Mary Had a Little Lamb
Gr. PreK-1 Though Mary Had a Little Lamb was published in 1830, it seems anything but old-fashioned in this jaunty picture book. Yes, the illustrations feature a one-room schoolhouse out in the country, but the characters clothing and the many touches of fantasy and humor lift the poem out of its historical period and into some timeless, lighthearted landscape of the imagination. All six verses appear, from the very familiar to the nearly forgotten, and each illustrated with one or more double-page pictures that magnify the hilarity in the schoolhouse when the lamb shows off for the class, the sadness that the lamb and Mary feel when he is turned away, and the joy of their reunion. Even the potentially unctuous-sounding ending verse is lightened by the joyous spirit and amusing details in the accompanying illustrations, digital collages combining fabric elements with acrylic and gouache painting. A child-pleasing version of the well-known poem. --Booklist, March 15, 2011