Laura Vaccaro Seeger Reviews

First the Egg; illus. by the author
     32 pp. Porter/Roaring Brook
     Reviewed 11/07
Seeger, creator of outside-the-box concept books such as Lemons Are Not Red (rev. 1/05), here presents a companion volume about the order of things. The text is minimal: "First the EGG / then the CHICKEN / First the TADPOLE / then the FROG" and so on with seed and flower, caterpillar and butterfly. Seeger then proceeds to more abstract pairs — "First the WORD / then the STORY / First the PAINT / then the PICTURE" — making them concrete for the youngest viewers by incorporating objects mentioned in the preceding pages into both story and picture. The ending is circular — well, almost, because who really knows which came first, the chicken or the egg? Pages are color-saturated and as minimalist as the text; thick, practically palpable brush strokes on canvas backgrounds draw the hand to the page as well as the eye. As in Lemons Are Not Red, cleverly conceived and executed cutouts reinforce the book's tactile appeal even as they propel the page turns. The book's tidy square shape showcases the simple objects; its relatively small trim size is the perfect balance for the lushness of the art. The best picture books create a world in themselves, and this tour de force is one of them. M.V.P.

Black? White! Day? Night!: A Book of Opposites
      24 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
      Reviewed 4/07
Seeger's classy lift-the-flap book of opposites employs a text that is simplicity itself ("tiny? huge! over? under!") to introduce concepts of contrast and context, appealingly revealed through interactive investigation. Bold colors and decisive lines, clever optical illusions (the lettering for the word simple forms part of a complicated maze), and mischievous humor combine for a thoughtful, well-packaged offering. CG

Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
      32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
      Reviewed 5/07
Stories about a pair of friends almost always hark back to the enduring richness found in Lobel's Frog and Toad tales. This duo is worthy of the comparison, as in three brief stories the reader quickly becomes attached to Dog and Bear, and feels their connection. One nice comedic twist here is that Bear, with his multicolored body and visible buttons for joints, is a teddy bear, while Dog, in every pose, is a real dachshund. Some of their interaction is based on that difference, as when Bear is stuck up high on a chair and the more mobile Dog comes up
with the solution (Bear slides down Dog's back). In the second story, Dog offers a wide variety of toys in very canine fashion in an effort to entice the engrossed-in-reading Bear to play. The third story is a very funny sequence of sight gags in which Dog considers alternative names for himself, and Bear envisions what a dog named Spot or Fluffy or Prince would look like. As in all successful friendship stories, the balance keeps shifting between the two, with Dog and Bear taking turns being the friend-in-need and the friend indeed; and each story comes to a small, satisfying finish. The stark white backgrounds highlight the actions of the two characters, who are drawn with robust black ink outlines and filled in with paint in five colors using thick, visibly uneven brush strokes, giving the pictures an energetic, endearingly childlike quality. S.D.L.

Lemons Are Not Red
     32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
     Reviewed 1/05
"Lemons are not RED" begins this simple concept book. But there, showing through a die-cut on the right-hand side of the spread, is a red lemon. What gives? As any three-year-old knows, the quickest attention-getter is to say the wrong thing — the silly thing — and let the child correct the adult. Sure enough, when the page turns, we see a big red apple on the right while the lemon-shaped hole now on the left reveals the proper yellow from the previous spread: "Lemons are YELLOW // Apples are RED." So it continues through carrots/eggplants, flamingos/elephants, and so on, ending with a silver moon ("Good night!"). Each shape is simple, and each wrong statement appears within a solid-color spread of the right color, providing a hint for those who are not quite sure. The heavy paper should stand up to multiple readings and pokings, though the flamingo and reindeer may find their necks folded or ripped in time. As with Seeger's previous books, the colors and textures are nearly edible. LOLLY ROBINSON.

The Hidden Alphabet
     32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
     Reviewed 1/04
The cover provides the first hint that this is a concept book with a capital C: rows of random upper- and lowercase letters fill the cover, while the black die-cut jacket exposes the title hidden within those letters. The publisher declares the book to be for ages two to six, but words like arrowhead and inkblot seem to imply an older audience. The "oh, cool!" factor should be highest in the six-to-nine set, particularly among those who like hiding, seeking, and playing spies. That jacket, for example, is an old code-writing trick, as many eight-year-olds will be happy to explain. Inside, sturdy pages made of card stock feature black die-cut flaps folding down from the top. Opening to the first spread, "arrowhead / balloons," we see through the left hole a crisp painting of a brown arrowhead on a white background and through the right hole, yellow and red balloons floating in a blue sky. Lifting the flaps turns foreground to background as those images become the negative space defining the letter form. Within each image, delicately subtle shadows transform shapes from convex to concave (or vice versa) once the flap is lifted. This is great bookmaking, and a snazzy--though sophisticated--addition to the alphabet bookshelf. LOLLY ROBINSON

Walter Was Worried
     40 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
     Reviewed 11/05
What looks like a simple concept book in fact introduces several ideas simultaneously. "Walter was worried when..." shows a very worried-looking Walter whose facial features are made up entirely of letters — the letters that make up the word worried. Next we meet a puzzled Priscilla, a shocked Shirley, and five others. Each letter/picture/emotion/alliteration double-page spread alternates with a spread showing weather — Walter is worried about the darkening sky, Shirley is shocked by lightning (no, not literally). Seeger's quick, childlike style makes this feat of multitasking look easy and inviting. In the end, the storm passes, and we see why the children were dismayed by the dramatic weather: they wanted to go outside to fly a kite. The final endpapers show all eight children lined up in the order they were introduced, marching behind Walter and his kite. As with her other books (The Hidden Alphabet; Lemons Are Not Red), Seeger demonstrates a graphic concept that children — and teachers — may want to try for themselves. LOLLY ROBINSON

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