The illustrations in this delightful picture book are lovely. My daughter and I are just as enchanted with the artwork as the little red bird was with the lion's colorful tail. A sweet story accompanies the beautiful collages.

I absolutely love this book. I teach drama and used this book to teach preschool aged children. We acted out the story and then they drew a mural based on the lion's paintings. The book made me cry the first time I read it. One of the sweetest books I've ever read

Beautiful story. Beautiful pictures. It's about art and colors and making friends. Buy it for any two-year-old who doesn't already own it. You can reread and reread this book with pleasure, which is the #1 most important feature for any read-aloud book.

The text is pure magic and the pictures are pure poetry. Or: the story is poetic and the pictures are magic. Or: the story is colorful and the pictures are resonant. Or: ... oh, just buy it and enjoy it.

My daughter (4) and I both love this book. I won't go into the story since the other reviewers do, but just want to add a few things. I love how the paper princess reminds us not to crumple our drawings just because we make a little mistake, and to use the other side of the paper; I love the multicultural figures throughout the book, the gentleness of the heroine's brother (and his all too real comment that his sister is "usually" nice), the beauty of the world that captivates the paper princess, and the imaginative little girl who showers the paper princess with a whole paper wardrobe and even a paper brother upon her return. This books tells a rich story and the illustrations make it impossible not to love. Enjoy!

I'm so glad we found this book! I have two daughters (3 1/2 and 6) and both love it. The story of a paper doll that flies away from the little girl who creates it is sweet and simple. But it's the illustrations--extremely detailed matisse-like collages--that are most compelling. I think every time we read this book (and that's often) we discover something new in the pictures. We linger over each spread and even play "I Spy," pointing out little details to each other. The ending is very satisfying and there's no lesson or preachiness. It's just a story about love, and caring for someone, and the joy of having that love returned. Also, it is often confused with the Paper Bag Princess, which although a good story, couldn't be more opposite in tone or presentation (we like paper princess better).

a great story with beautiful, colorful, rich pictures. the foolish hunter learns the lesson that everything on earth is connected-- water, air, plants and animals--none can live without the others. my kids loved it too!

One day, deep in the forest, a hunter comes upon a dancing deer. "Would you look at that!" the hunter said, setting down his gun. "Wowie-kazowie, a dancing deer! A deer I can sell to the circus! Great gumballs-my fortune is made!" He lassos the little deer and takes her home with him. When he commands her to dance, she informs him that she needs music, the beautiful song of the birds to dance. The hunter goes back out to the woods, and captures two song birds. But the birds are too shy to sing without the wind whistling through the pine trees. The hunter digs up two small pines and brings them home, but they won't whistle without the gentle sea breeze, and of course the sea breeze won't blow without the "moving, inspiring" sea, and so on, and so forth. The poor exasperated hunter finds nothing will work the way it's supposed to. He'll never be able to sell the deer to the circus, and he'll never be rich. "Hunter! Stop your foolishness!" the deer cried. "Just put me back in the deep green forest, along with everything else, and I'll dance all by myself!" Elisa Kleven's original, action-packed, chain of events story, based on the John Muir quote, "whenever we try to isolate anything in the universe, we find that it's hitched up to everthing else," is filled with humor and the gentle message of interdependence and harmony in nature, that won't be lost on young readers. Her engaging text, with its zippy dialogue and wonderful sound effects, begs to be read aloud, and is enhanced by charming bold, bright, and busy illustrations. With a unique and satisfying, happily-ever-after ending to set everything right again, The Dancing Deer And The Foolish Hunter is a delightful, manic romp youngsters 3-7 won't want to miss, and is sure to be a storytime favorite.

Written and illustrated by Elisa Kleven, The Dancing Deer And The Foolish Hunter is a delightful, full color picturebook with a charming, original story. A hunter captures a dancing, talking deer - but the deer explains that it can't dance without the singing of birds, and the bird's the hunter snares won't sing without the whistle of pine trees... ultimately, chain of events The Dancing Deer and the Foolish Hunter culminates in a valuable lesson about how silly it is to try to cage and isolate separate bits of nature. A funny, enjoyable, and satisfying read-aloud story, The Dancing Deer And The Foolish Hunter is highly recommended for family, school, and community picturebook collections for young readers ages 5 to 7.

I teach conversational Spanish to elementary school children and was looking for a songbook to make class more interesting. I kept coming across this book so I ordered it. I received it yesterday and fell in love with it. I immediately sat at the piano and started playing every song. The book is beautifully illustrated and the songs are easy to learn. I also liked that the lyrics were in English also. I recommend this book highly. In fact, I'm ordering the audio today.

My daughter LOVES to sing and this book was music to her little ears! I was surprised to see so many familiar songs in spanish, it brought back lots of memories of growing up. I was amazed at the diversity of songs from various spanish-speaking countries. These songs and their origins are a MUST to pass on to our children and future generations. I wish there was music that could accompany this awesome book!

