Using sharp, cheerful, full-color photographs of young people, from toddlers to teenagers, Senisi (Just Kids, 1998, etc.) illustrates her premise that “Reading grows—bit by bit.” Included are pictograms everyone recognizes: deer crossing, wheelchair access. Colors are presented, then shapes, letters, words, signs, sentences. Throughout, children are read to, read to each other, or read by themselves, while books are everywhere—on home shelves and library tables. The children and adults photographed are very real, and are delightfully varied in age, build, and ethnicity; few will be able to resist the tiny bespectacled blonde with chipped nail polish and a festoon of ribbons in her hair, the Latina toddler with the gold earrings, or the Hanson-handsome pre-teen. Senisi makes the act of learning to read as natural as the blossoming of a flower while acknowledging that it takes time and patience. A note for parents and caregivers offers concise instructions for turning children into readers—a practical primer that concludes the book perfectly. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8075-6898-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
The way-off-road vehicle (The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field, 1997, etc.) tours the ears, eyes, nose, and skin when the assistant principal, Mr. Wilde, accidentally shrinks the school bus and the children on board, commandeering it to deliver a message to Ms. Frizzle. The vehicle plunges into the eye of a police officer, where the students explore the pupil, the cornea, the retina, and the optic nerve leading to the brain. Then it’s on to other senses, via the ear of a small child, the nose of a dog, and the tongue of the Friz herself. Sidebars and captions add to the blizzard of information here; with a combination of plot, details, and jokes, the trip is anything but dull. The facts will certainly entice readers to learn more about the ways living creatures perceive the world. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-44697-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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