Wake Up, Little Children: A Rise-And-Shine Rhyme

The beauty of a brand-new day, the warmth of sunlight, and the movements of fluffy clouds floating in a blue sky are captured in a collaboration between gentle, rhyming verse and warm paintings.

PreSchool-Grade 2?A rhythmic text invites two children to wake up and enjoy their day. The countryside is blooming and filled with mysteries to explore: dew-covered sunflowers wave in the breeze, grassy hills wait for children to "roll them just right," and a babbling brook offers mud for toe-print making. There are wild berries to be picked, trees to be climbed, and minnows to be discovered. The language reads aloud well, offering a variety of appealing activities and pointing out things to observe. In a nice change of pace, the children experience a quiet moment in the woods, sitting still and listening as "sun filters through." The oil and vinyl paint illustrations, framed by a brown paper background, glow with the colors of the earth. Sometimes detailed, depicting the flowers on a quilt or a butterfly's wings, and sometimes pleasingly abstract, the paintings create an appealing panorama of outdoor scenes, each with its own mood and perspective. Finish out this special day with Mem Fox's Time for Bed (Harcourt, 1993).?Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Subtitled ``A Rise-and-Shine Rhyme,'' this wake-up story does for mornings what bedtime stories have long done for evenings. Sleepy children reluctant to leave their cozy covers will be enticed to greet each day by the singing verse of this hymn to nature and its offerings: grassy meadows to caress bare feet, singing wrens, frogs to catch, wild flowers to smell, trees to climb, the stillness to appreciate. This harmonious second collaboration of Aylesworth and Krudop (The Good-Night Kiss, 1993, not reviewed) depicts two children free to explore their farmland environment without fear; it's a reassuring view, if a bit rare, especially for urban children. Inviting illustrations bathe verdant country scenes in a warm, impressionistic glow. (Picture book. 4-7) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.