ONE MORE TIME

Child-friendly examples teach toddlers socio-emotional skills.

In this Bright Start series entry, a grandfather teaches the narrator, a gender-ambiguous child, to ride the blue scooter they got for their birthday. In the process of trying, falling, and trying again, the child learns a lesson in perseverance. In companion title My Turn, Your Turn, Ms. Wright, who is presumably a teacher, helps Malik and Cora share a toy airplane that they were fighting over. Both books feature duotone cartoon illustrations that include characters of color: Grandpa and the narrator in One More Time are black while in My Turn, Your Turn, Malik is dark skinned, and light-skinned Cora is ethnically ambiguous. Textured, chunky pages will appeal to small, curious hands. Laudably, the narratives use examples that children will find both familiar and relevant. While the predictability of the storylines will appeal to young readers, the stories verge on the monotonous. In One More Time, for example, the author spends seven pages detailing how the protagonist learns to balance, then push, then balance and push, a description that feels tedious and does not contribute to the narrative. That said, the limited page length and simple language make these books ideal for teachers or parents looking for quick and easy tools to use to foster socio-emotional development.

High educational value offsets limited literary merit.