From School Library Journal
Grade 4 UpAThis lovely photo/poetry montage repeats the visual and textual themes of Myers's Brown Angels (1993) and Glorious Angels (1995, both HarperCollins). The endpapers are a wallpaper pattern of muted green and gray, and silver floral flourishes border the pages of black-and-white or sepia photographs featuring African-American women and children. The 10 distinctly styled poems may at first glance seem not to have anything in common with their accompanying picture groupings, but meaning is subtly reflected back and forth between sight and sound. With the first poem, "Angel to Angel," the big, white hair ribbons worn by the girls in one of the photographs look almost like angel wings. One of the illustrations for "Trees" depicts a mother with three very young children standing around her. The setting is urban, with not a tree in sight. However, the woman is like the tall trunk of an oak ("I am a tree/Strong limbed and deeply rooted"), and the children are like thick barked roots that resemble branches growing out from its base. The verse is varied, from the simple, descriptive tone of "Furniture" to the rhymed, chorus-filled expression of "Don't Mess with Grandmama and Me." This slim, pretty volume will appeal to anyone who appreciates the relationships between words and pictures, and between mothers and children.APeg Solonika, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Gr. 4^-7, younger for reading aloud. Myers, who has offered two previous books featuring old photographs,
Brown Angels (1993) and
Glorious Angels (1995), returns with more pictures, this time celebrating the connection between mothers and their children. Myers' own mother died when he was two and left no photos of the two of them together; he says this book is his picture. The beautifully designed book, laced with silver floral motifs on the thick, creamy pages, features sepia-toned photographs that show mothers, grandmothers, and lots of children, some staring boldly at the camera, others asleep in their mothers' arms. To accompany the photographs, most of which come from his own collection, Myers has written 10 poems that range in subject from the everyday ("In the morning when I wake / the whispers come again / Right for secrets, / left for love / that's how my day begins) to the nonsensical ("Turpey, turpey, top a lot / Clip a padded dabby"). The best of the poems will touch a chord both with the children who listen and the mother who reads to them.
Ilene Cooper
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
