Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-5. Using wonderful collages, Fleming offers a frog's view of the changing seasons at a small, small pond. It's spring, and the frog jumps into the pool, where tadpoles wiggle and jiggle and baby ducks waddle and wade. As summer arrives, days grow lazier: "drowse, doze, eyes close." In the autumn, "pile, pack, muskrats stack," and when the snow finally starts falling, it's a "cold night / sleep tight. In the small, small pond." Adults will certainly be more aware than children of Fleming's subtle use of color to indicate the changing seasons, but listeners will get a kick out of the simple, yet bouncy rhymes, the brevity of which makes this book suitable for even the youngest. To make her pictures, Fleming poured colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils onto handmade paper. The art has both a fluidity of design and a precision of definition that make it a pleasure to view--something individuals and groups will enjoy doing. ~--Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The backyard exploration begun with In the Tall, Tall Grass continues here with Fleming's latest picture-book peek at nature. The animals and insects that live on and in a freshwater pond wiggle, waddle, hover, swoop and swirl through the stunning spreads--and through the seasons of the year. Fish, frogs and fowl cavort first in the vibrant greens and yellows of spring and summer, then on through fiery autumn reds and oranges and, finally, amid barren browns and icy whites as winter sets in. Young children are introduced to the basic habits of common North American wildlife and to the characteristics of the changing seasons even as they are treated to an array of zippy verbs. Fleming's color-saturated handmade paper technique makes for dramatic tapestries that feature both sharp contrast and subtle shading. Scenes depicting clacking crawfish and parading geese are especially spirited. Ages 2-6. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Employing the same method of illustration that she used in her award-winning 'In the Tall, Tall Grass' (Holt), Fleming creates eye-catching compositions with bold, vibrant forms. The rhymed text consists of three or four words, primarily verbs, printed large on each page and arranged so that they seem to move along with the images. A perfect prelude to a field trip to the local pond. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the same format and gorgeous illustrative style, a companion to In the Tall, Tall Grass (1991, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor), with the succinct rhyming text (``waddle, wade, geese parade''), in bold black, beautifully integrated into art created in the process of making paper from pulp dyed in brilliant colors. This time, the child observer is Oriental; and where the first book moved from noon to night, the implicitly suggested cycle here is from tadpole and gosling to ``Chill breeze, winter freeze.'' Another perfect introduction to nature for the very young. (Picture book. 1-6)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
