Everybody Bonjours!
*Starred Review* This delightful tour of Paris begins, “When in Paris, everybody bonjours.” The refrain is repeated as a little girl and her family hear that welcome, “From shores. In stores. On guided tours.” The cheery ink-and-watercolor artwork is stylishly rendered. McMenemy sometimes places her characters in spaces of white that highlight them against quintessentially French backgrounds. (An architectural key on the endpapers identifies sites from the Eiffel Tower to the Paris Zoo.) Throughout, the brief rhymes are tightly rendered but cleverly worded, and they work perfectly in tandem with the art, giving youngsters a solid idea of what treats await them in Paris, should they be lucky enough to visit. A clever ending shows what happens when the little girl and her teddy bear fly back to the States. Those who have been paying close attention will be delighted by the presence on the plane of the small mouse, who has followed the family in and around Paris, and has now managed to find its way to the U.S. Très bien! Preschool-Grade 2. --Ilene Cooper