing color and gradually falling off the tree. The main idea of the book was to show the readers the seasons of the year without having to explain it explicitly what each season consists of. Rather, the author took a different approach (of dialogue and comic book) to show the various aspects of each season year round. ( )

A surreal journey through the four seasons, each season a self-contained story, spans a range of emotions from silly to touching. ( )

This book is a great way to introduce students to the seasons. The little girl in the story journeys through the seasons and encounters many adventures and friends along the way. A memorable and fun way to introduce or teach the aspects of seasons in the classroom or at home. ( )