Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4^-6. Using one chapter for each story, a little girl explains how four generations of mothers and daughters give and receive love by participating in family traditions--making a crown of flowers, singing a lullaby, sewing a quilt, baking a pie: "Every time, it was the same, but different." The well-executed watercolor-and-ink illustrations convey how the traditions alter through the years: great-grandmother makes pies from scratch, grandmother uses frozen crust, mother buys a ready-baked pie, and the little girl uses Play-Doh. The illustrations provide plenty of recurring motifs for children to search out, and an ingenious family tree at the back of the book helps make the concept of generations enjoyable and clear. The words and music to Brahms' "Lullaby" are also provided, rewritten in a way that, like the book's other gifts of love, is "the same, but different." --Shelley Townsend-Hudson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cherry pie is the appetizing first course in Reiser's (Best Friends Think Alike) mirthful celebration of domestic traditions. With each appearance of the treat, a new generation is marked: fresh-picked cherries are baked in the homemade pies of the narrator's great-grandmother on the farm; cherries are retrieved from a tin can in the grandmother's suburban kitchen; cherries come frozen in the microwave pie that the narrator's business-suited, urban mother "bakes" for her; and cherries are made from clay in the pie the girl serves her teddy bear. "Every time it was the same, but different," sings the refrain. After the pies, Reiser offers similar treatment to family traditions of making garlands of flowers (once gathered in fields, now wrapped from the florist) and quilts (once hand-sewn, now store-bought). But when Reiser turns to lullabies, she delivers a pleasing surprise: each mother sings them the very same way. (Music for Brahms's "Lullaby" appears at the end, with Reiser's lyrics.) The illustrations, flat and boldly outlined, are true to Reiser's established style. The depictions of women border on stereotypethe great-grandmother with her spectacles and old-fashioned bib apron; grandmother with her perky '50s hairdo and sewing machinebut Reiser's attention to the reworking of similar detail in each frame is commendable and her gently poked fun a warmly effective way to reinforce stories of family history. Ages 4-up. (Apr.) FYI: A bilingual companion volume, Tortillas and Lullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas ($16, -14628-7), also by Reiser, uses a Costa Rican setting; it is due out simultaneously. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-In a story that celebrates maternal love across the generations, a child reflects on gifts that are given again and again. The narrator relates how her great-grandmother baked a cherry pie for her grandmother, who in turn baked one for her mother, who baked for her. In the end, the little girl pretends to bake a pie for her teddy bear. The pictures, which are simply drawn yet rich in color and detail, reflect the changes that time brings to the baking process. While great-grandmother rolls her own crust and uses fresh fruit, grandmother can call on a frozen crust and canned pie filling. The mother of today, dressed for success, slips a home-style pie into the microwave. "Every time it was the same, but different." The following "chapters" trace the same women as they weave crowns of flowers (meadow picked, garden grown, and now purchased at the florist) and wrap their daughters in quilts (hand stitched, machine stitched, and then mail ordered). The final chapter maintains the warm feeling as each mother sings her daughter a lullaby. This time, in spite of changing scenery, "Every time it was the same." The words and music (sung to Brahms's "Lullaby") are included. Reiser's Tortillas and Lullabies (Greenwillow, 1998) tells essentially "the same, but different" story, narrated by a little girl in Costa Rica. The warmth and energy of these books make them perfect choices for intergenerational sharing.-Lisa S. Murphy, formerly at Dauphin County Library System, Harrisburg, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A succinct text describes how traditions of baking, flower-wreathing, quilting, and lullaby singing are passed down from mother to daughter in one family. Blandly literal pen-and-watercolors show the changes over time, such as the homemade pie of Great-grandmother's time to the microwave version baked by the narrator's mother. A musical score for the Brahms lullaby is included. Published simultaneously with its companion volume, 'Tortillas and Lullabies'. From HORN BOOK Fall 1998, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From Reiser (Best Friends Think Alike, 1997, etc.), an original and attractive tribute to feminine arts and crafts, in a personal history of one family's changing traditions. Four chapters delineate the baking of a cherry pie, the crafting of a crown of flowers, the construction of a quilt, and the singing of a lullaby. As the great-grandmother bakes a pie for the narrator's grandmother, readers come across the details of the furniture, the home and garden, the clothing, and so on. The methods and locales change over time, from a pie made from scratch, to one made with a frozen crust and canned cherries, to a microwave pie, to the child's pretend pie, but ``every time it was the same, but different.'' Reiser's bold outline drawings are misleadingly simple, capturing pets, scenery, and the wonderful quilts consistently and impressively. There is much to pore over: the changing telephones, the eggbeater, the milk in a bottle, the milk in a carton, as well as the generations moving from rural locales to more urban ones (the farm wife quilts at home while the modern career mother orders a quilt from a catalog with her cell phone). A music sheet is included for the lullaby, as well as a family tree, an author's note on her family history, and a page depicting the generations of the homes of her relatives. (Picture book. 4-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
