Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bouncy and effervescent, colorful and inclusive, this picture book's refrain invites readers to "talk peace." Williams's (illustrator of Tumble Me Tumbily) exhortation is rhythmic if, at times, clumsy as he challenges readers to "Talk soft./ Talk loud./ Talk shy./ Talk proud./ Talk high./ Talk low./ Way to go,/ Talk peace." Moriuchi's bright, child-like illustrations include animals and children of all nationalities, and feature an ebullient series of unrelated scenes sewn together like quilt blocks into a cohesive whole. On one spread, a picture of penguins ("in a muddle,/ when you huddle,/ when you cuddle") appears opposite four boxed illustrations, which include a trio of apartment buildings, an animal, a girl on top of a mountain and a boy swimming ("in a city,/ on the plain,/ up the mountain,/ in the sea"). The series of prepositional phrases in Williams's narrative moves quickly, but sometimes the drive for rhyme and rhythm overwhelms the syntactical sense of the text. The phrases "On a train,/ on a plane,/ in the sun,/ in the rain" end with the abrupt admonition "understand foreign land." Nonetheless, both the exuberance and the seriousness of the book shine through in Moriuchi's action-filled illustrations, and readers will joyfully join in as they learn to "Be alive,/ gimme five./ When you party,/ party jive./ Dance peace./ Talk peace." Ages 3-6. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Saddened by events in the news, Williams pours out lyrics to express his feelings on peace. "On the street,/when you meet,/when you eat,-/talk peace." This is a difficult concept to convey to a young audience, and the writing is unremarkable. Even the attractive illustrations, which are colorful and primitive in appearance, do little to enhance the abstract message. On the other hand, the circular tops of the trees and the rounded bodies on bears give some mellowness to the vague idea. The large-print, red text uses words that most first graders will recognize. However, with the spate of books on peace lately, including Vladimir Radunsky's What Does Peace Feel Like? (S & S, 2004) and Todd Parr's The Peace Book (Little, Brown, 2004), libraries probably don't need this one.-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA (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
This simple, intermittently rhyming text ably introduces the topic of peaceful coexistence to the very young. To his credit, Williams doesn't deal only in abstract generalities: he admonishes us to ""look at race / in the face"" and ""understand / foreign land."" Moriuchi's bold, lush images, often showing kids of different ethnicities playing together, effortlessly reinforce these points. (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.
