Look!

April 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-Adding minimal two- to four-word captions that call attention to the depicted animals and actions ("Look! An elephant eats."), Lewin presents a gallery of African creatures on their own or in small groups. With typically luminous, impressionistic watercolors he opens with a close-up of a child's wide-eyed face, closes with the same child surrounded by toy animals and books ("Look! A boy reads."), and in between captures giraffes leaning down to drink, a gorilla peering shyly through a screen of vines, a herd of galloping zebras, and six more animals. All are easy to identify and naturalistically posed. Emergent readers will relish decoding the text; thoughtful youngsters might also catch the subtle link forged by the boy's imagination between his toys and their living counterparts.-John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City

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Starred review from March 1, 2013
With wide-eyed amazement, a boy observes animals on the African savanna. "Look! An elephant eats." Two giraffes drink at a water hole. A solitary warthog snuffles in the dirt. A gorilla peers out from behind stalks. Wild dogs alertly listen. Zebras gallop, and monkeys perch high in a tree. Hippos open their mouths in the water, and a rhino sleeps. Now circle back to the boy as he reads a story to his stuffed animals and goes to sleep with his favorite, an elephant, close by. Lewin, the intrepid world traveler and accomplished painter of animals in their natural habitats, gives each a double-page spread and uses pencil and watercolors to showcase them in the shimmering sun of the savanna. Beginning readers will enjoy each repetition of "look," the short declarative sentences used for each of the animal activities, and the large font. Adults sharing this title will appreciate the connections made between the text and the pictures. A satisfying challenge and a fun animal adventure made thrilling by Lewin's characteristically spectacular use of light. (Early reader. 2-6)

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July 1, 2013
Lewin's trademark pencil and watercolor illustrations capture the realistic characteristics of African animals as a little boy imagines his toy animals are alive and on the move: "Look! An elephant eats. / Look! Giraffes drink." The engaging pictures paired with the sparse, repetitive text offer an accessible narrative for animal-loving kids brand-new to reading.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)