A wonderfully photographed story and activity book for preschool classrooms.
A 3-year-old girl explores what pockets can be used for in this colorfully photographed book full of classroom reading tips.
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed, unnamed girl gets ready for the day in a pink and red outfit with pockets. Her Oma, wearing a jacket that also has pockets, arrives to take her to storytime at the library. (She has something silver in her pocket that the girl’s sister takes out, but it’s hard to determine what it is.) At the library, the girl explores the Story Bear’s pockets and finds art supplies in the paint lady’s pocket. After storytime, Oma takes the girl to the farmers market and stops by the neighbor’s garden, where the girl notices the things her neighbor and the girl at the market keep in their pockets. At home, a baby cousin keeps a duckie in his bib pocket, and the girl’s father has nine pennies (counted by the girl) in his deep pockets. The girl prepares for bed with tooth-brushing and pajamas and shows that her pajamas have two pockets, “one for my prayers, and one for my dreams.” After the story, Deveny offers five different activities that teachers can pair with the book in the classroom: pretend play encouraging the students to imagine themselves in the story; a lesson on the letter P; a song; a project for children to make their own puzzles; and a puppet play. The beautiful color photographs are made with excellent composition to pull in a child’s eye. There’s an abundance of pink, and the cast predominantly looks like the little girl—there’s no real ethnic diversity—so only a small portion of the preschool population will recognize themselves in the images. Despite the homogenous community, the girl is friendly looking and approachable, and the activities in the story and in the teacher section are just right for a preschool audience.
A wonderfully photographed story and activity book for preschool classrooms.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61245-000-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Molly Brave
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
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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