Mina

As soon as Mina came into the store, we knew we'd have to send it to our Phinney by Post Kids subscribers. Forsythe's lush illustration and the deadpan humor of his story of a worried mouse daughter and her sweet but overly trusting dad combine into what will surely be one of our favorite picture books of the year, and not only for its mid-story punchline, which makes me laugh every time I turn back to it: "The problem," says the doctor mouse, "is that these squirrels are definitely cats." (Ages 2 to 5)