by Carol H. Behrman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999
Between midnight and noon a family sleeps, wakes, then leaves the house to the pets and a pair of enterprising mice, while a grandfather clock sounds hourly “dings” and “dongs.” Children can practice an increasingly old-fashioned skill by manipulating clock hands on the cover as they listen to Behrman’s rhymed text and view Takahashi’s spacious, twisty domestic scenes. It’s an adequate second choice, after Dan Harper’s Telling Time with Big Mama Cat (1998); that book has a less generic story line, and is designed so that the clock face folds out. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5804-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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by Holly Keller ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999
PLB 0-688-15996-6 The familiar plight of the smallest is the subject of this picture book from Keller (Brave Horace, 1998, etc.), featuring a baby bear, who is smaller than his mother, father, and siblings. Jacob is frustrated when he can’t reach the cookie jar, see himself in the mirror, or climb to the top of the jungle gym. Papa and Mama tell him he must wait to grow bigger, but Jacob hates waiting. Paint marks on a tree replace the traditional notches in a door frame to mark Jacob’s height. No matter how many vegetables he eats, he doesn’t grow; when the snows come, his mark is buried in a drift. After the snow melts, the reassuring ending finds Jacob grown, not only in stature but in maturity. The apple-cheeked characters are round and cuddly, while the homey, pen-and-watercolor scenes are ever-affable. At their center, the demonstrative Jacob is an everychild, learning to find joy in small measures. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15995-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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by Candace Whitman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 1999
Three different settings for a child’s morning are covered in this book from Whitman (The Night Is Like an Animal, 1995, etc.). “The sun is coming up. It’s a brand-new day on the farm,” where children awaken to the rooster’s crow and begin their chores—gathering eggs, feeding animals. In the town, “way down the road,” parents wake by an alarm clock, and children rush to get ready for the school bus. In the city, a babysitter arrives to take over as the mother heads for work; the child then goes to the park. Readers are asked, “What do you do in the morning?” Diverse family configurations are shown in watercolor paintings; these were created, it appears, through a wet-on-wet technique that makes the boundaries of objects indistinct, as if they are glimpsed through gauze. The luminous scenes make the author’s point: there are many ways to start the day, no matter where morning arrives. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: April 12, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-35527-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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