This peaceful yet affecting story from Stiles recounts a boy’s efforts to get his grandfather to feel at home when he comes to live with the boy’s family. The boy remembers all the fine times he had at his grandfather’s dairy farm—how the two of them would walk to the barn and the grandfather would regale him with interesting tidbits—and he wants his grandfather to feel the same excitement and pleasure in his new home, an island in the Detroit River. But the grandfather is taciturn in his displacement, full of memories and the pang of time’s passage. The boy is a masterful psychological strategist, gently nudging his grandfather toward joy in his new surroundings, yet never demanding a commitment. Gradually, quietly, as befits San Souci’s elegant winter-spare landscapes, the grandfather discovers a new life—often through the boy’s associating various elements of the island with the dairy farm. It is a subtle drift, and all the better for it, as the boy, the grandfather, and the island home meld into a give-and-take that marks a fruitful, abiding relationship. This affectionate story would make an excellent companion to Douglas Wood’s Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth (see review, below) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-80588-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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
One of a four-book series designed to help the very young prepare for new siblings, this title presents a toddler-and-mother pair (the latter heavily pregnant) as they read about new babies, sort hand-me-downs, buy new toys, visit the obstetrician and the sonographer, speculate and wait. Throughout, the child asks questions and makes exclamations with complete enthusiasm: “How big is the baby? What does it eat? I felt it move! Is it a boy or girl?” Fuller’s jolly pictures present a biracial family that thoroughly enjoys every moment together. It’s a bit oversimplified, but no one can complain about the positive message it conveys, appropriately, to its baby and toddler audience. The other titles in the New Baby series are My New Baby (ISBN: 978-1-84643-276-7), Look at Me! (ISBN: 978-1-84643-278-1) and You and Me (ISBN: 978-1-84643-277-4). (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84643-275-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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