Five for a Little One (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) - Hardcover

Raschka, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689845995 ISBN 13: 9780689845994

Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2006

Synopsis

If you are a bunny, try a taste, take a gander, snuffle a sniff, relish a sound, and share a hug.

Everything around is waiting.

If you are a boy, or a girl, or a dog, or a kitty do like our friend Bunny.

And enjoy.

About this title

About the Author

Chris Raschka is the illustrator of The Hello, Goodbye Window, which was awarded the Caldecott Medal. He is also the illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Book Yo! Yes?; Charlie Parker Played Be Bop; Mysterious Thelonious; John Coltrane’s Giant Steps; Can’t Sleep; In the City; and The Magic Flute. He lives with his wife and son in New York City.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1–A buoyant bunny, drawn in thick ink outline with a fuzzy body and delightfully mismatched ears (one downy and one plain), introduces readers to the senses, numbering them one through five. The rhyming verses and ebullient artwork convey a child's curiosity and enthusiasm for investigating the world in various ways: e.g., hearing is described, Happy ears, pay attention!/Did we mention sounds surround you?/Catch the honking, barking, singing./All that ringing will astound you. After exploring all five means of perception, the youngster encounters mother and father rabbit (one drawn with thick ink outlines and the other with velvety splotches). As the family members interact, the bunny again demonstrates each of the senses–smelling a flower held by one of the adults or listening to the other play the violin. There is no text on these pages, encouraging children to identify each example by looking at the illustration, thus reinforcing the concepts. The book ends on an affectionate note, as the threesome holds hands: Five senses–just enough–to know the love we have for you. Featuring supple ink lines, tantalizingly textured potato prints, and splashes of cheerful watercolor, the artwork is irresistible. The clean page design and graceful flow of images keep the action moving quickly. A fresh, fun, and fanciful approach to an often-requested topic.–Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PreS-K. Though it's hardly clear from the title, Raschka's latest, defiantly offbeat picture book deals with a core topic in early childhood curricula. In spare, stylized scenes paired with impressionistic quatrains, a flop-eared bunny demonstrates each of the five senses: "Lucky tongue, taste and try this berry pie. It's a blessing! Cabbage, spinach, bitter or sweet, a joy to eat with salad dressing." Then the bunny's parents appear, reinforcing the information in a curious, abrupt coda that delivers a tender message ("Five senses--just enough--to know that we love you") but undercuts the empowering aspects of independent exploration presented on the preceding pages. Much of the text reads like oddly translated fortune-cookie aphorisms, and the book's counting dimension ("Smell is 1," "Hearing is 2," and so on) is confusingly integrated. So why bother? Raschka's effervescent bunnies, combining calligraphic simplicity with the cuteness of Japanese cartoons, transcend the book's less well conceived elements, and the unusual presentation may well strike creative educators as a welcome change from drier variations on the same theme. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0689845995
• ISBN 13: 9780689845994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Raschka Chris
• Number of pages: 48