This & That, written by Mem Fox, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Isabella S.
Summary: This & That, by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek, is a sweet and imaginative bedtime story for young children. It creates a multitude of joyful and fun-filled scenarios for kids to ponder before falling asleep and having interesting dreams of their own. It details two mice, a mother mouse and a child mouse, as the mother tells stories of far-off and extravagant tales that are accompanied by pictures which match the stories in their beauty and intricacy. As the bedtime story continues, the different imaginative settings become more and more elaborate until a peak is reached, and then things begin to calm down again to lead into a peaceful bedtime.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This picture book is a lovely bedtime book for parents to read to their kids. Not only are the different scenarios that take place in the book interesting and fun to imagine and fantasize about, but the pictures that go with each event are just as interesting. While I am no art expert, the majority of the pictures appear to be done in watercolor, which creates a sort of free-flowing and light tone (perfect for bedtime), which is contrasted by the dark lines that make up the outline of each image. It is clear that much thought has been put into the drawings, as each picture has its own unique intricacy to it. Another aspect of the images that I appreciated was the wide diversity of the characters, as many people are pictured with different skin colors and different clothes to represent a variety of cultures, and while they all may come from dissimilar backgrounds, they are quite clearly coexisting peacefully. It is important to teach about diversity and acceptance from a young age, so I was glad that these themes were prevalent in many of the drawings throughout the book. Not only were these ideas expressed, but the importance of imagination was also made clear, as the mother tells her child many creative and varying stories to help encourage her kid to access their imagination frequently instead of dispelling it. “I’ll tell you a story of this, and I’ll tell you a story of that” was repeated throughout the book. Because of its themes, this book could be used in a variety of settings. This book could also potentially do well in kindergarten or first grade classrooms, as there are some choice vocabulary words that are a little advanced and could be good to expose children to from a young age. Additionally, the themes of diversity and the importance of imagination are powerful ideas that must be learned from an early point in life. This book is a good choice for a library to purchase. If it’s a featured pick on a book display, it will be checked out quickly.