(2) PS Sharing a cinnamon bun, watering a flower, gazing at the starry sky: these small happy moments and more make up the fabric of everyday love between children and caregivers in this appealing counting book. On each spread, a brightly painted numeral sits in the center of the verso, surrounded by delicately drawn, countable images (a single cinnamon bun, seven twinkling stars, etc.). On the opposite page, a rhyming couplet accompanies an engaging gouache and ink illustration; each vignette depicts a different child and grown-up pair absorbed in a gentle, playful interaction. The patterned text and warm, carefully composed imagery create a steady, cadenced movement from one to ten. In the final pages, before Schwartz reaches her finale -- "I love you...ten!" -- the nine children are reintroduced before they gather at the tenth child's home for a toddler party, where heart-shaped cookies are served. Adorable? Absolutely, but the late Schwartz's unfussy art style and keen eye for the tender, intimate scenes of a young child's life feel decidedly sweet rather than saccharine. This simple read is ideal for sharing in a lap with the youngest readers and pre-readers -- especially fans of Karen Katz or Meyers and Frazee's Everywhere Babies (rev. 5/01).

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) PS Schwartz's third picture book cataloging 100 things (100 Things That Make Me Happy, rev. 11/14; 100 Things I Love to Do with You) celebrates some of the many everyday milestones in growing up: "Help cook / Read a book / Bounce a ball / Stand tall." The text's rhythm keeps the pace lively, while the gouache illustrations inject each activity with true joy and personality. Through the montage of pictures representing a variety of children and families, special moments are woven together to capture how seemingly small accomplishments, such as zipping a coat, taking medicine, or building a fort, all work together to have a big impact on young children. Thin lines and pops of color create a tiny, engaging story within every scene. The small spot art occasionally expands into a larger image that uses the same scale but takes up most of the page, encouraging viewers to pause and consider an activity more deeply: "Touch the sky / Say goodbye." There is much to recognize, relate to, and discover for children and grownups sharing this book for the first time or on repeated viewings. A poster on the back of the book jacket brings all one hundred things together into a large, countable burst of colorful activity.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(1) PS Thirteen short stories follow city dweller Harris on preschooler-sized adventures. A very few seem geared toward adult sensibilities; most tap directly into authentic early-childhood behaviors and experiences. Harris, completely absorbed in his around-the-block sidewalk chalk drawing of a dragon, is surprised when he ends up back where he started. Dressed in his best, Harris attends best friend Ayana's birthday party, where he happily becomes covered in chocolate. (Per the droll text, he "looked very nice" both before and after.) At Thanksgiving, Harris is, unrelentingly, a truck. "He was a truck all the way to his grandmother's house. He was a truck while he ate turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes and peas." Harris (pink-skinned with blond curls) and Ayana (brown-skinned with an afro puff) have fun at the beach, sharing sand castle–constructing, hole-digging, and socks--one pair polka-dot, one pair yellow with dinosaurs. Other stories involve a windy-autumn-day walk, imaginative play, and newborn hamsters. The shortest one, about a mishap with a toy, is economically told in just one sentence and via a highly effective page-turn: "Harris was standing on his truck and he shouldn't have been." Bright, clean, colorful illustrations are set against generous white space for maximum impact and appeal. Schwartz (see Oma and Bobo, 1987; What James Likes Best, rev. 5/03) has for decades been one of our most tuned-in, honest, and sympathetic chroniclers of childhood; here she is at her absolute best.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(3) PS Schwartz leaves no rattle unshaken in her book-length review of typical baby activities: "Clapping chubby hands / Banging pots and pans / In onesies in their cribs / Busy babies / Wearing bibs." A couple of the rhymes almost lose the beat, but supplying snap are the dainty gouache and pen-and-ink action shots capturing each individual baby's sweet moves.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) PS This follow-up to 100 Things That Make Me Happy enumerates, in present-tense lilting rhyme, one hundred happy-making activities: "Skip stones / Lick cones / Rub noses / Smell roses." Tidy vignettes show children of different ethnicities (and some adults here and there, plus one child in a wheelchair) spending time together. Good for conversation-starting and for intimate one-on-one sharing.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) K-3 When Mama takes her four girls back-to-school shopping, each finds her heart's desire--except the youngest, Poppy, who only wants "Polka Dots!" That night, her sympathetic sisters use colored markers to cover Poppy's white dress and sandals with colorful dots, to her heartwarming delight. Bright gouache and pen-and-ink art captures the girls' creativity and resourcefulness in this child-minded story of sisterly devotion.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(2) K-3 This set of slice-of-life stories with little twists focuses on four young children and their diverse families. The three-part structure opens with a page of vignettes introducing the waiting children--William on his front stoop, Annie in her backyard, and Thomas in his house. Schwartz's gouache and pen-and-ink illustrations revel in capturing homey, domestic details and characters' gestures and movements.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2015

