What Grandmas Do Best/What Grandpas Do Best

by Laura Numeroff, Lynn Munsinger (Illustrator)

Overview

Grandmas can do lots of things, like paint with you, take you on a picnic, and teach you how to dance. But what do they do best? The answer is made perfectly clear in this Irresistible celebration of grandparents and the everyday things they do.
Grandpas can do lots of things, like play hide-and-seek, help you build a sand castle, and sing you a lullaby. But what do they do best? The answer is made perfectly clear In this irresistible celebration of grandparents and the everyday things they do.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689805523
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	09/01/2000
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	418,469
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	260L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Laura Numeroff is the author of the best-selling modern classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and the popular What Mommies Do Best and its sequels. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Lynn Munsinger has illustrated more than ninety books for children, many with her frequent collaborator Helen Lester. Lynn’s art has brought beloved characters like Wodney Wat, Tacky the penguin, Fluffy the porcupine, and Sparky the sloth and more to charming life. She lives in Vermont.

Hometown:

Brentwood, California

Date of Birth:

July 14, 1953

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, New York

Education:

B.F.A. with honors, Pratt Institute, 1975; attended Parsons College, 1975

Website:

http://www.lauranumeroff.com

Editorial Reviews

This companion to the immensely likable What Mommies Do Best/ What Daddies Do Best is another two-in-one book: after finishing "What Grandmas Do Best," readers can flip the book over to find "What Grandpas Do Best." Again, Numeroff's straightforward text is identical for both segments (both grandmas and grandpas can "play hide-and-seek, make you a hat, and take you for a walk"). The fun lies in Munsinger's magnificently anthropomorphized animals, and the way each grandparent puts his or her spin on the words: Grandma Cat knits her grandkitten a fetching snow hat, while Grandpa Guinea Pig fashions a chapeau out of newspapers, tape and glue. Perhaps because her lead characters are senior citizens, this book is more subdued in tone than its predecessor; Numeroff seems not to have mined her considerable imagination as deeply for comic contrasts (both expected and unexpected) between male and female grandparents. Still, every spread radiates with the gentle and abiding affection that connects the generations. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PreS-Wonderful for quiet lap-sit storytimes with small children, this two-for-one picture book is split in half to tell the same simple story twice. With just a few words per page, the text communicates big concepts succinctly through lively ink-and-watercolor illustrations that differentiate one kind of fun from another. "Grandpas can paint with you" presents young readers with a seriously artistic, oil-and-easel grandfather pig, for example. But a visit with a grandmother gerbil on the other side of the book demonstrates another way to paint altogether. These warm, cheerful vignettes are sure to resonate with children. Many kinds of loving families appear throughout each 17-page story; elephants, dogs, monkeys, and frogs all share quality time with their loving relatives. Children will enjoy noticing the different ways to dance, have a picnic, or make a hat, and while they may find turning the book around to locate them a little awkward, it's a small price to pay for this charming introduction to the special times shared with grandparents.-Catherine T. Quattlebaum, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Numeroff's grandmas and grandpas are lots of fun to be with in this charming flipflop book—grandmas on one side, grandpas on the other. What grandmas do best are the same activities that grandpas do best but they do them in different ways. Grandpa's picnic is a box of pizza on a city park bench; Grandma's is in a bucolic country setting. Grandma plays cards; Grandpa plays miniature golf. They both play hide and seek, make you a hat, take you for a walk, paint, show their photographs, and teach you to dance, among other things. The point of the book, of course, is that grandparents are important because they give you lots of love. Munsinger's (Tacky and the Emperor, p. 1041, etc.) watercolor and ink drawings are wonderfully funny and warm. Her animal grandparents and grandchildren come in every size and shape. Some are quite fashionable; others are frumpy. Some are older looking, some younger. Fox, mice, elephants, raccoons and dogs dressed and acting just like people enlarge and enhance the text with their amusing representation of loving adults and children enjoying each other's company. Grandparents (and their offspring) will love this one. (Picture book. 48)

Kirkus Reviews