The Horn Book Guide

PRESCHOOL

Weninger, Brigitte

A Child Is a Child

32 pp. | Penguin/Minedition | October, 2004 | Trade ISBN 0-698-40006-2 $14.99

(4) PS Translated by Charise Myngheer. Illustrated by Eve Tharlet. Some animals overcome their reservations about caring for two abandoned frogs when Mama Mouse pronounces, "It's simple. A child is a child." The message is spot-on, but readers may fixate on the abandonment aspect ("The two little frogs waited and waited, but Mama and Daddy Frog never came home") rather than the rescue. The textured, up-close-and-personal images are occasionally heartbreaking.

Reviewer: Nell Beram