From Publishers Weekly
"Turning the pages of Miller's elegantly simple photo-essay is like freshly experiencing all five senses," said PW of this cheerful series of children's portraits celebrating sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Ages 2-4. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-K-Slight in text, but often visually striking, this book introduces the subject through photographs of five children, each of a different race or ethnicity. An African-American girl looks at herself, her shadow, her dog, and her city, each illustrated with a full-color photograph of her interacting with the topic at hand. The pattern is repeated by each child: "with my nose I smell popcorn, a horse, flowers, and garbage. With my mouth I taste..." Finally, readers are told, "With our five senses, we enjoy our world." While some of the pictures seem staged, they depict experiences common to many children of this age, and are sure to provoke discussion. The book is in the same vein as Aliki's My Five Senses (Crowell, 1989) and Henry Pluckrose's "Think About" series (Watts), all of which essentially offer visual images, making no attempt to explain how or why the senses work. As such, this title is an additional purchase for collections serving young children.Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MICopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
How do you learn what the world is like?
Through your five senses! Each sound and taste, each smell, sight, and touch helps you to discover something new. So find out more about your senses-what they are and what you can learn through them about the exciting world.The world awaits!
Card catalog description
A simple introduction to the five senses and how they help us experience the world around us.
About the Author
Aliki grew up in Philadelphia in a very Greek family. Her talent for drawing, first recognized by her kindergarten teacher, was encouraged by her parents and other teachers she will never forget.After graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art, she started a career in advertising art. She married Franz Brandenberg and lived in Switzerland for three years, where she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Story of William Tell.After they moved to New York, she wrote My Five Senses, the book that changed her career and her life. Besides her own books, Aliki has illustrated many by other authors, including Franz. Their children, Jason and Alexa, who have artistic careers of their own, appear in many of Aliki's books as cats, mice, or themselves.Aliki loves music, theater, films, museums, reading, and digging in her garden in London, where she lives. She travels frequently to the United States, Greece, Switzerland, and other countries, many of which are reflected in her books.NOTES FROM ALIKI0nce, when I was reading one of my books to Jason, who was just learning words, I asked him, "What is my name?" He said, "Byaliki." I laughed. But in many ways I am a bi-Aliki. Greek and American. Bilingual. Author and illustrator. Writer of fiction and nonfiction-books that come from inside out (feeling books), and outside in (research books).I had no thought of becoming a writer until it happened. But early on, I developed a lifelong habit of writing down my feelings. I realized it helped me understand my hurt, anger, bewilderment, or happiness. Words flowed out into poetry, letters, and journals. It was practice for later on.I wrote The Two of Them when my father died. I wrote We Are Best Friends when we moved from New York to London. I wrote about my childhood seaside vacations in Those Summers. In fact, it was on one such family vacation that I was born unexpectedly (in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey -- but we never lived there)!Marianthe's Story, two books in one volume, is very much my own. In one of its two parts -- Painted Words -- Mari is lucky to have such an understanding teacher and the ability to express herself through pictures (as was 1). In Spoken Memories, the villagers are composites of family and friends, and the voice is often my grandmother's. She cared passionately about education and passed it on to us.All by Myself! -- snapped after watching my nephew Peter, who was just learning to dress himself. We can take nothing for granted. All skills -- from the simplest to the most complicated -- are learned. They take patience, perseverance, and determination. With some, a little talent helps. Life is one big challenge. I'm still trying to learn to swim.My research books come from a fascination with a subject I know only a glimmer about. It can take three years to read, delve, dig, write, and repeat the process for the illustrations. It can be torture, because Virgos don't like to make mistakes.To write My Visit to the Aquarium, I visited eleven aquariums -- the most fun research ever. But then I had to get the right fish into the right tank. My Visit to the Zoo was even harder. Nine zoos, hundreds of books, magazines, and related matter. And with all due respect to the author, the illustrator has twice the work. I call it hard fun.All books -- read or made -- change lives. None more than William Shakespeare & the Globe. I was challenged by wanting to compress 40.0 years into 38 pages, to tell (in words and pictures) a story that comes full circle. It didn't help that we know very little about Shakespeare the man. But I was enveloped by his words -- which brought him to life. When I finally finished, the pain of loss -- which lasted months -- was like parting from a beloved friend.
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