No New Pants!

December 1, 1999
Gr. 1. The Real Kids Readers, whose hallmark is blending phonics and whole language and illustrating with color photos, tackles a familiar subject here--kids and clothes. A young African American boy is not interested in going shopping with his mother; and once in the store, he doesn't want to try on pants. He does anyway, but the pants are either stiff or hot or don't fit. There's a happy solution, however. He gets a pair of hand-me-downs from his brother, nicely broken in. The text is short, snappy, and right on target. Both photos and story contain some bits of humor as well. The little boy is endearing and will be completely relatable, especially to male readers who don't like shopping much themselves. ((Reviewed December 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)