Review by Booklist Review
Reviewed with Elaine Greenstein's One Little Lamb0 . PreS-Gr. 1. There are many books that cover this territory: how a lamb's wool becomes a sweater; the way a flower grows from a seed. But these two compact volumes are amazingly simple and artistically captivating. Lamb0 manages to tell the whole story with only a few words a page: a lamb lives on a farm; wool is cut, cleaned and combed; it is spun into yarn, dipped in dye, and rolled into balls; finally, it is knit into mittens. Seed0 , has a similar approach, but uses occasional rhyme to brighten the text: "shoots unfurl / sprouts uncurl." Young children will have no problem understanding both processes, which are illustrated by spot-on artwork that fills up the small pages. Kids will immediately be drawn by the cover art; the framed jacket painting of a sleeping lamb covered with curlicues of white wool is especially fetching. Greenstein uses thickly applied colors outlined in black in spreads featuring children involved in the pleasurable work that goes into planting and wool working, and her up-close perspectives give a sense of immediacy to the texts. Parents, librarians, and teachers will find myriad ways to use these. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
New picture books look to captivate open minds. Elaine Greenstein offers two cyclical tales for youngest readers. One Little Seed understatedly depicts a seed's growth from initial planting ("One little seed/ Dropped in a hole") through its development and eventual blossoming as a bright sunflower. Folk-influenced, full-bleed watercolors balance facing pages where brief lyrical phrases and small circular insets float on white space. One Little Lamb applies this formula to a rural setting where a lamb's wool is sheared, carded and spun; a girl uses the wool to knit "two little mittens I wear on my hands," which she wears when visiting the flock. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-In these companion books, readers follow the progression of a lamb's wool being transformed into a pair of mittens and a seed growing into a sunflower. Greenstein's softly hued watercolors are enhanced by some scratchboard techniques. The texts appear in large type with spot art sharing each verso and facing a full-page painting. However, the tenses, the subjects of the verbs, and the points of view shift erratically from page to page without any punctuation, making the narratives more like captions than stories unfolding. "One little seed/dropped in a hole/watered and loved/roots unfurl/sprout uncurls/stretch in rain/weed and watch/bud bursts out/sun shines bright/blooms blossom/one little seed is picked." Sweet books with appealing art and flawed texts.-Bina Williams, Bridgeport Public Library, CT (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
Using a few well-chosen words per double-page spread, each of these small books describes a different process. Moving from lamb to wool to yarn to knitting, Lamb shows the creation of two mittens. Seed portrays the cycle of a plant's life from seed to sunflower and back to seed. The attractive illustrations zoom in on various stages of each process. [Review covers these titles: One Little Lamb and One Little Seed.] (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
