Look at Me, Grandma! - Softcover

Gr 2-3-This poorly constructed story about accepting change and being courageous falls as flat as the narrative voice used to convey it. It begins when Jamie's grandma comes to take care of him when his mother goes away to deliver a new baby. "Good-bye, Jamie, darling.-It's time for me to have our baby." Later, Grandma pulls out an old photo album and shows Jamie pictures of her brother, who died as a child. Nothing in the text indicates that Jamie is even all that curious about his great-uncle. Nevertheless, after his sister is born, Jamie dreams about Callum for several nights and those dream-state perceptions of the boy somehow give him the courage to ride his bike, swim in the ocean, and drive bumper cars. Readers are not told that Jamie has had trouble doing these things before, so his newfound resolve isn't very impressive. The narrative vaguely suggests that his forays with Callum are linked to his new feelings of responsibility as a big brother and role model, but that message doesn't come across very clearly. Mendes's text is repetitive and formulaic, her plot is too thin to be interesting, and her characterization is overly dependent on dialogue. Fletcher's illustrations do little to expand upon the skeletal text. This is by no means a first purchase.

Catherine Threadgill, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

This curious book combines fantasy elements with a conventional story of a new sibling. While not so eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new baby, young Jamie learns from his grandmother that she once had an older brother named Callum, who died when he was 10. For the next three nights, Jamie dreams that the redheaded, green-eyed Callum visits him, guiding Jamie on his bicycle, swimming with him and riding bumper cars. Callum tells Jamie, "Hold on to me," as the two bob in Fletcher's (Wind Garden) swirling, striated sea of blues and greens. "Then [Callum] melts into the waves and Jamie begins to swim." Although the text never states that Jamie was afraid of these things, each time he tackles them by himself in the daylight, this refrain appears, "Suddenly he isn't frightened anymore." Convinced by his nightly adventures with Callum that big brothers have a lot to offer, Jamie joyfully welcomes home a new baby sister. Mendes's (Tomasina's First Dance) simple sentences and repetitive refrains create an incantatory power, but some children may be confused about Jamie's apparitions and the vague allusions to his fears. The relationship between Jamie and Callum is too sketchy to overcome these shortcomings in the text, despite illustrations that depict Jamie's connection to the dead boy and to his new sister. Ages 3-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.