Set sail with two picture books in March!

Tough Tug, by Margaret Read MacDonald/Illustrated by Rob McClurkan, (March 2018, Two Lions), $17.99, ISBN: 978-1503950986

Recommended for readers 3-6

Tough Tug is a scrappy tugboat, newly built and ready for action! He’s got his first big job – to pull a barge to Alaska – and learns that being a tug isn’t all about racing and bravado, especially in arctic waters! Based on the true story of an Alaskan tug that cut loose its own barge to rescue a floundering tug, Tough Tug sends positive messages about responsibility and helping others. Repeated phrases on each spread – Slide and Splash, Swirld and Twirl – get exaggerated font sizes and and lend a fun rhythm to storytelling. The digital illustrations personify the boats, giving them wide eyes and facial features, like eyepatches and mustaches. Kids who love movies like Cars will enjoy this fun add to vehicle/transportation picture books. Get your readers up and moving to this story like you would for Helen Oxenbury’s classic, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt: swirling and splashing, painting and priming, using their arms and legs to wade through the story. Endpaper maps illustrate Tough Tug’s journey from construction to Alaska.

Ready, Set, Sail!, by Meg Fleming/Illustrated by Luke Flowers, (March 2018, Little Bee), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1-4998-0533-8

Recommended for readers 3-7

Are you ready for a day of fun on the high seas? Join this group of animal friends as they grab their life vests and head out onto open water in this adorable rhyming tale. The group rows out to their ship, sets sail, and drops anchor so everyone can have some island fun diving and exploring. At the end of the day, they head to town to tell their whale of a tale. Luke Fleming’s colorful art, with Meg Fleming’s jaunty rhyme and rhythm, make for rousing storytime reading. Pair this with some fun fish and marine tales, like Lucy Cousins’s Hooray for Fish, Kyle Westaway’s A Whale in the Bathtub, or Steve Light’s board book, Boats Go.

Meg Fleming’s book, Ready, Set, Build! is a rhyming tale about two friends who build a playhouse together; together, these two books could form a nice cooperative themed storytime.