October 30, 2000
The first book in the Feeling Good series follows four African-American children through a busy day at preschool. A gentle, catchy rhyme meanders through the pages as bright, realistic illustrations show the children playing games, drawing pictures, dancing and simply enjoying one another's company. Though the text is not particularly subtle and the drawings are slightly stiff (on some pages the children look like short adults), the book goes a long way toward achieving its stated goals: to present ``happy children, brimming with confidence and self-esteem,'' and to ``celebrate positive images.'' The need for books that meet these goals is great, and few titles like this one are available. Ages 2-7.
January 1, 1990
Igus's comfortable story unwinds through a gentle and credible conversation between an African American boy and his grandfather. On his annual summer visit to the country, Noel engages in his favorite activity: fishing off a small pier. The child listens intently as his grandfather reminisces about his boyhood swims in the river, when he and his friends swung into the water from a rope attached to a large tree. This memory evokes others, and grandfather enumerates the many differences of that simpler era, when his family lived without a refrigerator, TV, telephone, indoor toilet or car. As the elder recalls the past, Bond's strikingly naturalistic, richly hued paintings give way to black-and-white drawings that effectively evoke the lifestyle of the period. At last, Noel experiences the excitement of catching his first fish, and as his grandfather remembers the thrill of his first catch, he concludes that ``it's good to see that the important things are still the same.'' Ages 6-9.