bookshelf

DIFFERENT JUST LIKE ME

Name: DIFFERENT JUST LIKE ME
Author: Lori Mitchell
ISBN: 0-88106-975-2

by Lori Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1999

bookshelf

More of a teaching text, Mitchell’s story is really a series of observations, ostensibly by a child, about how people differ and how they are the same. The narrator sees children speaking in sign language, which is not how she communicates, but she waves to one, who waves back. She sees a blind woman calling an elevator, and describes its Braille labels, but notes that the woman gets off at her floor, “just like me.” A bearded man at a lunch counter orders the same sandwich she does; she meets a woman who likes to draw, as she does. The lesson concludes: “Like the flowers in Grammie’s garden, they were all different from one another, and that’s what made them so great.” The book’s practical aspects—the inclusion of the American Sign Language alphabet and a sample strip of Braille’strengthen it; the logical problem weakens it: to assemble racial differences, physical disabilities, food preferences, and artistic proclivities under one banner may confuse children. A well-intentioned work. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-88106-975-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

KEVIN AND HIS DAD

by Irene Smalls ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

bookshelf

There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-316-79899-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
MY POP POP AND ME
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson

- BOOK REVIEW
MY NANA AND ME
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson

- BOOK REVIEW
DON’T SAY AIN’T
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Colin Bootman

bookshelf

DEAR JUNO

by Soyung Pak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Picture-book debuts for both author and illustrator result in an affectionate glimpse of intergenerational bonds. Juno loves to get letters in the red-and-blue bordered airmail envelopes that come from his grandmother, who lives in Korea, near Seoul. He cannot read Korean, but he opens the letter anyway, and learns what he can from what his grandmother has sent: a photograph of herself and her new cat, and a dried flower from her garden. When his parents read him the letter, he realizes how much he learned from the other things his grandmother mailed to him. He creates some drawings of himself, his parents, house, and dog, and sends them along with a big leaf from his swinging tree. He gets back a package that includes drawing pencils and a small airplane—the grandmother is coming to visit. The messages that can be conveyed without words, language differences between generations, and family ties across great distances are gently and affectingly handled in this first picture book. The illustrations, done in oil-paint glazes, are beautifully lit; the characters, particularly Grandmother, with her bowl of persimmons, her leafy garden, and her grey bun that looks “like a powdered doughnut,” are charming. (Picture book. 3-7)