IF I COULD....
Updated: Feb 19, 2022
Pacific Book Review
If I Could ...... is abound with chuckles from the creative and imaginative mind of author Grandma Krazy – a name which in and of itself made me LOL. With a loving and inspiring narrative written voice, Grandma Krazy brings a rhyming and a totally free imagination – without rules – to the youngsters reading this book, or having it read to them. Bees that don’t sting, Chimpanzees making honey, a futuristic world with moving sidewalks and school desks placed in swimming pools, while blue horses roam freely are just some examples. Whodathunk it? Grandma Krazy, of course.
In the every expanding and competitive genre of illustrated children’s books, I have seen the emergence of new types of books employing transgenerational humor, using newly created whimsical characters in amazingly fanciful worlds. Grandma Krazy uses one of the most finely tuned, albeit silly, senses of humor to grab kid’s imagination and allow them to further the absurdity of her uniquely creative world. By repeating the rhetorical question “What about you?” throughout the book provides a structured interaction for the parent reading the book to break away and enjoy the moments shaped by the text and illustrations within If I Could ...... .
How about using pebbles, rocks and boulders instead of cash in department stores to pay for items? Or how about carrots and broccoli tasking like sweet cereal in a bowl? And what if dogs said “Please” when begging for food? Crazy? In essence, this book inspires a lesson of creativity to readers, not much unlike an introductory course in painting; having not only a starting point, but providing blank pages at the end of the book for children to draw what comes to their minds.
From the action words of onomatopoeia to the rhyming words showing animals doing silly things, Grandma Krazy is not crazy at all, but a skilled educator with substantial practice and experience in the maternal nurturing of children which glows on each page of If I Could ...... . This is not a book to be passed over when compiling a children’s home library, as it would be one to reach for at bedtime over and over again.
KIRKUS REVIEW
TITLE INFORMATION
IF I COULD...
Grandma Krazy Xlibris ISBN: 978-1-79604-347-1
BOOK REVIEW
What changes would you make to the world, if you could? Grandma Krazy (Bears, Bears Everywhere, 2018) pitches silly, rhyming ideas in her second picture book.
The narrator begins by imagining spending one’s life on the beach and goes on to present some notions that are plain silly (such as getting honey from chimpanzees rather than bees) and others that are idealistic, such as ending all violence. The last section of the book features a series of rhymed questions, asking readers what their world would be like: “If I could make my own world, that’s what I’d do. What about you?” The repeated sounds in the rhymes introduce new vocabulary words (“vacations” and “altercations”; “sandcastle” and “dismantled”) and make each page fun to read aloud. The full-color illustrations feature a predominantly white cast, with few people of different skin tones, even in crowded scenes. When the book directs questions to the reader, however, it invites them to imagine a world that may better reflect their experiences. The images of silly, sneezing snakes, people flying in capes, and a bowl of vegetable candy, among others, nicely match the text’s humorous tone. The rhymes’ lack of strict meter may also encourage readers to write their own.
A creative ode to imagination with fun-to-read phrases.