The Playground Problem

May 1, 2004
PreS-Gr 1-The first title features a little boy having bath-time fun. In imaginative color illustrations, the bubbles multiply and float through the house, outdoors, and into the neighborhood until, "Will bubbles never stop?/Sun gets hotter./Bubbles pop." Short sentences, rhyming words, and repetition help beginning readers to feel successful. In the second book, first-grader Emma wants to play soccer with the boys on the playground, so her dad helps her to devise a plan to make them understand that it's OK for boys and girls to play together. This is a useful story for dealing with gender roles, emotions, and conflict resolution. The colorful cartoon characters are endearing. Both books are solid additions.-Tracy Bell, Durham Public Schools, NC

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2004
PreS. The latest Robin Hill School story in the Ready-to-Read series brings preschoolers a drama from today's headlines. First-grader Emma is angry when the boys won't let her join the soccer game at recess. "Girls do not play soccer," they tell her. But her dad helps her figure out a plan. First, she organizes a girls' game to show that girls can play; then she convinces the boys to accept boy-girl teams. New readers will love the sports action and the angry face-offs ("Emma was furious"), and Gordon's line-and-watercolor cartoon-style illustrations show that even when everyone played together, "sometimes they had fights."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)