School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-With just one word per page, Jay takes readers on a journey through the seasons, beginning with images that decorate a clock on the very first page. Children studying the primitive-style, crackle-glazed paintings will delight in finding the nursery-rhyme look-alikes and other familiar objects. Tiny images on one page become full-sized illustrations on the next. The little snail on a golden leaf in autumn next appears larger than life, sporting an alarmed expression as a menacing red boot-worn by the girl raking leaves in the previous picture-approaches. Viewers' eyes are at once drawn across each page and yet are invited to tarry, studying each scene to find all that is hidden within. One may wonder if the couple running up the sunny hill to fetch a pail of water is the same pair pictured ice skating in a painting on the wall in a Yuletide scene. This unique book is clever enough to engage older children, yet simple enough to be a first wordbook for the youngest readers.-Doris Gebel, Northport-East Northport Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Nostalgic images of a country landscape disguise this picture book's visual complexity. At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary. British author/artist Jay provides a set of gorgeous illustrations in the American primitive style, each labeled with a quaint word such as "tortoise" or "umbrella." However, the author has more than a spelling lesson in mind. The sequence begins with the lowercase word "clock" and a picture of the face of a grandfather clock, a pairing that looks easy until "Hickory Dickory Dock" enthusiasts notice the hour (almost one o'clock) and the gray mouse atop the timepiece. Decorative images surround the clock face, alluding to the four seasons and to forthcoming pictures of, for instance, a "snail" and "cat." Later in the volume, a yellow tabby refers back to the opening image of the cat pictured on the clock and also directs readers' attention to new objects, including a fire engine-red "airplane" loop-de-looping in the summer sky. Meanwhile, other visual allusions (to Jack and Jill, for example, and the Tortoise and the Hare) draw on nursery lore. The concluding winter scene, captioned simply "snowman," again recalls the clock and reactivates the book's cycle. Jay sets all the scenes in a seaside orchard among rolling hills; her luxurious palette includes custard colorsDavocado green, robin's egg blue, vanilla white and peachy goldDand the paintings have the crackled surface of antique porcelain. Fans of such brainteasers as David Wiesner's Tuesday and Joan Steiner's Look-Alikes will be charmed by this pictorial puzzler. Ages 2-5. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
