A Perfect Day | Lane Smith Skip to content
a-perfect-day-header-2

By Lane Smith

Today is a perfect day for Cat, Dog, Chickadee, and Squirrel.

Cat is lounging among the daffodils. Dog is sitting in the wading pool, deep in the cool water. Chickadee is eating fresh seed from the birdfeeder. Squirrel is munching on his very own corncob. Today is a perfect day in Bert's backyard.

Until Bear comes along, that is. Bear crushes the daffodils, drinks the pool water, and happily gobbles up the birdseed and corncob.

Today was a perfect day for Cat, Dog, Chickadee, and Squirrel. Now, it's just a perfect day for Bear.

Lane Smith uses perfect pacing and vibrant illustrations to emphasize the power of perspective in this hilarious picture book about the goings-on in Bert's backyard.

A perfect read for kids ages 4 to 8.

Available wherever books are sold!

Sign up for email updates

About the Author

Lane Smith 2015_photocred_BobShea
(c) Bob Shea

Lane Smith writes and paints in a one-hundred-year-old converted schoolhouse. Sometimes a bear comes down out of the woods to find out what's in the bird feeder outside his window.

In 2012 Lane was named a Carle Artist for Lifelong Innovation in the Field of Children's Picture Books by the Eric Carle Museum, and in 2014 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators. Two of his books have received Caldecott Honors and he is a four-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award. His most recent books include the picture book There Is a Tribe of Kids and the middle-grade novel Return to Augie Hobble. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, the book designer Molly Leach.

More by Lane Smith

If Lane Smith's Caldecott Honor Book Grandpa Green was an homage to aging and the end of life, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a meditation on childhood and life's beginning. Smith's vibrant sponge-paint illustrations use of unusual collective nouns, such as smack and unkindness, bring the book to life. Whimsical, expressive, and perfectly paced, this story plays with language as much as it embodies imagination.

Hardcover Picture Book, ages 5 to 8

Playful and lighthearted with a subversive twist that is signature Lane Smith, It's a Book is a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age. This satisfying, perfectly executed picture book has something to say to readers of all stripes and all ages.

Hardcover Picture Book, ages 6 to 10

Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener; He was a farmboy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of  topiary trees and imagination recreates things forgotten.

Hardcover Picture Book, ages 5 to 9

Now in diapers! For the youngest of readers who still prefer to chew on a book rather than read it, It's a Little Book asks what a book is for—Is it for chewing? Is it for wearing?—and answers the question in a warm and charming way. As funny and captivating as the bestselling It's a Book, It's a Little Book promises to delight a new generation of readers.

Board Book, ages 1 to 2

Written by Bob Shea

Drywater Gulch has a toad problem. Not the hop-down-your-britches, croaking-all-night toad kind of problem. The thievin', hootin', and hollerin', steal-your-gold never-say-thank-you outlaw toad kind of problem.

Then hope rides into town. Sheriff Ryan might only be seven years old, and he might not know much about shooting and roping. But he knows a lot about dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. And it turns out that knowing a thing or two about paleontology can come in handy when it comes to hoodwinking and rounding up a few no-good bandits. From Bob Shea and Lane Smith comes this hilarious picture book, Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads.

Hardcover Picture Book, ages 4 to 8

When a schoolgirl gets separated from her tour of the White House and finds herself in the Lincoln bedroom, she also discovers the ghost of the great man himself. Together they embark on a journey across the country to answer Lincoln's questions and quiet his concerns about the nation for which he gave his life. This wholly original tale is signature Lane Smith: Abe Lincoln's Dream is funny, touching, and surprising in a way only possible from this master picture book creator.

Hardcover Picture Book, ages 5 to 9

Augie Hobble lives in a fairy tale—or at least Fairy Tale Place, the down-on-its-luck amusement park managed by his father. Yet his life is turning into a nightmare: he's failed creative arts and has to take summer school; the girl he has a crush on won't acknowledge him; and Hogg Wills and the school bullies won't leave him alone. Worse, a succession of mysterious, possibly paranormal, events have him convinced that he is turning into a werewolf. At least Augie has his notebook and his best friend Britt to confide in—until the unthinkable happens and Augie's life is turned upside down, and those mysterious, possibly paranormal, events take on a different meaning.

Hardcover Middle Grade Fiction, ages 8 to 12

rbp-logo-smaller

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers

Privacy Notice | Terms of Use

Follow us