Grandma's Tiny House

Starred review from June 12, 2017
A grandmother welcomes her family, friends, and neighbors into her small home, and everyone arrives with lots of food and energy. As the guests show up, Brown-Wood counts up to “15 hungry grandkids,” writing in breezy, confident rhymes: “Nine chatting aunties all head for the den,/ and set down the cheesecakes that add up to ten.” Burris introduces the mostly African-American cast in smudgy digital illustrations with crayonlike outlines, creating a vibe of good-natured chaos. With no room indoors, the party moves into the backyard: “Perfect in size, at the edge of Brown Street,/ sits Grandma’s backyard, where we all go to eat.” A warmhearted tribute to the messy joys of a big, impromptu gathering. Ages 2–5.

Narrator Sisi Aisha Johnson shares the rhyming and rhythmic fun of family and friends who are filling Grandma's house to the gills. As relatives and guests arrive bearing turkeys and biscuits, lemonade and cheesecakes, sweet potato pie and cantaloupe in ever increasing numbers, it's clear that a solution for the gathering is desperately needed. Who will craft a plan? Johnson narrates in tempo with the background music and uses pauses and emphasis to encourage young listeners to rhyme along with the "cool uncles all in a line" who bring "jugs of lemonade icy and fine," for example. Additionally, Johnson underscores numerical order. With the book in hand, listeners will have much to locate and count in the illustrations. A.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine