In Plain Sight: A Game

$11.49
by Richard Jackson

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Sophie lives with Mama and Daddy and Grandpa, who spends his days by the window. Every day after school, it's Grandpa whom Sophie runs to. "Here I am, Grandpa!" "Ah, Sophie, how was your day?" As Sophie and her grandpa talk, he asks her to find items he's "lost" throughout the day, guiding Sophie on a tour through his daily life and connecting their generations in this sweet, playful picture book from Richard Jackson, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist and Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner Jerry Pinkney. PreS-Gr 2—Sophie's grandfather lives in her house, and while his mobility is restricted, his tender feelings for his granddaughter know no bounds. He waves her off to school from his second-floor window, and she comes to visit him every afternoon. Their daily routine includes the man asking for the child's help in retrieving an everyday object that has somehow "gone missing." All of the items are in plain sight, if, that is, one knows where to look. Bright-eyed Sophie is always up for the challenge and is thorough and methodical as she searches through Grandpa's room—neat but chock-full of a busy lifetime of acquired books and mementos—to locate the paper clip, rubber band, straw, or paintbrush. Sharp-eyed viewers will glean that this man, now in a wheelchair, was once a soldier and an athlete and reads poetry and paints. The simple text is largely made up of the good-natured conversations that surround the game and reflect the warmth and joy that Sophie and Grandpa find in each other. Pinkney's lush and lovely watercolors are by turns delicate, energetic, and effusive as he captures his engaging African American characters and their homey domicile. VERDICT This appealing story about a dynamic intergenerational relationship is large enough to share with a group, but individual children will want to pore over the art to spot all of the details in plain sight.—Luann Toth, School Library Journal "The best part of this collaboration between the longtime editor and the Caldecott Medalist is the playfulness that oozes from Jackson’s well-chosen words and the warmth of Pinkney’s artwork. There’s one thing that’s never missing from this gentle story about a special bond between the generations, and that’s the love Grandpa and Sophie have for each other."―Publishers Weekly, starred review "A fabulous family story with something for the young and old alike."―Kirkus Reviews, starred review "This appealing story about a dynamic intergenerational relationship is large enough to share with a group, but individual children will want to pore over the art to spot all of the details in plain sight."―School Library Journal, starred review "This makes a good one-on-one read aloud for those not quite ready for Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo? series."―Booklist Richard Jackson, co-founder of Bradbury Press, Orchard Books, and DK Ink, has been an editor and publisher since 1962. He is the author of Have A Look, Says Book , illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, and lives in Towson, Maryland. Jerry Pinkney (1939-2021) was the author and illustrator of more than one hundred books for young readers, including The Lion and the Mouse , for which he earned the Caldecott Medal. He also received five Caldecott Honors, six Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards, four Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors, five New York Times Best Illustrated Book awards, the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement, an induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and an appointment to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2003. The first children’s book artist elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Pinkney retold such fairy tales as The Little Mermaid , Aesop’s Fables , and Little Red Riding Hood , and he illustrated many stories celebrating Black culture including Patricia C. McKissack’s Mirandy and Brother Wind , Julius Lester’s John Henry , and Richard Jackson’s In Plain Sight .

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