Learn to play and sing a traditional African American gospel song with this fun and interactive book! There is a light inside of YOU. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine! “This Little Light of Mine” is an African American song dating back to the days of slavery. The score is included in this book so that you can learn to play and sing and shine your light for everyone to see. PreSchool-Grade 3–A visual interpretation of an African-American spiritual. It is morning when the book opens, and readers are greeted by a smiling boy. Throughout the day, he spreads his own special brand of joy wherever he goes. He gives a hug to a grandmotherly figure cooking in the kitchen, then goes for a walk, pausing to wave at a neighbor sitting on a porch. Next, he helps a woman whose groceries have fallen to the ground. He high-fives three elderly men sitting outside, and comes across a downcast boy whom he invites to join him to meet friends and play. When he returns home, he sits down to a family meal. The last illustration is of a darkened house with a light glowing from one of the windows upstairs. Lewis's watercolor illustrations across double pages effectively convey emotions of happiness and the giving and sharing of oneself. Compare and contrast this satisfying interpretation with Raffi's adaptation of the same title (Knopf, 2004). –Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH PreS-Gr. 2. Lewis illustrates this familiar African American spiritual with a series of full-page and double-page watercolor paintings that create sun-dappled outdoor scenes and portray individual characters with equal finesse. Each painting interprets phrases from the song within the framework of a "wordless" story in which a boy walks from his home to a ball field, stopping along the way to greet and help others in his rural, African American community. The pictures do not illustrate the words in the traditional sense, but they form a visual counterpoint that enriches the verse by making it more concrete and meaningful to young children. In keeping with the refrain of the spiritual, light fills the pictures, brightening and warming the day and shining from the face of the boy and the people he meets. Adults who interpret the song's "light" in terms of God's presence or gifts will find the book a good vehicle for sharing those thoughts, but children will find the simple visual storyline satisfying as well. The book concludes with the musical score with notes, chords, and four verses. Painted with spirit and grace, this is one picture book that should always be sung. Carolyn Phelan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved E.B. Lewis is the award-winning illustrator of such books as Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, which was a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, and This Little Light of Mine . He received the Caldecott Honor for Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes. E.B. Lewis lives in New Jersey, and you can visit him online at EBLewis.com.