A Sister's Wish - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 2?This story's refrain says it all: "Things wouldn't be so bad if I just had a sister!" A child's longing for someone who understands her, for someone who is decidedly more feminine than her brothers, for someone who can help her miss her father less when she's at her mother's, or miss her mom less when she's at her dad's is all the six or seven-year-old heroine thinks she needs. In the end she realizes that sometimes "...just being a sister will do." Warm, realistic drawings done with pastels in a somewhat chalky effect draw readers in, if the rhyming couplets do not. The text weaves and bobs along with a cadence of its own even though the stereotypes stand firm. This girl wants no part of a rough-and-tumble soccer game, hand-me-down overalls, and toy guns?all boy things in her estimation. The illustrations help enormously in making this an appealing package. The typeface is easy to read, almost an enlarged typewriter font. Thus the simple language and repetition coupled with engaging pictures could make it a candidate for early readers.?Harriett Fargnoli, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Warm, expressive pastels reinforce a text inspired by Jacobs's song about a girl burdened by brothers (stepbrothers, half- brothers, whole brothers) and wishing for a sister. The transition from sung verse to book text is surprisingly smooth; these are homey, simple wishes in any medium. The language is plain and unforced, working off the strength of detail in the girl's life and only once invoking a metaphor (``there's a princess's heart/beating under these thorns''). Carpenter's lovely paintings are alive with action; her characters have vivid facial expressions and dynamic body language. The story perpetuates gender stereotypes (the boys play rough, and with guns, while the girl picks flowers and serves imaginary tea), but it does so with the ring of truth. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.