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GOOD MORNING, CITY

Striking paintings make up for the lapses in the text of this paean to the early hours in the city, which begins when the floodlights on the tops of tall buildings and the streetlights below still shine, and ends when the sun is high and people are thronging to work and to school. In between, readers see the el, its windows brightly lit, traveling past still-dark office and apartment buildings; newspapers dropped off at a shuttered kiosk as the river reflects the brilliant streaks of dawn; an impossibly large cargo ship threading its way through an open drawbridge; subway workers underground; and the sun gilding the gothic spires of a cathedral. Moore (Grandma's Garden, 1994, etc.) employs highly descriptive images (the sky as ``blue as a teacup,'' the ``rubber lips'' of a school bus door) that are sometimes sloppy: the ``hissing steam'' in the subway (the hissing is from compressed air), ``steeples'' defined as ``steep points'' (there can be several such points on a gothic building, but only the tower-like structures are steeples), or ``cathedral bells that harken each new day'' (harken as a transitive verb is archaic; to suggest that cathedral bells ``hear'' or ``listen to'' each new day is confusing). Readers can skip these graceless spots and make discoveries in Low's pictures, each of which suggests a story of its own. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-8167-3654-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

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HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PIE AND SEE THE WORLD

What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 2, 1994

ISBN: 0-679-83705-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994

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BECAUSE I HAD A TEACHER

A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.

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A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.

This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.

A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Compendium

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017

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