Goats Afloat
by Lezlie Evans; illus. by Julia Patton
Preschool, Primary    Two Lions/Amazon    32 pp.
6/25    9781662520259    $18.99

In this rhyming tale of goats going somewhere, the fun is in the journey. Five goats want to deliver a bouquet and a cake to Granny Goat for her birthday, but they hope to avoid the troll under the bridge. They cross the river by canoe instead, which of course brings mishaps of its own—and perhaps they should have gone the traditional route, since it seems by the end that the troll wasn’t so scary after all. The story will feel familiar to those who’ve heard the one about those three other goats, but this bouncy rhyme (cleverly crafted, with occasional meter missteps) has plenty of new action: rapids, a capsized canoe, a dramatically sinking cake. The digital illustrations are dynamically composed and have plenty of details to notice; red bubble letters for exclamations and sound effects and judicious placement of the text add even more visual interest. “They frosted and wrapped. / They plotted and mapped.” And, in lines descending like a staircase, “Then / down / to / the / dock / they / trippity- / trapped.” Trippity-trap your way to this book for storytime…and don’t take travel advice from goats. (They’re probably just trolling you.)

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.