Best (Last Licks, p. 297, etc.) offers a perfectly delightful celebration of a really great grandmother. In “the early blue of Grandma’s birthday morning,” as her mama wakes her and goes off to work, Sara hears all her neighbors going about their daily routine. Her Russian grandmother, whom Sara calls Catherine the Great, listens to Sara’s poems, comforts the neighbor’s baby by playing the Russian version of patty-cake, and cooks up a storm in preparation for her own birthday. She has mandated that there be “no presents!” but the neighbors and Sara’s mother know what to do; at the borscht-and-blintzes party, Mary Caruso sings Catherine’s favorite song, Mr. Minsky dances with her, one father, a hairdresser, does her hair, and Sara’s mother finds the picture of Catherine coming from Russia on a “big boat with a little suitcase.” Sara’s “no present” is a poem in English and an offer to teach her grandmother more. Joined here is lively language with exuberant pictures, showing, for example, the three floors of Sara’s building in cutaway, or a double-page close-up filled with the food on and company around Sara’s kitchen table. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2622-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
One of a four-book series designed to help the very young prepare for new siblings, this title presents a toddler-and-mother pair (the latter heavily pregnant) as they read about new babies, sort hand-me-downs, buy new toys, visit the obstetrician and the sonographer, speculate and wait. Throughout, the child asks questions and makes exclamations with complete enthusiasm: “How big is the baby? What does it eat? I felt it move! Is it a boy or girl?” Fuller’s jolly pictures present a biracial family that thoroughly enjoys every moment together. It’s a bit oversimplified, but no one can complain about the positive message it conveys, appropriately, to its baby and toddler audience. The other titles in the New Baby series are My New Baby (ISBN: 978-1-84643-276-7), Look at Me! (ISBN: 978-1-84643-278-1) and You and Me (ISBN: 978-1-84643-277-4). (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84643-275-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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