The Old Red Rocking Chair

An old rocking chair is recycled through a neighborhood, broken down bit by bit as young and old find various uses for it, until it ends up as a tiny footstool in the hands of the original owner.

Grade 1-3--The Old Red Rocking Chair makes an art form of recycling as an old chair is discarded and rescued four times. Each new owner has a different use for it and different talents that transform the red chair into a blue foot stool that is eventually sold back to the original owner who does not recognize it. Children will quickly catch on to the format that allows the chair to please each owner ``until . . . '' and they may be the first to notice that the five people passing by the window in the last illustration are the people who rescued it. The illustrations are wonderfully rich in color and detail with a nice blend of gender and age diversity in the realistic cast of small-town characters. Unfortunately, a texturing or shadowing technique renders several pages too dark for group viewing and murky even for individual enjoyment. The text is on a lighter background to facilitate easy reading. It is sad that these shadows have been cast on an otherwise superior book. --Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Martha Jenkins buys a new blue sofa she decides to throw out her ancient red rocking chair. In so doing she unwittingly sets off a chain of events that gives her trusted old chair a new lease on life. From one home to another it passes, slowly losing its arms, cushion, back and rockers, thus appealing to each of the eagle-eyed individuals who rescue it from the garbage. The series inevitably circles around again to Martha, who carries the transformed chair home from a yard sale "and admired how well her sofa matched her new blue footstool." While the premise is hardly new (cf. Rob Lewis's The White Bicycle ), Root's cheerfulness and lucid logic propel the story. The passing seasons, captured in both prose and robust illustrations, are a pleasurable bonus--as is the book's subtle recycling message. Sandford presents a likably eccentric cast and evokes small-town life in his warm, softly textured artwork. The dark, rich, painterly illustrations spark this cozy "life goes on" parable. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In an amusing circular tale, a discarded chair serves four other people well before returning, unrecognized, to its first owner. Martha puts the chair out with the garbage because it doesn't match her new blue sofa; Sam adopts it until his dog Fergie breaks one of its arms; Sharifa removes the other arm and rocks happily until her cat destroys the seat. Finally, Agnes puts a lovely blue seat on what is now a footstool, and it's bought by Martha.... Sandford brings out the story's homely humor in illustrations with energetic perspectives and sturdy but lively figures that refuse to be confined by their borders. An entertaining choice for sharing, though some of the illustrations are so dark that they are hard to ``read'' from a distance. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.