by Hope Vestergaard
Thumbs Up.
I love when a picture book totally engrosses a two year old. That's how my little one reacts to this book. Ms. Vestergaard, with the help of Maggie Smith's colorful illustrations, tells the story of a sister and brother. The sister is younger and pesters the older brother by constantly playing monster and jumping out at him. Each time this happens, the brother chooses to react in a constructive way rather than getting angry at the pesky younger sibling. This continues until the little sister finally succumbs to exhaustion and falls asleep on the couch.
The words are minimal and in rhyme. Most of the details of the story are added through Ms. Smith's rich illustrations. And this is what captivates my two year old. She will look at this book for extended periods of time and each time finds some new nugget of interest in the pages. She has brought the book to me several times and told me about the things she sees in the pictures. I certainly appreciate the illustrations much more through this process, because I would not have taken the time to see all this detail. Many of the portrayed scenes touchingly show an older brothers love and tenderness.
I imagine my older son, would find this book unrealistic. Hmm.
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Your son would be right, if he did the constructive things every time one of the mentioned things happened to him, he would have no time at all. That is, unless your book had illustrations of multiple little annoying kids.
ReplyDeleteHi, theMom. Thanks for the nice review of my book. It's always a thrill to hear about a real reader who connected to something I wrote. I agree, Maggie's art elevates the text to a new level. Honestly, I don't know many older siblings who make the right choice straight off the bat...hence the book!
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