(2) PS Lilting rhyme presents one hundred happy-making things: "Baby toes / A puppy's nose / Sticky glue / The city zoo." Each vignette is illustrated with pictures of smiley kids of different ethnicities following their bliss. Some items are concrete and easily pictured ("Flip-flops / Lollipops") while others ("Saturday"; "Daydream") capture a feeling. Contented facial expressions and relaxed postures abound as children play, snuggle, and twirl.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2014

(2) K-3 Little-sis Hannah recounts the trials and tribulations of being second-born. Running away seems the only answer, and Hannah starts to pack. But where's her special stuffed Brown Bear? Bright, sunny pictures and low-key text work together to capture the frustration and injustice of a younger sibling's station while also bringing humor to the details.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2013

(2) K-3 Uncle Bill babysits Willie in each of these three stories. In the first, Willie cuts his own hair; in the second, the two make "Icky Stew"; and in the third, they go listen to--and play along with--a garage band. The stories capture the sense of adventure, humor, and warmth an uncle (or aunt) can bring, and the gouache and pen-and-ink pictures reflect that same coziness.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2012

(2) PS When sleep eludes little Lucy, she tries all the usual tricks, and then some. Schwartz's subtly rhyming text will draw young listeners in with its patterning and questions, and her precise line drawings colored in nighttime hues will quickly bring them into Lucy's homey world. This bedtime book is refreshing in its child-friendly invitation to stay up just a little bit longer.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2012

(2) K-3 Five brief episodes tell how two pals, a mouse named Hercules and an elephant named Tiny, take turns helping each other. Schwartz's clear, colorful drawings on white backgrounds offer plenty of assistance to new readers as Tiny and Hercules serve up entertaining adventures. Full of kindness and tact, these friends know how to work out their problems, big or small.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2009

(1) K-3 Yearning for stardom, hippo Darlene takes a theater class. Unfortunately, things go wrong. Schwartz's straight-faced animal cast is stellar, but the show is stolen by the front-row-center theater critic (a wide-eyed bowler-wearing pig) and by modestly undivalike Darlene. It's a nice lesson for young kids: you can make mistakes and still be a star.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2007

(2) PS On her way to market, little Jenna befriends a series of animals with whom she compares body parts and their uses (an elephant's trunk versus her nose, a robin's beak versus her mouth, and so on). Jenna and the animals' matter-of-fact curiosity sounds genuinely childlike, while Schwartz's illustrations are as clean and simple as the satisfying text.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2006

(3) K-3 This slyly humorous story features Bea, a kindergartner, and her father, Mr. Jones, an advertising executive, who trade places. Schwartz's black-and-white pencil drawings are full of wonderful images: Bea in her oversized suit jacket; Mr. Jones lying on the kindergarten floor. If only we could all find such an ingenious way to escape the daily grind.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz

(2) K-3 Chosen to create the class painting for the school's art show the next day, Sara feels the pressure. This edition boasts pen and watercolor art showing updated characters and settings, a larger trim size, and more pages. The longer length allows the pacing and white space needed for what may be a concept (struggling with the creative process) new to younger readers.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2005

(3) K-3 A recent second-grade graduate reminisces about his school year, recounting how he has evolved academically ("I can spell neighborhood") and socially ("When I started second grade, I wasn't friends with Joseph. Or William or Tommy or Sam or George. Now I am"). Both the spare text and affectionate art in watercolor and ink give weight to the seemingly small, everyday details of children's lives.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(2) PS The rhythm of life with young children permeates this look at a typical day in the lives of four families in the same apartment building. The familiar activities validate the daily routines of preschoolers and their caregivers, while the art lovingly captures the patterned jammies; the ubiquitous toys; the mother playing trains with her little boy "all morning long."

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2004

(1) PS Schwartz presents four vignettes from a little boy's everyday life, letting young readers choose which aspect of the boy's playdate, for instance, pleased him--and them--the most. Each vignette ends with a brief series of simple, open-ended questions recapping what young James has seen and done. Schwartz's illustration style here creates an uncluttered tableau upon which each segment of James's experiences stands out.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(2) PS Schwartz offers another true reflection of early childhood with this spot-on portrayal of kindergarten boys. Building, climbing, eating, and chasing, Oscar, Eddie, and narrator Jacob do it all together in the year that "kindergartners rule the [pre]school!" The illustrations depict the protected world of play in a diverse, urban neighborhood. Four- and five-year-old boys will see themselves in every picture and phrase.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2002