The Police Cloud is a snappy, cheerful, colorful, tight book with a plot simple enough for a one-year old, but interesting and kooky enough for a 6 year oldafter all, who ever heard of a police cloud?

The story and illustrations, which may look familiar to adult readers of the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Time, are by Christopher Niemann, whose illustrations have appeared in all, are clean and crisp. Niemann manages to give the cloud that dreams of becoming a policeman expressions and emotions usually reserved for the bunnies and puppies that you often find in picture books.

Personally, I loved the story and the chaos (almost Richard Scarry-ian chaos) the cloud creates when he attempts his police duties, which include apprehending a burglar, directing trafficyou can imagine how that goesand patrolling the city park. Things dont go well for the cloud, of course, and his dream of becoming a police cloud is shattered.

But never fear, when the cloud begins to cry, his tears fall like rain onto a burning building and, hooray, he discovers his true calling, which I wont ruin for you, but has something to do with another group of first-responders.

If I have one complaint about the book, its that the illustrations are so clean and computer created that it lacks a little bit of the softness usually found in picture books. But Im willing to ignore that because the story is original, and both of my boys really like this book.