Smiling (Small World (Lerner Publishing))
PreSchool-Grade 2-An attractive but slight offering. Each page contains a color photo of smiling faces featuring children from around the world (the locales are identified in a note at the end). The pictures were taken by a number of different photographers and vary in quality and tone. The captionlike text loosely ties the pictures together, giving reasons why people smile. For example, "Smiling is a way of saying, 'I'm happy!' without words. It's a way to let your feelings be heard." Swain uses near rhymes like this often, and many of her points are either trite or obvious. Sometimes, too, the connection between text and photo is tenuous. The book's design is appealing though, with photos set on creamy marble paper. Collections needing numerous titles showing different cultures may want to consider buying this, but others can rely on the more vivid and cohesive books by Ann Morris and Ken Heyman, such as Houses and Homes (Lothrop, 1992).Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, ILCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.