From: Rob Reid <reidra>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 08:52:05 -0600

I am enjoying Sam and the Tigers with my patrons and colleagues here in Western Wisconsin. Miriam Hansen of the Indianhead Federated Library System and I had fun finding all of the faces in Pinkney's vegetation. He is consistently one of our best children's book illustrators. I was interested to learn how Jerry studied tigers for his drawings. Look at the tiger on the title page. It is facing away from the reader, but Jerry has captured its power and dignity with this pose. I must say, however, that the book works for me because of Julius Lester's style. Like the Brer Rabbit stories and John Henry, he manages to come up with phrases that make my face crinkle up in delight. "...as yellow as tomorrow," "as green as a satisfied mind," and
"as purple as a love that would last forever." I've used this book in Preschool Storytime and Family Storytime now, and the line that gets the biggest laugh is "Sam looked at Sam. Sam shrugged. Sam shrugged back. Sam nodded. Sam nodded back. Sam and Sam looked at Sam and nodded together. Sam grinned." A true delight for the tongue.

Rob Reid L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library/ University of Wisconsin?u Claire
Received on Tue 05 Nov 1996 08:52:05 AM CST