On a wintry Sunday morning, Ruthie and her papa set out to walk nine blocks through a snow storm to have breakfast at Uncle Phil’s diner. As they trudge through quiet streets, and mountainous snow drifts, they speculate on the feast Uncle Phil is preparing for his customers: piles of pancakes with blueberries preserved from the summer cottage in the mountains, rugelach, apple strudel, turnovers, sugar buns. To make the journey shorter and keep warm, Ruthie and her father chant lists of the delights awaiting them, and when they arrive, the diner is just as wonderful as they imagined. The illustrations set this in the late 1940s, with gentlemen wearing homburgs and bulky overcoats, and ladies decked out in their Sunday hats. All the watercolor illustrations are laid out as mounted snapshots in an old-fashioned photo album, with the text appearing as captions. A charming reminiscence. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Nov. 3, 1998
ISBN: 1-57505-083-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches...
Listeners will quickly take up the percussive chorus—“Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy town! Is the trash truck full yet? NO”—as they follow burly Mr. Gilly, the garbage collector, on his rounds from park to pizza parlor and beyond.
Flinging cans and baskets around with ease, Mr. Gilly dances happily through streetscapes depicted with loud colors and large, blocky shapes; after a climactic visit to the dump, he roars home for a sudsy bath.
Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches Eve Merriam’s Bam Bam Bam (1995), also illustrated by Yaccarino, for sheer verbal and visual volume. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027139-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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