Groundhog's Dilemma by Kristen Remenar- OPTIONAL

Remenar, Kristen. Groundhog’s Dilemma, PICTURE BOOK. Charlesbridge, 2015. $16.95. Every year, some of the animals in the forest are really happy with Groundhog’s yearly weather report, and some of the animals are really unhappy about it. He doesn’t like to disappoint some, but he can’t help his predictions. He’s just doing his job. This year, the animals have the impression that if they bribe Groundhog with fun activities and delicious treats, he will forecast the weather to their liking. Unfortunately, Groundhog can’t decide the weather, just predict it. In the end, someone is going to be disappointed. I have read a lot of good Groundhog Day books and with appealing artwork on the cover of this one, I was hoping this would be another to add to that list. I think the length of this story was too much and it intermixed regular text structure with word bubbles. Sometimes this works fine, but for this book, it just seemed unnecessary. It attempted a good lesson, but I didn’t think enough emphasis was put on the idea that the friends should have listened better to Groundhog (because he does try to tell them that he can’t decide the weather) and puts all the blame on him for succumbing to their bribery. K-3, EL- OPTIONAL. Reviewed by Shay, High School Librarian