Homemade Love: Picture Book [Hardcover]

bell hooks (Author), Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2002 | Grade Level: P and up

Her Mama calls her Girlpie-a sweet treat, homemade with love. And when Girlpie makes a mistake, the lover of her mother and father lets her pick up the pieces and make everything right again. Shane W. Evan's resplendent artwork teems with "homemade love," one of the tender nicknames award-winning author bell hooks gives her young heroine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"My mama calls me girlpie," begins this tender riff on the ties that bind. "Daddy's honey bun chocolate dew drop." When the winsome girl at the story's center breaks a dish ("Everything I do cannot be right. 'Cause there is no all the time right"), her parents are quick to forgive her. Here, the tale makes an abrupt transition, and girlpie is in bed. The book ends with her drifting off to sleep, embraced by the warmth of her family's love ("No need to fear the dark place. 'Cause everywhere is home"). Despite some tender scenes and the exuberance of emotion with which hooks (Be Boy Buzz) invests her poetic prose, the picture book doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts. Evans' (Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter) illustrations go a long way toward making the moments hang together. Her cheerful, splashy paintings display an abundance of affection between the girl and her parents ("Kiss Kiss" accompanies a girlpie sandwich, the parents' faces flanking their daughter's exuberant face) and, immediately after, Evans conveys the rush of relief at having been forgiven ("Let life go on") with the heroine turning cartwheels in a field of flowers. But it may be difficult for readers to determine a theme: Is it a story about forgiveness? About overcoming fear of the dark? Perhaps the overall message of comfort and safety is enough to carry youngsters along in this upbeat hodgepodge of feel-good phrases and images. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-K-Evans's wonderful illustrations raise this paean to parental love a notch above the ordinary. "My mama calls me girlpie. Her Sweet sweet. Daddy's honey bun chocolate Dew Drop. Homemade Love," says the small African-American narrator. The story line is minimal: her parents love her, even when she does something wrong, and their love supports her, even at night. The rhythm of the words, the smoothness of the text, and the positive message all combine to make a lovely read-aloud, despite a slightly treacly premise. Evans's folksy paintings, done in bright primary colors, are wonderful, with an appealing, dark-skinned, large-eyed little girl wearing dresses decorated with patterns that reflect the story. The artist fills up the pages so completely that readers only see the parents from the waist down for the first half of the book. When the child breaks something, her sorrow is evident, and after everything is all better, "kiss kiss," she goes outside and does cartwheels in the flowers, exuding happiness and a zest for life. An appealing addition for most collections.
Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Jump At The Sun; 1 edition (December 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786806435
• ISBN-13: 978-0786806430
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #583,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, January 8, 2008

By 

V. Blandino "citla505" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Homemade Love: Picture Book (Hardcover)

I originally bought this book because it was about and african american family and I wanted my toddler to identify with any race not just our own. I didn't expect the book to be so beautiful and truly lovely, my daughter broke a jar just like the little girl in the book and everytime we get to that part she always compares herself to honey dew drop :) and it makes me so happy because not once has she asked why the family is of a different color so I believe my plan is working.

5.0 out of 5 stars Six-Month-Old Boy Loves It, October 4, 2011

By 

E. Mattson (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Homemade Love: Picture Book (Hardcover)

Not only do I love bell hooks writing for adults, but my baby loves the rhythm of her kid's lit. I don't call him "Girlpie" but I love that he has a book about girls, lest he be too smothered by trains and dinosaurs. The cadence is great and he adores the illustrations, which is not always true of picture books and six-month-olds. He sits through this one better than Goodnight Moon!

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, Sweet: An all-time favorite book, April 15, 2009

By 

Carla Gomez (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Homemade Love: Picture Book (Hardcover)

One of the most read books in our house - my two year old LOVES this book and requests for it be read to her almost every night before bed. She loves the lesson, that a little can make mistakes and still be loved, and is drawn to the beautifully drawn images and simple straight forward language. This, along with "Happy to be Nappy" (my daughter calls it "Happy to Nappy") are two great books by bell hooks.