Show Me Happy

by Kathryn Madeline Allen, Eric Futran (Photographer)

Overview

Show me happy. Show me helping. Show me sharing when we play. Show me NOISY, Show me quiet. Show me putting things away. From the team that created A Kiss Means I Love you, this new book of engaging photos will “show” early learners simple actions and concepts that all children learn as they begin to socialize and communicate. Lively, charming photos illustrate real kids doing common activities like helping and sharing or pushing and pulling. A perfect companion to the first book, Show Me Happy is a delightful read-aloud that will make any story time expressive and fun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807573495
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	BR (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kathryn Madeline Allen writes books, short stories, and poems for children. Her previous books include A Kiss Means I Love You and This Little Piggy’s Book of Manners. She teaches college writing and children’s literature in Michigan, where she lives with her family. Eric Futran has worked as a photographer for more than forty years. Based in Chicago, his photos have appeared on the web and in numerous publications and books, including A Baby’s Coming to Your House!, Somewhere Today: A Book of Peace, and A Kiss Means I Love You.

Editorial Reviews

02/23/2015
Candid photographs of children—both alone and accompanied by parents, friends, and siblings—and short, demonstrative phrases highlight a range of behaviors and activities in this book from the team behind A Kiss Means I Love You (2012). “Show me holding,” writes Allen as a girl cradles a baby (presumably a new sibling) and kisses its forehead. Images representing “Show me hiding” and “show me found” feature two different children playing peekaboo on opposing pages. The large photographs clearly communicate concepts like up and down, and actions like “pushing” and pulling, creating many opportunities for adult-child discussions while reading. Ages 2–4. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2015
PreS-Gr 1—A new offering from the creators of A Kiss Means I Love You (Albert Whitman, 2012) that is as charming as its predecessor. The large, attractive photographs of children are teamed with simple text to depict actions and emotions. Each page features the same textual formula "Show me…." One photograph features a girl interacting with a toy lawn mower for "Show me pushing," which is followed by "Show me pulling" and a photograph of a different girl pulling a younger boy in a bright wagon. The work displays opposites, emotions, and everyday activities with which young children will relate and identify. The text and images are clear and uncluttered. Young readers may feel inspired to act along with the pictures. VERDICT A fine addition to most picture book collections.—Laura Hunter, Mount Laurel Library, NJ

School Library Journal

2014-12-06
Rhyming text in large print accompanies colorful photographs of children of different ethnic backgrounds, all engaged in the enjoyment of life.The youngest children will enjoy looking at the photographs and identifying with such phrases as "Show me happy, / show me helping, // show me up, / show me down." (The "up" and "down" photos capture children playing on playground equipment.) The pleasantries of a largely suburban lifestyle involve, in addition to playground fun, a plastic "lawnmower" and wagon, Lego construction, reading books, counting with fingers, and interacting lovingly with adults, pets and other children. Care was obviously taken to include a diversity of ages, genders and skin colors in the models. The text's simple rhythms will allow little ones to "read along" with the book after the first few run-throughs. A number of the activities encourage children to immediately mimic what they see in the illustrations, as in the finger-counting, the peekaboo pages and the "Show me little, / show me BIG" photographs. A sweetness in the images and the text elevates the book from sheer simplicity to usefulness in providing behavioral role models. The use of near-rhymes is a welcome relief from texts that sacrifice meaning for exact rhyme. There is nothing wrong with coupling "down" with "found" and "ten" with "friends." A nice addition to the bookshelves of day care centers, preschools and families with young children. (Picture book. 1-4)

Kirkus Reviews

"A sweetness in the images and the text elevates the book from sheer simplicity to usefulness in providing behavioral role models." Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2014

"The large photographs clearly communicate concepts like up and down, and actions like pushing and pulling, creating many opportunities for adult-child discussions while reading." Publishers Weekly, February 23, 2015

"The text and images are clear and uncluttered. Young readers may feel inspired to act along with the pictures. A fine addition to most picture book collections." School Library Journal, February 1, 2015

From the Publisher