Buy the music that goes with the book

This is a wonderful book for both children and adults. It was written by a second grade teacher for her class to perform and it goes through each letter of the alphabet in order telling the Christmas story. "A is for Augustus who sent out the decree..." I originally discovered it because it was recommended in "The Godparent Book", when I found the library I was in awe. It is one of the few intelligent books the aims to tell the who Christmas story without dumbing it down or putting in overly cutetsy or sentimental pictures. The pictures are lavish and brightly colored. It goes far beyond the standard alphabet format so that even adults will enjoy reading and re-reading it year after year. My family reads one Christmas story every day leading upto the 25th, this is a definate must have for your collection if you do the same thing.

This is a beautifully illustrated book with a simple and wonderful text. I find it a joyful experience to look at the colorful and interesting illustrations. I share it with my daughter, but I purchased the book for myself!

This book is beautifully written and illustrated. It depicts the glory of the Christmas season. Not only is this my favorite Christmas story for children, it is also my daughters' favorite Christmas story.

This tender story about Ernst and his brother Sol touches the hearts of everyone. Our favorite birthday gift! It teaches us to respect the uniqueness in each of us. The incredible illustrations capture the imagination of young and old. We love reading this story over and over again.

Ms. Kleven shows her readers the beauty in the world around us, the many things we can enjoy which don't cost money or require collecting objects. Her message is important and her art is fanciful and gorgeous.

I think this is a great book for kids about imagination and about "doing your own thing". The illustrations are absolutely wonderful - you discover something new everytime you read it.

This book arrived in our home as a gift, and it has become a most beloved one over many readings. The illustrations are quirky, lovely, and detailed enough that there's always some new detail to catch one's eye--VERY important with a book like this that is going to get read over and over. And over.

The setting, a quasi-rural landscape and homey interiors that illustrate the slow settling in of the winter season, is pleasantly multicultural. This is very difficult to do, in my opinion, in a way that is not condescending. An unexpected added pleasure in this book.

Worth owning in hardcover, will be loved to death by young children. The rhythm of the language is beautiful and catchy--my very young daughters often pick it up and sing at it after I have done reading it to them.

Snowsong Whistling is the perfect book to read on that chilly fall or winter day, curled up in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa. The illustrations are so beautiful and lively--they make you want to jump right into the pages of the book. I'll confess that I've picked up the book on a hot summer's day, just longing to feel a chill in the air! I have a large library of children's books, and this is my absolute favorite.

Do your children love animals? How about cookies and bread? This book combines both. A loveable dog is the town baker. To encourage the return of warm weather, he shapes his loaf of bread into a likeness of the sun. The lilting rhymes in the book describe the wonderful aroma and rich, gold, smooth color and texture of the bread with power, sun power. It enticed the sun in the sky to part the clouds, come out shining brightly to behold this luscious bread created by the bakers loving touch. The recipe for sun bread is included in the book as well as colorful illustrations. Ah, the joy of cooking takes on a new meaning. Charming.If you and your children like "Sun Bread", take a look at, "And The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon" by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummbel, or "Fishing in the Air" by Sharon Creech. Delightful books for children.

This is a delightful book with gorgeous pictures, pleasing rhymes to read aloud and several lovely themes that are nicely understated (e.g. the pleasure of giving and receiving, creating your own light and warmth in dark and wintry times). The illustrations are warm without being too shmaltzy and have the kind of details that young kids (perhaps all kids) love, where you can pick out a tiny lion in this corner doing such and so and, "What's that?! A zebra doing...!" I haven't yet tried the recipe for sun bread on the back cover but what a great idea idea to be able to leap up from the book into your kitchen with your toddler to bake up some bread.

I'm a second grade teacher whose students adore Sun Bread. The pictures are beautiful and the text is pure fun to read aloud (and chant along with!). The story also presents concepts about the sun in an eloquent and intriguing manner. "It melted all the snows away and brought the shadows out to play" is one of our favorite lines. We also love "It scattered rainbows soft and bright, [and] fed the plants with its clear light." What a charming introduction to photosynthesis! Sun Bread is a delightful, warm, and informative book. Tie it in with a lesson about the garden and breadmaking.

I got the book and the music album together and I absolutely love them. The book makes the music a lot more meaningful-- even if you know enough Spanish to understand the music, the book is still useful to show you finger-plays and dances to go along with it. However, I wouldn't have gotten much out of the book by itself. Unless you are really good at reading music, get the album too.

I bought this book & the accompanying CD. To be honest, I don't use the book to sing along with the CD as much as I thought I would. But...when I do, it is great. There are wonderful, colorful pictures, English & Spanish words to every song, and an explanation of the origin/tradition of the song. Lots of fun, I hope my 15 month old is absorbing some of it.

This is a great book that both my kids love. I also got the CD that goes with it. The illustrations are very interesting and filled with details. If you can read music you can also play the songs along. I highly recommend it.

This book shows Angelenos and the world that there is much diversity to celebrate and enjoy in Los Angeles and it does it in a fun, colorful way. The illustrations are delightful and the text informative. Even long-time residents will learn something new. Fun for adults as well as kids. We bought them as gifts for everyone on our holiday list.

As residents of Los Angeles we are thrilled to have a book which highlights our city, its diversity and its vivacity. Each page is a jeweled mosaic. We will enjoy introducing our grandchildren to their city in picture and word.

This book is one of those rare children's books that teaches the adult as well as the child. I can only hope that the authors and the illustrator work on capturing the magic of other cities, just like they did with Los Angeles!