A wonderfully photographed story and activity book for preschool classrooms.
A 3-year-old girl explores what pockets can be used for in this colorfully photographed book full of classroom reading tips.
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed, unnamed girl gets ready for the day in a pink and red outfit with pockets. Her Oma, wearing a jacket that also has pockets, arrives to take her to storytime at the library. (She has something silver in her pocket that the girl’s sister takes out, but it’s hard to determine what it is.) At the library, the girl explores the Story Bear’s pockets and finds art supplies in the paint lady’s pocket. After storytime, Oma takes the girl to the farmers market and stops by the neighbor’s garden, where the girl notices the things her neighbor and the girl at the market keep in their pockets. At home, a baby cousin keeps a duckie in his bib pocket, and the girl’s father has nine pennies (counted by the girl) in his deep pockets. The girl prepares for bed with tooth-brushing and pajamas and shows that her pajamas have two pockets, “one for my prayers, and one for my dreams.” After the story, Deveny offers five different activities that teachers can pair with the book in the classroom: pretend play encouraging the students to imagine themselves in the story; a lesson on the letter P; a song; a project for children to make their own puzzles; and a puppet play. The beautiful color photographs are made with excellent composition to pull in a child’s eye. There’s an abundance of pink, and the cast predominantly looks like the little girl—there’s no real ethnic diversity—so only a small portion of the preschool population will recognize themselves in the images. Despite the homogenous community, the girl is friendly looking and approachable, and the activities in the story and in the teacher section are just right for a preschool audience.
A wonderfully photographed story and activity book for preschool classrooms.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61245-000-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Molly Brave
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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