Myers (Brown Angels, 1993; Glorious Angels, 1995; etc.) has gathered another collection of vintage photographs of African-American mothers and children, with a few fathers thrown into the mix, and a good number of solo shots of babies, young gentlemen, and young ladies. Some of the photographs have the date and place inked in with antique penmanship, or the imprint of the studio, sending readers spinning back in time. The array of expressions becomes a message of love, while the stances, clothes, and settings envelop that message. As in the other books, Myers pairs sepia photographs with his verse, and the success of many entries depends on the age of the reader, e.g., the sentiments of “Speak softly in the morning/And light it with your smile/You will soft-speak ‘Mama’/And I will soft-speak ‘Child’ “ may be lost on the young. When Myers writes in a droll mode, almost everyone will be entertained: “ ‘You can’t just leave them like you do collards.’/Mama mixed corn bread in a pan./‘I can’t stand no mushy greens, mushy rice/Or a preacher without a plan.’ “ (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 30, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-027721-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998
This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11131-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
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