School Library Journal Review

PreS-K-Sammi and her little brother spend the day at a city park with their grown-ups. Throughout the day, the children observe many exciting elements: other people enjoying the park, nature, playgrounds, and horse-drawn carriages. Each of the elements the children discover is alliterated and hyphenated with the word, eyed. These alliterations, like "Big-eyed bug," are usually the only text on the page leaving the mixed-media illustrations to take a starring role in each stanza. For example, there's a "Side-eyed frog. Wide-eyed dog. Squirrel-eyed girl. Girl-eyed squirrel. Busy-eyed day at the park." With bright, summer colors; creative use of white space; and a splattered, blue skyline shadowed by skyscrapers, the illustrations amply complement the text. Characters with round eyes and large black pupils add an extra degree of cuteness. As the book reaches the last few pages, the prose changes slightly. This switch from "-eyed" everything to mama hugs and a conclusion is a welcome break from the repetition. VERDICT This is a great book to share with little ones before any stroll outdoors. It will get them talking about their observations as they experience their own "busy-eyed" days. -Mindy Hiatt, Salt Lake County Library Services © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.