Reading Makes You Feel Good
PreSchool-Grade 1–Parr highlights some of the advantages of reading, such as learning how to make a pizza or finding your favorite animal at the zoo. The cartoon illustrations are bold and cheerful. Once again, the artist embraces a wild palette with pink rabbits, a purple elephant, and green- , yellow- , and blue-faced people. The art includes many fun details, such as labels, signs, and an odd assortment of objects sitting in the freezer next to the TV dinner. Such details encourage children and adults to move beyond the text and discuss the pictures together. A few of the pages are less successful than others. For example, the accompanying illustration for you can imagine you are a brave princess… shows a traditional damsel in distress, yelling for help from her tower. This predictability is later offset by a spread showing a father and baby together in the park, each reading a book. This title was written to support the work of Reach Out and Read, and as a message book, it is similar to Rosemary Wells'sRead to Your Bunny(Scholastic, 1998). The strong contrast in artistic styles, however, ensures that the books will appeal to different audiences. Children will enjoy Parr's bright, zany pictures and come away with the important lesson: reading both teaches and entertains, and is fun to do with someone special.–Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, ORCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.