Homemade Love

Her Mama calls her Girlpie-a sweet treat, homemade with love. And when Girlpie makes a mistake, the lover of her mother and father lets her pick up the pieces and make everything right again. Shane W. Evan's resplendent artwork teems with "homemade love," one of the tender nicknames award-winning author bell hooks gives her young heroine.

PreSchool-K-Evans's wonderful illustrations raise this paean to parental love a notch above the ordinary. "My mama calls me girlpie. Her Sweet sweet. Daddy's honey bun chocolate Dew Drop. Homemade Love," says the small African-American narrator. The story line is minimal: her parents love her, even when she does something wrong, and their love supports her, even at night. The rhythm of the words, the smoothness of the text, and the positive message all combine to make a lovely read-aloud, despite a slightly treacly premise. Evans's folksy paintings, done in bright primary colors, are wonderful, with an appealing, dark-skinned, large-eyed little girl wearing dresses decorated with patterns that reflect the story. The artist fills up the pages so completely that readers only see the parents from the waist down for the first half of the book. When the child breaks something, her sorrow is evident, and after everything is all better, "kiss kiss," she goes outside and does cartwheels in the flowers, exuding happiness and a zest for life. An appealing addition for most collections.
Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"My mama calls me girlpie," begins this tender riff on the ties that bind. "Daddy's honey bun chocolate dew drop." When the winsome girl at the story's center breaks a dish ("Everything I do cannot be right. 'Cause there is no all the time right"), her parents are quick to forgive her. Here, the tale makes an abrupt transition, and girlpie is in bed. The book ends with her drifting off to sleep, embraced by the warmth of her family's love ("No need to fear the dark place. 'Cause everywhere is home"). Despite some tender scenes and the exuberance of emotion with which hooks (Be Boy Buzz) invests her poetic prose, the picture book doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts. Evans' (Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter) illustrations go a long way toward making the moments hang together. Her cheerful, splashy paintings display an abundance of affection between the girl and her parents ("Kiss Kiss" accompanies a girlpie sandwich, the parents' faces flanking their daughter's exuberant face) and, immediately after, Evans conveys the rush of relief at having been forgiven ("Let life go on") with the heroine turning cartwheels in a field of flowers. But it may be difficult for readers to determine a theme: Is it a story about forgiveness? About overcoming fear of the dark? Perhaps the overall message of comfort and safety is enough to carry youngsters along in this upbeat hodgepodge of feel-good phrases and images. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS. As in Be Boy Buzz [BKL N 1 02], hooks' latest picture book is an elemental celebration of children and African American pride. This time she honors "girlpies," with Evans' bright paintings in saturated colors showing a large-eyed, smiling, African American girl hugging and kissing her loving parents and enjoying quiet time. "There is no all the time right," the girl realizes. "But all the time any hurt can be healed. All wrongs forgiven. And all the world made peace again." hooks' simple messages of unconditional love and safety will reassure children, and kids just learning to puzzle out words will enjoy the oversize, friendly type. But it's Evans' paintings that are most noteworthy, especially a beautiful spread that sings with contentment, joy, and love in which the girl delights in kisses from both parents as she spreads her arms high, ready to soar. Gillian Engberg
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