PreSchool-Grade 1?These small books are confections, reality sweetened with whipped cream. In all of them, winsome children react to distress or boredom by wishing that they were something else. Then they become aware of bothersome aspects of the idealized life and decide that the way they are "...isn't so bad after all." In Baby, a big sister thinks that her brother is getting unfair attention. Suddenly she remembers gooey baby food and forced naps. Bird features the same pig-tailed, fair-skinned girl leaving her cramped apartment balcony for the sensuous freedom of a high-flying bird. Her mother almost grounds her by pointing out the cold and scarcity of food in winter. But the child resolves, "I'll be a bird only on nice days." In Lion, a boy wishes he could have the power that lions hold over smaller creatures. Then he realizes how lonely he would be. When the same boy imagines being a Mouse, he escapes from his bossy mother?until she points out the dangerous cat. The rhyming, sugary stories are enhanced by playful cartoon drawings. Cheerful, pastel-toned watercolors with cherry-red details carry the children from reality through fantasy and back. Movement on every page, changes in viewpoint, and use of white space raise the books above the ordinary. Buy one? Buy 'em all? It depends on your quotient of calories.?Nancy Seiner, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
A big sister thinks about how much fun it would be to be a baby, until she remembers naps and gooey baby food.
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