Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
"Turning the pages of Miller's elegantly simple photo-essay is like freshly experiencing all five senses," said PW of this cheerful series of children's portraits celebrating sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Ages 2-4. (July)
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
Turning the pages of Miller's ( Where Does It Go? ) elegantly simple photo-essay is like freshly experiencing all five senses. After an opening spread that shows five portraits of children of varied races and that bears the caption, ``I have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two ears and two hands,'' the book goes on to explore each of the senses in turn. Each oversize page contains a single, brightly but unobtrusively framed photo featuring one of the children demonstrating various kinds of sights, sounds, tastes, smells and textures. The images show both the pleasant and unpleasant--smelling a big bowl of fresh popcorn but also garbage, tasting sticky sweet watermelon as well as medicine--and the children's natural expressions convey a range of reactions. Unlike many books of this type, Miller's includes refreshingly offbeat objects besides the usual flowers, ice cream and fire engine siren; her models smell a horse, taste the ocean and feel finger paints. Young readers will recognize and relate to these well-chosen subjects, and will want to duplicate the action on the pages. Ages 2-4. (May)
Children's Literature
- Tina Hudak
The book opens with five young smiling faces of differing races and ethnicity who introduce the reader to the world of the senses. The children take turns demonstrating how their senses are used in the every day world. Four pages are devoted to each child who delights in one of the senses. Although the illustrations are posed, they offer an intimate and personal view of daily life from the child's perspective. The colorful simply framed photographs framed dominate the page visually. The text is written and presented to encourage reading. The type is large and words are manageable; the amount of text varies from a single word to phrases, such as "With my eyes I see myself..." This is a useful book for the classroom as it encourages exploration of the senses beyond what is presented. 1998 (orig.
School Library Journal
PreS-K-Slight in text, but often visually striking, this book introduces the subject through photographs of five children, each of a different race or ethnicity. An African-American girl looks at herself, her shadow, her dog, and her city, each illustrated with a full-color photograph of her interacting with the topic at hand. The pattern is repeated by each child: ``with my nose I smell popcorn, a horse, flowers, and garbage. With my mouth I taste...'' Finally, readers are told, ``With our five senses, we enjoy our world.'' While some of the pictures seem staged, they depict experiences common to many children of this age, and are sure to provoke discussion. The book is in the same vein as Aliki's My Five Senses (Crowell, 1989) and Henry Pluckrose's ``Think About'' series (Watts), all of which essentially offer visual images, making no attempt to explain how or why the senses work. As such, this title is an additional purchase for collections serving young children.-Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MI
