I Want to Help!
Every classroom has one: a kid overly eager to help out the teacher. Meet Emily Pearl, a very smart girl. She can count to 14, write her own name, and do the hokey pokey. And that’s not all: “She can wallop the baseball and score a home run. / She can leap high in dodgeball and be the best one.” Some of her accomplishments, though, come with a cost; for example, she cleans up the blocks while other kids are still playing with them. The details captured in Hayashi’s genial watercolor, pen, and pencil illustrations don’t make this a laugh-out-loud affair, but feature plenty of warm humor, as when showing Emily using a toy dump truck to scoop up the class rabbit’s droppings. Adams, meanwhile, offers up a pleasant turnaround at the end: when Dad is late picking her up, Emily gets a little scared. This time, though, it’s Ms. Glenn who asks for help. It distracts Emily just long enough that she stays busy and happy until the final page. Grades K-2. --Julie Cummins