LMNO Pea-quel

May 15, 2017
Baker's industrious pea-ple are back for a fifth tour, this time delivering an A-to-Z look at work and play.Colorful, digitally textured lowercase letters loom large against white space, cleverly integrated into the action. Firefighters use a ladder truck to train a hose on a small fire high atop the letter F. An S--strapped to the roof of a school bus filled with book-toting students--sports a row of saluting soldiers up on top. Among the standard community helpers, from architects to window washers, Baker inserts a bit of whimsy: there are pirates, a queen, and five "X-Peas" exhibiting their superpowers. There's some deliberate, anthropomorphized diversity: a violinist is female (or at least has a ponytail) and uses a wheelchair; one soldier appears female (with hair in a bun), and most work crews have some female peas (so to speak). Genders are suggested by hairstyles, props, and purses. Depicting "jailbirds" for J seems jarringly tone-deaf. Three peas in stereotyped black-and-white striped uniforms peer sadly from a multilevel barred building topped with barbed wire; the letter itself is also incarcerated. (A guard snoozes in a chair below, while a smiling janitor mops the floor.) Admittedly, there's fun for kids to discover here--from the vegetable horde's teeming activities to a ladybug that appears on each double-page spread--but the text scans erratically, making for clunky read-alouds. Perhaps these peas have simply pea-tered out. (Picture book. 3-7)

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July 1, 2017

PreS-Time for roll call of the lowercase letters of the alphabet in the newest title in the series. The wee peas alphabetically explore activities and occupations on full spreads of building-size letters in Baker's familiar perky colors. The rhymes rollick and the peas cavort around letters that stand for jobs, from the familiar ("We're golfers on the greens-We're groomers and garbage collectors-our work is never done") to the likely lesser known ("We're ichthyologists-we study fish!-and we're ice-cream scoopers."). Vivid facial expressions and costumes make each pea unique. Jailbirds grimace, and kite gliders fly open-mouthed. Soon after the X-Peas (superheroes) flaunt their powers, the cast wonder, "What will we be now?" The answer, of course, "so many possibili-peas!" VERDICT An appealing option for a lapsit so that readers and listeners may leisurely investigate all the pea-ple.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

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