What James Likes Best

by Amy Schwartz

Book Overview

From award-winning author-illustrator Amy Schwartz comes a charming interactive picture book with four stories about a boy who shares special everyday experiences with friends and family--but what do... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689840594
• ISBN13: 9780689840593
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.3" x 12.3"
• Age Range: 2 to 5 years

Customer Reviews

Or was it the windshield wipers?

With its distinctly metropolitan tone and feeling, this book is undoubtedly takes place in New York. Yet as I was reading it I kept feeling that I was looking at something distinctly British. There is, after all, a simplicity to the British picture book that most American tales don't contain. And then there's, "What James Likes Best". A quiet collection of toddler vignettes, the book examines several activites that small James partakes in, and then asks the readers' opinion as to which of those activities James liked the most. For example, in one such story James visits his Aunt and Grandma. He plays with a purple car, eats cheese from a tiny fork, and goes for a ride in a taxi. So which of these does James like best (or was it Auntie's hair that caught his little heart)? The words in this story are very simple and very straightforward. They feel perfectly composed and ideally written so as to convey the plot of this little book. The illustrations are also rather simple, but they go above and beyond James' storyline. Many of these pictures show James having fun, while in the background the grown-ups are given a chance to mix and intermingle with one another. I enjoyed watching the father of James squeeze himself into a tiny zoo train car or patiently carry home a potroast from a visit with the relatives. Books that speak to children clearly and effectively and yet can be read multiple times by adults are worthwhile reading. Should you so feel inclined, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of "What James Likes Best" for your own perusal. A fine flavorful tale.