My Steps

October 1, 1996
PreS-Gr 1-A gentle story about a child's imaginative play. The front steps of a city building make a wonderful year-round playground for an African-American girl and her friends. The steps are good for hopping up and down, watching people and traffic pass by, coloring with friends, playing school, or pretending to be in a cave with a blanket draped over the stoop. Best of all, setting foot on the front steps after you've been away means you're home again. Bright cut-paper collages with watercolors show cars (that look like miniatures) and animals somewhat distorted in relation to people, but have a fresh, childlike quality. An additional slice-of-urban-life picture book.-Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY

October 15, 1996
Ages 4^-6. A child tells about her front steps, her favorite place to play. In summer, it is there that she pretends to ride horses on the low walls, creates miniature lands, makes a cave with a blanket, and eats Popsicles with her friends. In fall, she sweeps the leaves off the steps, and in winter, she shovels away the snow. The concreteness of the language and the occasional snatches of conversation bring the first-person text to life. Collages of dyed-and-painted papers add a feeling of spontaneity as well as a distinctive style. The main character is portrayed as African American, but her experiences will sound familiar to most city kids. In fact, children who don't have a flight of cracked concrete steps may end up wishing for a stoop of their own. ((Reviewed October 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)