Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.Ī sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.Ī collection of parental wishes for a child. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting.

However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown.

This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. 4-8)Ī paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere. A fresh, imaginatively conceived look at a well-worn subject. Applying watercolors with free strokes against an expansive white ground, Ö la Chinese painting, Littlewood (a British illustrator making her US debut) deftly captures the lively essence of the plump black-and-white hens and Gemma's companionable relationship with her mother. Standard details, and more, are all here tenderly, but without sentimentality, Barber depicts the hen's behavior and the humans' with equal insight.

Assuring Gemma that it will hatch by morning, her mother says, ``I'll wake you when the time comes.'' So she does, and Gemma holds the egg in her hand while the gawky chick make its way into the world then-while it's still dark-the girl carries it to the barn right away, so that the hen will accept it as her own. Three weeks later, seven eggs hatch the other three are cold, but when Gemma's mother floats them in warm water, one moves, then cheeps. When one of Gemma's hens goes ``broody,'' she and her mother put her in a special coop. The author of The Mousehole Cat (1990, ALA Notable) brings unusual drama to a familiar event.

Frog Bride by Antonia Barber