A week in need of a good comfort book.

Sara Pinto.  Apples and Oranges:  Going Bananas with Pairs.  Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2008.  32 pages.  Age 3 to 8.

There have been a lot of changes in our household this week.  Well, one change that’s affecting several things:  Geraldine has started first grade.  We’re dealing with changing schedules and sudden intrusions like homework.  What we need is a comfort book.  A good choice for us is Apples and Oranges:  Going Bananas with Pairs.  When we took it out from the library last year, we read it over and over.  It’s great for a laugh.

The first page opens with the question, “How are an apple and an orange alike?”  Well, they’re both fruits.  They can be eaten, they grow on trees, they have peels…we can think of a lot of ways that they’re alike.  But when you turn the page, you get this answer:  “They both don’t wear glasses.”  A precedent has been set for the rest of the book:  explaining how objects that share at least a couple traits can also be compared by what they don’t do.

The humor wouldn’t work well without the illustrations.  On the page that asks how a motorcycle and bicycle are alike, for example, they just sit there innocently.  Then, when you turn the page to find out that they both don’t work in a bank, it shows them behind desks.  The motorcycle is helping a customer, or trying to, and it’s a riot.  I won’t spoil the fun with any more examples.  You must, must read this book.

[ Posted in » Book Review Channel :: Graves girls read! :: Picture Book Reviews ]