THE SECRET KNOWLEDGE OF GROWN-UPS
Revealed and illustrated by David Wisniewski,
Lothrop (ages 10-12), $16
David Wisniewski’s earlier, prize-winning cutouts and collages have often been of serious subjects, retelling the material of myth. Evidently, winning the 1997 Caldecott Medal has entitled him to have some fun in this picture book designed for a slightly older crowd. The jacket looks like a secret dossier, with “CLASSIFIED” and such stamped all over it. For each “TOP SECRET,” Wisniewski presents first the rule, then the “official reason” for it, and finally “the truth.” That’s where the fun begins. As Rule No. 37 says, “Drink plenty of milk.” The official reason? “It’s good for you.” The truth? “To stop our atomic cows from exploding!” The next few pages reveal that all the milk in America comes from only five giant cows (Bonnie, in Wisconsin, supplies the Midwest, for example), and that the rest are all decoys. If kids don’t drink enough milk, Bonnie might explode. Now you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you? There are myriad inventive reasons for such grownup favorites as “Don’t play with your food,” and “Don’t jump on your bed.” But they’re top secret, so you’ll have to read the book to find out what they are.
GREETINGS, SUN
By Phillis and David Gershator, paintings by Synthia Saint James,
A Richard Jackson Book/DK Publishing (ages 3-7), $15.95
From one sunrise to the next, Phillis and David Gershator’s verses salute the daily world of two children, which Synthia Saint James’ pictures place in a bright Caribbean setting. Greetings flow to the cosmic and the mundane, from the sun to ants, from books to beds. The repeated rhythmic structures will remind readers of “Goodnight Moon,” but this isn’t a quiet bedtime book: “After breakfast out we go. We hop. We jump. We shout `Hello!’ ” Every inch of this world is brightly colored, and the vibrant hues help create an action-filled ambience. Some younger readers will wish the figures had facial features drawn in, but the overall exuberance is designed to compensate for the lack of them.
BANANA MOON
By Janet Marshall,
Greenwillow (ages 4-6), $12.95
The last page of this book, showing a banana-shaped moon over a tropical lagoon, sums up the heart of what we’ve seen: “Sweet dreams.” This visit to a tropical island-“the land of cinnamon sand”-invokes on every page some delicious and sweet taste in describing what is seen out the porthole of our sailboat. The porthole, however, is actually cut into the facing page, and when that page is turned, we see that the sweet object becomes an adjective, instead of a noun (for example, we thought we saw a peach, but the next page reveals a peach sunset, and tutti-frutti becomes tutti-frutti fish). The pastel paper cutouts capture a sense of tropical light, in contrast with the black page from which the porthole is cut out, and the view through the porthole is never so obvious that we can figure it out in advance. Should make for some pleasant conversations between the reader and a young listener.
