About the Author

Audrey Penn takes her one-woman educational program, the Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals where she shapes and refines her story ideas in partnership with kids. She is also highly sought after as a conference keynote speaker by groups of teachers and other professionals who work with children.

An award-winning illustrator, Barbara Leonard Gibson was a freelance artist in the Baltimore-Washington area for twenty-five years. Originally from New York, and with a degree in Fine Art and Design from Carnegie Mellon University, she worked in many areas including historical illustration, children’s books, and magazines, cartooning, portraiture, wildlife illustration, natural sciences, advertising, fantasy, and science fiction.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 1-A sequel to Penn's The Kissing Hand (CWLA, 1993). A young raccoon pleads with his mother to "return" his baby brother due to typical sibling offenses. When Chester sees her give little Ronny a "Kissing Hand" (a kiss in the middle of his open palm), the waterworks begin. Of course, Mrs. Raccoon reassures her older son of his continuing importance to her, adding a bonus Kissing Hand for being a big brother. The animals' emotions are clearly expressed in the narrative. Gibson's crisp, realistic paintings are colorful and depict the scenery and activity of the meadow. Although this book is more appealing than the first work, standbys like Ann Herbert Scott's On Mother's Lap (Clarion, 1992) or Kady MacDonald Denton's Would They Love a Lion? (Larousse, 1998) are still better choices.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

When Chester the raccoon was introduced to readers in The Kissing Hand, he was wrestling with the difficult transition of starting school. In this sequel, Chester has another hurdle to overcome: sibling rivalry. It's bad enough that his new brother Ronny is a pest ("He pulls my tail and talks to my friends and follows me everywhere I go!" Chester complains). But the hero is thrown for a loop when he sees Mrs. Raccoon giving Ronny a Kissing Hand-a smooch in the middle of her child's palm, which, as in the first book, sends "the warmth of that kiss [rushing] from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart"-previously reserved just for Chester. "How come you gave the baby my Kissing Hand?" Chester wails. But with his mother's patient reassurance and an analogy borrowed from nature (there will always be enough love to go around, just as the sun never runs out of light), he begins to believe she won't run out. There are certainly more bracing-and less obvious-treatments of this subject. But as the many fans of the original book proved, Penn understands the powerful pull of old-fashioned sentiment; and Gibson's illustrations, more understated than that of the artists' work in the first book, balances the sentimental message with her realistic renderings of nature. The flowery, poignant prose and meticulously detailed, benevolent-looking forest settings seem to spring straight from the heart. Ages 4-8. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.