Reviews

K-Gr 3-- These utilitarian titles deal with soiling (encopresis) and the death of a grandfather. According to the foreword to parents in Clouds and Clocks, approximately one percent of five-year-olds have a problem with bowel control, thus suffering isolation, frustration, and embarrassment. When Andrew's grandfather goes to the hospital, Andrew starts having a problem of his own. Mornings are rushed, and he doesn't want to use the bathroom at school; children tease him, and his mother is angry because he soils his pants. With the help of a physician and a psychiatrist, Andrew and his mother learn to relax and to share their feelings. Full-page illustrations are brushed charcoal with soft blue cloud and sky backgrounds swirled with white. The book, intended for parents to use with children, could fill a need in large collections. Gran-Gran's Best Trick is seeing things that no one else notices, and when he dies, his granddaughter is determined to remember that and everything else about him so that her baby sister could someday know Gran-Gran too. The soft, black-pencil drawings and text are framed within a thin line, creating broad white borders. Separation and death are warmly and lovingly addressed in a number of other books; therefore, while Gran - Gran is a pleasant book, it is an additional purchase where demand is high. --Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NB