PreS‘This bright and bouncy story in verse hops from one thought to another just as quickly as preschoolers do. Each subject introduced, however, is woven to the next in a "one person's trash is another person's treasure" comparison. Therefore, "The peas I hate upon my plate/are someone's favorite treat." In addition to food preferences, topics from the natural world such as a stream, tree, grass, and sky are considered. Siomades's vividly colored artwork, done in cut paper, watercolor, and gouache much in the style of Eric Carle, is essential to the understanding of the text as it depicts the plants and animals simply referred to as "someone" or "something." The humorous creatures busily interpret the words and images in an entertaining manner. Useful for early poetry study or read-aloud fun.‘Marsha McGrath, Clearwater Public Library, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A girl realizes that there are many ways to look at things. For example, when the rhyming text states (ungrammatically): 'the grass I love to lay in hides someone else's food,' the illustration shows a bird pulling a panicky worm from the grass. Cut paper and gouache paints combine to create simple, dopey-eyed animals that are humorous but trite, however clear the book's message. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A colorful, visually appealing story-in-rhyme with an ambiguous focus: Is it about sharing the planet with other species (``The stream I like to visit/is someone's place to drink''), seeing the same thing from different perspectives (``The feather that is light for me/others cannot lift''), or recycling (``The teddy bear that showed much wear/that no one thought to mend/was thrown away the very same day/he became my very best friend!'')? Siomades's wonderfully engaging mixed-media illustrations are indebted to Eric Carle, but her writing doesn't measure up to the same high standard, e.g., there's a grammatical lapse in ``the grass I love to lay in,'' awkward meter, and forced rhyme--``The scary snake on the garden path/who doesn't look friendly. . . /is someone else's mother/who is more afraid of me!'' (Picture book. 3- 6)