Umbrella

Thankfully this book has nothing to do with the life of Rihanna.                    

THREE PROS

*From a cultural standpoint, you could do a lot worse than exposing your child to the works of what appears to be the first Asian-born author to receive Caldecott Medal honors  

*Your kid will miss the point of the book's last few words, but as a parent your heart will melt a little  

*Does a great job capturing the fascination a child can have with even the most utilitarian items

THREE CONS 

*Claim poetic license if you want, but the fact that pages 18-21 are 99.5% identical to pages 26-29 made absolutely no sense to me 

*I will have guaranteed nightmares since every image of Momo (except for the cover art) looks like she was the inspiration for movies like The Ring and The Grudge 

*Teaching us the Japanese characters for "spring" and "summer" while talking about the Indian summer in the text has started an endless winter of discontent for me -- hopefully someone told Taro Yashima that Indian summer takes place in autumn

ONE DAD'S OPINION

This author had three books recognized by the ALSC in about a decade -- quite an accomplishment no doubt.  Still, I must question the politics behind it (granted I haven't ever seen the other two of his honorees) because there is more than one occasion where the English is just plain off.  Yes, it's very possible that the rules of grammar in the late '50s were different than what I think I know today.  And let's not forget how important any form of diversity was during this critical period for Civil Rights.  Notwithstanding, I can't forgive them (author, publisher, ALSC) for teaching children strange diction...or for what really is an average book at best.                      

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