Baby-Preschool

 The Everything Book
Denise Fleming

From the sunshine yellow end papers to the bright colorful paper pulp paintings of children and common everyday objects, Denise Fleming’s new book, The Everything Book, is a joy. Fleming calls this book  her “diaper bag book”, while the book jacket says “something for everyone”. They are both right! Whether in a diaper bag or on a library shelf, this cornucopia of rhymes, poems, labeled pictures, and wonderful pictures of a small child’s daily life would entertain a small child for a long time.

The title page has seventeen ladybugs trailing across it, which sets up a treasure hunt for the rest of the book: How many ladybugs are on each page? Page 62 includes a list of the number of bugs found on each page (although the ladybugs on the book jacket are not mentioned) and the ladybug parade continues right onto the last page, where the final ladybug flies across a starry sky filled with a huge crescent moon and the words, “Bye-Bye”.

On the way to “Bye-Bye”, little lapsitters can learn the names of common kitchen items, fruits, colors, animals, and even body parts (including an overalled rear labeled “bottom”), as well as listen to poems about subjects as diverse as chickens, fireflies, and traffic lights.

Fleming likes to put personal touches in her books from time to time; in this one, the faces on pages 50-51 include Fleming’s great-niece-in-law, Lexie, and a little girl that represents what Fleming thinks her Henry Holt editor, Laura Godwin, looked like as a child. The final personal touch is a poignant one. Children, no matter how old they grow, are always children in their mothers’ hearts, and although Fleming’s daughter Indigo is now grown-up,  The Everything Book  is dedicated to her.

-Betty Winslow

Betty Winslow is a writer and school librarian from Bowling Green, Ohio.   Her writing has appeared in many places, among them FamilyFun, Christian Library Journal, Guideposts, Writer's Digest, and six anthologies (so far).