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May 2001
All Things New
by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe
The good news:
Spring has finally stopped waffling and is here at last, showering us
with magnolia and dogwood blossoms.
The bad news: Spring
will probably be around for all of five minutes before leaping into the
fires of summer.
You
know it’s creeping age when you find yourself saying, “When I was a kid ....” But
it’s true. When I was a
kid, spring was a real season that had actual length and breadth, a
season that could be measured in months, not nanoseconds.
As a kid, I had winter clothes, spring clothes, and summer
clothes. I didn’t move
from coats to shorts within a blink of an eye.
(Not that I have anything to do with shorts now, nor do I do
anything within a blink of an eye ... except maybe blink.)
So even though the thermometer is rising even as you read this, let’s
get into the spirit of spring and celebrate all things new, with a look
only at new books --
Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers, illustrated by Marla Frazee.
This sweet-as-pie book revels in babies -- all colors, all sizes,
all their different types of families.
“Everywhere, everyday babies are born” is the opener, leading
to other “everywhere, everyday” activities of babies being kissed,
fed, carried, loved, and more, each one with a charming verse and funny
pictures. You’ll get a
hankering for baby toes and belly buttons after reading this one.
Jiggle Joggle Jee by Laura E. Richards, illustrated by Sam William.
The cover warns that if you read this book once, you’ll have to
read it again. This will
certainly be true of kids who hear it and who’ll clamor, “More!”
The nonsense title are the sounds a toy train makes as it carries
a young child off to sleep, cheered on by stuffed animals.
Pictures are drawn in big soft rounded shapes with a childlike
hand. Kidlike sounds,
kidlike art -- a double winner, although real kids will be so busy
chanting the refrain out loud, sleep may be far away.
Princess Dinosaur by Jill Kastner.
Princess Dinosaur, a t-rex in a tutu and crown, may be royalty,
but she’s certainly no lady. She
accidentally takes a bite out of Cowboy Gus’s hat while playing and
guzzles her tea directly from the pot.
When the family dog crashes the toyroom party, she helps the
others escape but is carried away outside and buried like a bone.
Fortunately t-rex’s have claws and Princess Dinosaur has spunk.
She digs her way out and victoriously makes her way back home to
a toyroom welcome.
I Loved You Before You Were Born by Anne Bowen, illustrated by Greg Shed. The
perfect gift for grandmas for Mother’s Day, baby showers, holidays,
and any day--this book lovingly recounts a grandmother’s anticipation
of her coming grandchild. The title says it all.
Art is baby soft, done in pastel colors, with wonderful
expressive close-ups, giving this the intimate feeling of a family photo
album.
And for other Mother’s Day gifts, please remember my own Love
Me, Love You, illustrated by Robin Spowart, reviewed by Publishers
Weekly as “a valentine to the mother-child bond.”
Children's Book-of-the-Month Club author Susan Heyboer O'Keefe has two
new books this spring: Love Me.
Love You and a board-book edition of One Hungry Monster. Her
other titles include Angel
Prayers, Sleepy Angel’s
First Bedtime Story, and Good
Night, God Bless. For
fun, book info, and great parrot photos, visit <http://www.susanheyboerokeefe.homestead.com
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