Guest Author - Eileen Brown

One Smiling Grandma, by Anne Marie Linden (Puffin Books, 1995; Ages 4-8, 32 pages; Paperback, $5.00)

One Smiling Grandma

Ann Marie Linden based this lovely counting book on memories of her childhood in Barbados. It tells a simple story about a little girl's time spent with her loving grandmother on an island in the Caribbean.

One smiling Grandma ties two yellow bows on braided hair and the little girl in this stories travels through the day observing the world around her: "four steel drums tapping out a beat", ladies in the market, conch shells on the beach, hairy coconuts with coconut water for drinking, and finally, "ten sleepy mongooses".

This is a good book to read to younger children; it contains an easy rhyming prose, and the illustrations, painted by Lynne Russell, are a visual feast, resplendent with lushly colored images that depict sunny island life.