Playtime for Restless Rascals

Starred review from August 1, 2022

PreS-Gr 1-Grimes phenomenally describes the daily play of a young energetic girl whose activities move throughout her world and the seasons. Readers understand play through the eyes of a young child exploring her surroundings and making work fun in multiple indoor and outdoor activities. Baking cakes and serving tea, creating and dressing a snowwoman, and building trains and trucks exemplify the wonders of early childhood's creative play. Grimes frames this story in the loving home of a mother and father who genuinely care for their daughter; her parents sacrifice their time to encourage the playfulness of their daughter, knowing that her work allows her expertise to shine and grow. Zunon's illustrations are outstanding, adding to the brilliant world of the restless little one. These images allow readers to glimpse the texture of the sun's radiance and the beauty of nature's background in the park. The patterns of the items and animals align with the colorful backgrounds enhancing the storytelling; even the vibrant words and font size lift this story to new heights. VERDICT Grimes crafts an outstanding story igniting a passion for play while mirroring its relationship to authentic work and the fundamental elements of true productivity: lunch, naptime, and winning.-Tanya Haynes

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Starred review from August 1, 2022
It's time to get to work having fun. A brown-skinned child awakens to Mommy's command to "get to work," adding, "Your job is called play." As narrator, Mommy tells this story in second person to the child--"You'd play all day / if I let you"--and talks as if this conversation about work is an oft-repeated ritual between herself and her child. In matter-of-fact text that exudes tenderness, Mommy recounts how her little one plays in the rain, in the sun, and in the snow, in the fall leaves, at the duck pond, and in many other places, indoors and out. Readers might recognize this mother-child pair from Grimes and Zunon's Bedtime for Sweet Creatures (2020) and Off To See the Sea (2021), making this story feel like a continuation of a larger narrative that offers an insider's view of one Black family. Zunon's highly textured collage illustrations emphasize the importance of imagination: The child hosts a tea party with two dolls and a bear, who sit around a table with "yummy invisible cakes"; later, the child also builds "trains and trucks" from various and sundry household objects. In every spread, Zunon's illustrations highlight this family's bonds. When Daddy comes home, he plays tic-tac-toe in sock feet with his child on the floor while Mommy finishes napping on the couch after telling Daddy, "Your turn." (This book was reviewed digitally.) A stunning, warm story about the many ways that play sparks joy. (Picture book. 3-7)

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September 15, 2022
Preschool-Grade 2 Can little children be experts? In Playtime for Restless Rascals, the answer is yes. They're experts at play, and in fact, that is their job each day. That's what one patient mother tells her exuberant child in the morning. What follows is a catalog of all the ways the child ""works,"" in different weather, in different seasons, from cooking make-believe treats to imagining adventures in far-off lands. There are marvelous trips to the park and, finally, a puzzle. After a long day, both mama and baby are beat, and it's time to rest. But that doesn't last long, because a new playmate soon comes home--Daddy. The tale captures the drama of a full day of play, empowering children by letting them know that they can be experts, too. The illustrations are beautiful, vibrant, and full of action, with creative ways of displaying text. Any child-and-parent duo is sure to relate to this depiction of a hard day at play.

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