Gifts - Hardcover

Bogart, Jo Ellen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590552600 ISBN 13: 9780590552608

Publisher: Scholastic, 1996

Synopsis

A whimsical introduction to faraway lands and cultures is told from the perspective of a young girl, whose adventurous grandmother brings her back such treasures as an African baobab seed, an Australian didgeridoo, and a Hawaiian rainbow.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2?Another glorious, globe-trotting grannie joins the ranks of elderly travelers. Unlike Jill Paton Walsh's When Grandma Came (Viking, 1992), Bogart's Grandma is a happy soul who offers to bring back "gifts." As she heads off to nine very different locales, she asks, "What would you have me bring?" Her granddaughter's exquisitely fanciful replies presented in rhyme celebrate the imagination: a piece of sky, a roar, billabong goo, a memory, a rainbow to wear as a ring, etc. Reid's wonderful plasticine illustrations, with touches of acrylic for shine, seem so three-dimensional that they beg to be touched. The wealth of texture, depth, and detail is sure to mesmerize even the most jaded eye. The colors are scrumptious. The loving relationship between grandma and granddaughter as each ages is tenderly captured in hugs, smiles, and subtle physical changes. Perhaps this traveler doesn't carpet a town with lupines like Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (Viking, 1982), nor is she as rambunctiously silly as the character in Grahame Base's My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch (Abrams, 1990), but Gifts is a treasure to read alone, aloud, to a group, or to give to anyone who loves the unique.?Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Lively plasticine bas-reliefs depict scenes of another traveling grandmother (see Blackstone review, above) and the gifts she brings to her granddaughter from around the world. Bogart offers rhyming questions and answers: ``My grandma went to Switzerland,/said: `What would you have me bring?' `Just a chunk of cheese/and a mountain, please,/and a bell that goes ding-a-ling-ling.' '' As the grandmother proceeds through her journeys, she grows older while her granddaughter grows up; the exotic settings include India, Africa, Australia, Mexico, and the Arctic. Reid's now-familiar technique has grown steadily more inventive and these illustrations are astonishing. Whether in large, detailed landscapes or dramatic close-ups, the book contains a wealth of plastic effects, from the soft folds and textures of the grandmother's clothes to the sparkling bubbles of a foamy sea. The lyrical and lighthearted rhymes never convey the exuberance of the art but advance the story nicely by providing a sequence of cues for the pictures. (Picture book. 3-7) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0590552600
• ISBN 13: 9780590552608
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 44
• Illustrator: Reid Barbara