The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

hooks, bell

Be Boy Buzz

32 pp. | Hyperion/Jump | October, 2002 | Trade ISBN 0-7868-0814-4 $$16.99

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Hooks celebrates boyhood here with a text so generalized ("I be boy running. / I be boy jumping. / Boy sitting down") that girls might as well sit down for the self-esteem message as well. While more consistently on message than the author's Homemade Love, the book suffers from a similar lack of distinction and direction. Raschka's minimally lined portraits of African-American boys are stylish but don't have enough to do.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton