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TEDDY BEAR, TEDDY BEAR

Name: TEDDY BEAR, TEDDY BEAR
Author: Alice Schertle
ISBN: 0-688-16870-1

by Alice Schertle & illustrated by Linda Hill Griffith ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2003

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Illustrated by a teddy bear specialist, these 14 new rhymes are just the ticket for a spell of quality lap time. Schertle (When the Moon Is High, p. 397) writes of bears in chairs, and bears on stairs—“Bears on the staircase / all in a row, / bears on the banister— / LOOK OUT BELOW!”—bears messy and neat; bears loud, quiet, or both in turn; good little bears and those having a “Bad Bear Day.” Griffith (Blessings and Prayers for Little Bears, 2002, etc.) places fuzzy, animated teddies in cozy domestic scenes chockablock with brightly colored, exactly rendered toys, children’s clothing, patterned fabrics, household pets and the occasional doting child. A cockle-warming successor, all in all, to Michael and Kathleen Hague’s Alphabears (1984) and Numbears (1986), or, of course, Ruth Krauss’s classic rhyme. (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)

Pub Date: April 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-688-16870-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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ALL THE COLORS OF THE EARTH

by Sheila Hamanaka ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1994

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
GRANDPARENTS SONG
by Sheila Hamanaka & illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HOKEY POKEY
by Larry La Prise & Charles P. Macak & Taftt Baker & illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka

- BOOK REVIEW
BEBOP-A-DO-WALK!
by Sheila Hamanaka & illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka

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POCKET POEMS

edited by Bobbi Katz & illustrated by Marylin Hafner ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2004

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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)