Horse & Buggy Paint It Out! by Ethan Long
Published by Holiday House on June 11th 2019
ISBN: 082344256X
Pages: 32
Goodreads

This is an easy reader in a picture book layout for late Kindergarten and early First grade readers.  Horse has his paint brush, bucket and a French beret all ready to start a mural.  Buggy is asking him about his plan but Horse thinks he can do without a plan or help.  After a few messy steps, Horse finally agrees to hear Buggy’s plan.  The text is all interactive dialogs between Horse and Buggy in white dialog bubbles.  The layout consists of full page and half page comic style frames.  The designation of these frames is the slight change of background hue.  Since readers are new to the comic book format, solid black lines delineating the various comic boxes is suggested.  Long’s cartoon style illustrations show expressions such as frustration, smugness, and surprise that add to the simple sentence text.  The end papers show an exuberant happy dance by Horse and Buggy complete with brushes and pails.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Springvale Public Library