review: A Child's Day

A Child's Day: an Alphabet of Play written and illustrated by Ida Pearle. Harcourt, 2008 (978-0-15-206552-2) $12.95

A child's day, as seen here, is one full of action, starting with a for act and ending with z for zoom. There's also blowing pinwheels, dancing, growing things and even some lazy napping. It's an enticing ideal, aptly illustrated with cut-paper collages of featureless children that call to mind old-fashioned silhouettes, except now brightly colored and excitingly textured. But Pearle takes the book beyond rose-colored nostalgia by peopling it with a modern, multicultural cast of children, using different skin tones, hair types, and sophisticated clothes patterns to portray a diversity of backgrounds. Some of the children may catch butterflies in a net, looking like something straight out of Tom Sawyer, but others are practicing martial art kicks or holding up their hands together to "unite." It's a very happy mix of old and new. (2-6)

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Kids Lit