From Publishers Weekly
Optimism radiates from this poem, which favors the present in its comparison of "then" and "now." "I used to be afraid to swim,/ now I am a mermaid./ Once I couldn't comb my hair,/ now I make a braid," says a girl with long brown hair, who goes from standing apprehensively on a beach to diving deep in a blue, seaweedy ocean. In a sequence reading "Once the dark was scary,/ now I like the night," a dark-haired boy rests in a sleeping bag under a starry sky. In the final pages, a baby's bassinet ("I used to play alone...") gives way to a picture of the girl and boy together ("but now I have a friend"). Their pets, a crimson dog and canary-yellow cat, frolic with them. Leopold wholeheartedly affirms the passage of time; her narrators start out as "the recipe" and become "the cake." If the rhyme sometimes suffers from pedestrian content, Hubbard's (Hip Cat) energetic artwork enlivens the volume. Solid, intense hues of paint put readers in mind of construction paper cutouts, while spiraling curve patterns and repetitive speckles suggest the freewheeling spirits of the speakers. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Growing and changing is the idea behind this slim poem/picture book. "I used to be a penny,/now I am the sun./Once I couldn't even walk,/now I always run." Leopold's inventive sing-song verse is pleasing, as are Hubbard's intensely bright and detailed illustrations. The pacing of text and pictures (all text is black or white on top of a full-bleed illustration) varies in format expertly throughout the book. However, the combination of bold fields of color and minute and fanciful details in the pictures leave the spreads without the carrying power necessary for storytime; and the text sadly peters out, never progressing beyond its playful comparisons. This is a pleasant enough, lightweight choice for larger collections.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
