PreS-Gr 2‘Another glorious, globe-trotting grannie joins the ranks of elderly travelers. Unlike Jill Paton Walsh's When Grandma Came (Viking, 1992), Bogart's Grandma is a happy soul who offers to bring back "gifts." As she heads off to nine very different locales, she asks, "What would you have me bring?" Her granddaughter's exquisitely fanciful replies presented in rhyme celebrate the imagination: a piece of sky, a roar, billabong goo, a memory, a rainbow to wear as a ring, etc. Reid's wonderful plasticine illustrations, with touches of acrylic for shine, seem so three-dimensional that they beg to be touched. The wealth of texture, depth, and detail is sure to mesmerize even the most jaded eye. The colors are scrumptious. The loving relationship between grandma and granddaughter as each ages is tenderly captured in hugs, smiles, and subtle physical changes. Perhaps this traveler doesn't carpet a town with lupines like Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (Viking, 1982), nor is she as rambunctiously silly as the character in Grahame Base's My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch (Abrams, 1990), but Gifts is a treasure to read alone, aloud, to a group, or to give to anyone who loves the unique.‘Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Lively plasticine bas-reliefs depict scenes of another traveling grandmother (see Blackstone review, above) and the gifts she brings to her granddaughter from around the world. Bogart offers rhyming questions and answers: ``My grandma went to Switzerland,/said: `What would you have me bring?' `Just a chunk of cheese/and a mountain, please,/and a bell that goes ding-a-ling-ling.' '' As the grandmother proceeds through her journeys, she grows older while her granddaughter grows up; the exotic settings include India, Africa, Australia, Mexico, and the Arctic. Reid's now-familiar technique has grown steadily more inventive and these illustrations are astonishing. Whether in large, detailed landscapes or dramatic close-ups, the book contains a wealth of plastic effects, from the soft folds and textures of the grandmother's clothes to the sparkling bubbles of a foamy sea. The lyrical and lighthearted rhymes never convey the exuberance of the art but advance the story nicely by providing a sequence of cues for the pictures. (Picture book. 3-7)

The chronicle of Grandma's travels and the gifts she brings reflects the growth of her granddaughter. Conversely, as the granddaughter grows to adulthood, the grandmother also ages, but her spirit remains young. The use of brightly colored Plasticene for the illustrations gives the book a fresh, original look. Children will enjoy the girl's relationship with her grandmother as well as the originality of the gifts. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.