Molly, Olive, and Dexter The guessing game

Three animal friends -- "Molly the hare, Olive the owl, and Dexter the fox" -- play a game that Olive calls "Guess What?" Dexter goes first: "Guess what I'm thinking about," he says, gazing at the sky. Molly guesses correctly on the first try; it's the sky, of course. "'How did you know?' asks Dexter, puzzled." Molly's up next, and Olive guesses that she's thinking about grass. How did Olive know? "Easy...your mouth is full of it." For her turn, Olive is "thinking about TWO things at the same time." Dexter and Molly are stumped. Is Olive thinking about two brown leaves? Two clouds? Two flowers? "It's too hard." Olive encourages her friends to keep guessing; the two things she's thinking of are "very nearby" and "even lovelier than flowers." Rayner's soft mixed-media illustrations on cream-colored pages match the text's gentle tone and give young listeners the advantage by making obvious what -- or who -- is on Olive's mind. With its peaceful meadow setting and the friends' warm rapport, this good-natured picture book offers a pleasing storytime diversion. Kitty FlynnJuly/August 2024 p.110 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The protagonists of Molly, Olive, and Dexter Play Hide-and-Seek (2023) take part in the "loveliest game in the world." Molly the hare, Olive the owl, and Dexter the fox are good friends, but it's Olive who's fondest of guessing games. She entices her friends to play "GUESS WHAT?" Gazing skyward, Dexter begins by asking the other two what he's thinking about. Molly immediately figures out that he's thinking of the sky. It's equally clear what Molly, her mouth full of delicious grass, is thinking of. When it's Olive's turn, she declares that she's thinking of "TWO things at the same time." Their frustration mounting, Molly and Dexter just can't figure it out. To help them, Olive says that the two things are lovely. Lovelier than flowers, even. Some young readers will likely hit on the answer at the same time as the fox and the hare. Utterly comfortable in its own coziness, Rayner's extraordinary, watercolorlike mixed-media art has a loose, sketchy quality that adds to its easygoing charm. Meanwhile, all this postulating is set against a backdrop of a summer's day so beautiful that children will yearn to return again and again. It takes no guesswork to understand just how endearing this friendship truly is. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.