Notes: Picture Books, ages 3-6
Wendy E. Betts
A Song for Little Toad by Vivian French. Illustrated by Barbara Firth
Where's My Mom? by Leon Rosselson. Illustrated by Priscilla Lamont
Ten Out of Bed written and illustrated by Penny Dale
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Vol. 4, No. 4h Picture Books, ages 3-6 4/16/96
__ A Song for Little Toad_ by Vivian French. Illustrated by Barbara
Firth. Candlewick, 1996 (1-56402-614-0) $12.95
None of the other animals approve of Old Mother Toad's croaking
lullaby for her Little Toad. The sheep thinks she should sing a soft
and soothing _Baaaa_; the duck thinks she should sing a cheerful
_Quackitty quack!_ But the more Mother Toad tries to follow their
advice, the more wide-awake Little Toad becomes. Finally he tells
her, "sing me my own song. You have the most beautiful voice in all
the whole wide world."
Both silly and sweet, this is a fun and soothing read-aloud. Any
parent who's felt overwhelmed by helpful advice will enjoy its gentle
message, and children will respond to the rightness of the ending. (I
couldn't help but think of being sung to by my mother, whose lullabies
were also rather like croaking--and the most beautiful in the world.)
I think the pastel watercolor illustrations would have been more
attractive if Firth hadn't chosen to dress the toads up, for a quite
peculiar effect--but other than that the pictures work nicely with the
story, especially their "frames" of twining flowers and vines.
__ Where's My Mom?_ by Leon Rosselson. Illustrated by Priscilla Lamont.
Candlewick, 1994 (1-56402-392-3) $13.95; (1-56402-835-6) $5.99 pb
(reprinted from the hardcover review, volume 2, number 81)
Although this book has flashes of songwriter Rosselson's superlative
wit and imagination, it's a disappointment overall. Written in rhyme,
it describes a little boy's journey in search of his mother, a trip
through the house and yard which also allows him a chance to play on
the piano, raid the fridge and go to the bathroom. When he finally
finds his mother asleep in bed, the formerly leisurely story suddenly
explodes with action as he energetically demands her attention.
Parents will chuckle over the true-to-life plot, but the text is
marred by some awkward rhymes and syrupy sentiment. Soft-hued
watercolor and pencil illustrations create appealing characters for a
pleasant but somewhat subdued accompaniment to the story.
__ Ten Out of Bed_ written and illustrated by Penny Dale. Candlewick,
1994 (1-56402-322-2) $14.95; (1-56402-834-8) $5.99 pb
(reprinted from the hardcover review, volume 2, number 26)
There's supposed to be ten in the bed-- but these ten, a little boy
and his nine stuffed animals aren't a bit tired. So there's ten _out_
of bed, and the little one says, "Let's play!" And as each animal
thinks up a new game to play--pirates, dancing, monsters--they fall
asleep one by one, until the little one finally says, "I'm sleepy
now!" and slips under the covers next to his friends. Beautifully
detailed colored pencil and watercolor drawings humorously show the
animals at their imaginative play, with the shrinking cast making this
an interesting backwards counting game as well as a bedtime story.
Children will enjoy following the different characters throughout
their games; a nice touch is that the stuffed animals don't seem at
all inhibited by gender roles.
--
Wendy E. Betts, Editor "The WEB: Celebrating Children's Literature"
finger w...@deepthought.armory.com; http://www.armory.com/~web/web.html
"`It hasn't any rhymes or moral, so it can't be a poem,' she thought."
--Carol Ryrie Brink, _Louly_