Everyday Town

August 30, 1993
The titles of these five board books may be unintentionally self-descriptive; Rylant offers rather quotidian glimpses of people, things and settings familiar to very young children. The volumes contain six spreads, each of which illustrates four lines of verse. The opening pages of the first title introduce a faceless trio of little folk: ``The Everyday Children wear bright blue boots / and slickers and dance in the rain. / They love puppies and kittens and hamsters in wheels. / They love dolls and long green trains.'' The rest of this text and those of the subsequent volumes are equally sing-song and banal. Only slightly more memorable is Rylant's collage-like art, consisting of basic shapes and a perky range of colors, but this work, too, lacks originality and flair. Ages 1-5.

October 1, 1993
PreS-These five board books provide a colorful, generic medium to preschool life. Everyday Children wear slickers and boots, and love puppies, kittens, hamsters, and dolls. With "small button noses, pink tongues, and little chins," "they eat peppermint candy and gingerbread men." The Everyday Garden produces red tomatoes, yellow corn, green peas, red raspberries and lots of carrots with nary a weed and hardly a bug. An Everyday House has a door, a porch, flowers, cookies, a gray dog, and a kitten. Everyday Pets are dogs, cats, fish, ducks, and rabbits. Everyday Town has vehicles, parades, pigeons, squirrels, and lights at night. These books are basic statements of events, but are written with a subtle rhyme. Colorful cut-paper of various textures are used to create collages that are the real highlight here. There is a surprising personality and energy in such simple figures and shapes. Text and pictures are perfectly paired; everything on the page is described before turning to the next. These are 1990's versions of Margaret Wise Brown's 1940's "Noisy Books" (HarperCollins), and deserve a place in all toddler collections.-Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY