Engaging color photographs of Angelica and her grandmother, who lives right next door in a San Francisco housing project, accompany the simple text that highlights the contemporary life of a Hispanic family. Some older sepia-tone family photographs also appear to document Francisca’s earlier life in New Mexico. With parents born in the US and grandparents born in Spain, Francisca does not appear to have Mexican roots, but because of her New Mexican roots, many of the foods mentioned in the text are Mexican, such as burritos and tortillas. A recipe is given for calabacitas, a vegetable stew including tomatoes, zucchini, and corn that has variants in several countries. Each two-page spread has a simple sentence in very large type that young children may be able to read themselves, followed by several paragraphs in good-sized, though smaller type that provide additional details. Angelica’s parents are not mentioned much, but the emphasis is on the grandmother-grandchild relationship. The celebration of Three King’s Day (Epiphany) is described as one Hispanic holiday, but its context within the larger Christmas season is not specified, nor is the date given. This is one in a series that the prolific Morris (Families, 2000, etc.) has written about grandmothers from different ethnic groups and the format includes a recipe, a craft (here a rather generic sock doll is featured), and some instructions for finding out about family history. Simple pictures by Linenthal (who has also taken the fine photographs) accompany the recipe and the craft and show a family tree at the end, but these painted illustrations appear out of place within the photo-essay format. Teachers, grandparents, and parents will enjoy sharing this with children of all cultures and then moving on to their own family memories. (Nonfiction. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7613-2315-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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