Lola Dutch, you are indeed much too much. Except you aren’t really, we just like repeating the catch phrase that you uttered in your first book and referenced one time in Lola Dutch When I Grow Up. Size does not matter in a children’s book, yet these books by Kenneth and Sarah Jane Wright soak up every inch of their pages and would be comfortable with more. One of our kids is past the illustrated book phase, but I still find myself looking at this book, getting lost in the artwork and reading it his 7 year old brother who hasn’t quite discovered the love of books yet.
Lola Dutch is awash in imagination based play. She’s reading books with Bear, Crane, Gator and Pig when she has a rush of ideas as to what she wants to do when she grows up. She could be an inventor where she experiments, improvises, researches and discovers things. Maybe she could be a botanist, a judge in the highest court or an Egyptologist. All the while her anthropomorphic friends are accompanying her as willing subjects, helpful assistants or dubious onlookers.
What makes Lola Dutch When I Grow Up a fabulous book, and a great good-night book is its combination of art and words. The art in the book has soft, water colored images with edges in its drawings that mute it just a little bit. When you look at some of the illustrations they will have clear, defined markings, with some elements having just bit of white, uneven space between the edges that the paint or crayons left. Our kids and I love this style of art. It has a fun, whimsical appearance to it that confirms that it’s an illustrated book great for ages 3-6.
Its loose, carefree spirit is infectious for girls slightly more than boys, but not by much. There are rhyming elements, but for the most part the text is simply enough to where there are some sight words that allow young readers to get in on the game. For the most part this is read-along fun for small ones and those who are reading to them from this great good-night book.
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