Overview
Who would you like to change places with for one day? How can you tell that you are growing? What do you do when you are very cold? This is a little book with big ideas. Sometimes provocative, always interesting, every page can be the start of a new discussion. Reading the questions, and looking at the pictures, each child will have different answers to give, and things to ask. The questions are intriguing, the images sometimes startling, sometimes beautiful, and always engaging.
A collection of questions, such as "Who is your best friend?" and "Which story can you tell?" that can serve as a conversation starter for parents and their children.
Synopsis
Who would you like to change places with for one day? How can you tell that you are growing? What do you do when you are very cold? This is a little book with big ideas. Sometimes provocative, always interesting, every page can be the start of a new discussion. Reading the questions, and looking at the pictures, each child will have different answers to give, and things to ask. The questions are intriguing, the images sometimes startling, sometimes beautiful, and always engaging.
Publishers Weekly
Geared for adults and sophisticated children, this high-concept picture book is beautifully executed and irresistibly packaged. Each turn of the page reveals a different question, smartly set off against neon-bright backdrops, while facing pages spotlight thematically related images, many of which feature Damm's puckish artwork. "What do you like to collect?" appears opposite a full-color photograph of new and antique racing cars, sporty convertibles, tractors and trucks, neatly arranged in a wooden toy box. A boy and girl with sketched faces atop collage images of fabric and graph paper sit in front of a computer screen for "What can you do better than your parents?" While the visual blend of German-born Damm's artwork has a distinctly European flavor, most of the images are universal, ranging from the tender ("What do you like to touch?" alongside a black-and-white photograph of an adult hand caressing a chubby toddler foot) to the commonplace (a photograph of a child perched in a tree for "What's your favorite place to play?") to the unexpected (for "Whom can you talk to about everything?" a pair of pigeons huddle together on a ledge). The book's small, chunky format invites hands to hold and explore it. A few images may be frightening to younger readers (e.g., a graveyard scene for "Whom do you miss?") but most of the conversation-sparking questions are broad enough and the packaging edgy enough to work as successfully with toddlers as with teens. All ages. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Geared for adults and sophisticated children, this high-concept picture book is beautifully executed and irresistibly packaged. Each turn of the page reveals a different question, smartly set off against neon-bright backdrops, while facing pages spotlight thematically related images, many of which feature Damm's puckish artwork. "What do you like to collect?" appears opposite a full-color photograph of new and antique racing cars, sporty convertibles, tractors and trucks, neatly arranged in a wooden toy box. A boy and girl with sketched faces atop collage images of fabric and graph paper sit in front of a computer screen for "What can you do better than your parents?" While the visual blend of German-born Damm's artwork has a distinctly European flavor, most of the images are universal, ranging from the tender ("What do you like to touch?" alongside a black-and-white photograph of an adult hand caressing a chubby toddler foot) to the commonplace (a photograph of a child perched in a tree for "What's your favorite place to play?") to the unexpected (for "Whom can you talk to about everything?" a pair of pigeons huddle together on a ledge). The book's small, chunky format invites hands to hold and explore it. A few images may be frightening to younger readers (e.g., a graveyard scene for "Whom do you miss?") but most of the conversation-sparking questions are broad enough and the packaging edgy enough to work as successfully with toddlers as with teens. All ages. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.Children's Literature
Often it is very difficult for kids and their parents to converse, or at least to get beyond the mundane—how was your day, what did you do at school—type of conversations. This import, originally published in Germany, poses 100 questions to get the conversational ball rolling. It opens with two young kids conversing on a beach and the opposing page asks, "Who is your best friend?" Another image that appears to be cut paper collage is accompanied by the question "Have you ever cooked something with your dad? The format is straightforward. The question appears on the left-hand page and the image on the right. The pages are brightly colored and the images reflect a great variety of art styles, which is in itself interesting since most of them were done by Antje. She had even included some produced by members of her family. The book might also work with teachers who want to use it to help kids get ideas for starting to write or tell a story or to have them relate a real experience. 2003 (orig. 2002), Roaring Brook Press,— Marilyn Courtot