CAROL NEVIUS

BIOGRAPHY I BOOKS I PRESENTATIONS I BOOK ORDERING

9780761453802 Baseball Hour, illustrated by Bill Thomson, hardcover (P-3), Marshall Cavendish

9780761453123 Building With Dad, illustrated by Bill Thomson, hardcover (P-3), Marshall Cavendish

In spare, rhyming text, a boy and his father, a builder, explore the site of the child's new school. Wearing hard hats, they watch throughout the year as the bulldozer clears the field and the cement mixer pours the foundation, etc., until the building is ready for the first day of classes. Bold acrylic and colored-pencil pictures give the oversize book great appeal-it opens from the bottom up, and the striking illustrations are done from the boy's perspective looking up at the huge machines. The boy concludes, "And when I'm a grown-up, I hope I will be/a builder like Dad with a helper like me!" The book will be enthusiastically welcomed by youngsters fascinated with construction and big machines. It is also an engaging father/son story. --- School Library Journal

9780761451693 Karate Hour, illustrated by Bill Thomson, hardcover (K-3), Marshall Cavendish

Viewers will definitely feel like participants in this visit to a children's karate class. Using a palette of creams and grays against dark backgrounds (with color accents provided by variously colored belts), and lighting and low angles that give his close-up, photographically realistic figures a monumental look, Thomson depicts students warming up, practicing strikes and kicks, engaging in some light sparring, then lining up for a closing ritual. In her rhymed commentary and closing note, Nevius briefly describes what's going on---"We energize. Our muscles flex. / We raise our arms, protect our necks"---while introducing rudiments of karate's history and "aims to finish what someone else starts" philosophy. --- Kirkus

4/27/07