ALA Booklist (Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

Harris is a small, blond boy who lives with his mother and father in a brick row house in a city. These microstories range from a few pages to a single-page illustration and comment, such as the eighth entry: " That's why they call permanent markers permanent,' Harris' mother said." Along with his best friend, Ayana, a Black girl who lives next door, Harris experiences a birthday party, the beach, and the park. He and his mother investigate a preschool, which he and Ayana later attend. In other adventures, Harris learns to make butter by shaking a jar of cream and takes a walk on a windy day. Because of their brevity, the chapters leave room for listeners to embellish the stories with their own creativity ("What do you think happened?"). Some scenes are presented with full backgrounds, while other pages employ spot illustrations floating on white backgrounds, often demonstrating action or the passage of time. Harris gets into some mischief, but the book's tone remains gentle and warm.

Horn Book (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Thirteen short stories follow city dweller Harris on preschooler-sized adventures. A very few seem geared toward adult sensibilities; most tap directly into authentic early-childhood behaviors and experiences. Harris, completely absorbed in his around-the-block sidewalk chalk drawing of a dragon, is surprised when he ends up back where he started. Dressed in his best, Harris attends best friend Ayana's birthday party, where he happily becomes covered in chocolate. (Per the droll text, he "looked very nice" both before and after.) At Thanksgiving, Harris is, unrelentingly, a truck. "He was a truck all the way to his grandmother's house. He was a truck while he ate turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes and peas." Harris (pink-skinned with blond curls) and Ayana (brown-skinned with an afro puff) have fun at the beach, sharing sand castle-constructing, hole-digging, and socks -- one pair polka-dot, one pair yellow with dinosaurs. Other stories involve a windy-autumn-day walk, imaginative play, and newborn hamsters. The shortest one, about a mishap with a toy, is economically told in just one sentence and via a highly effective page-turn: "Harris was standing on his truck and he shouldn't have been." Bright, clean, colorful illustrations are set against generous white space for maximum impact and appeal. Schwartz (see Oma and Bobo, 1987; What James Likes Best, rev. 5/03) has for decades been one of our most tuned-in, honest, and sympathetic chroniclers of childhood; here she is at her absolute best. Martha V. Parravano

Kirkus Reviews

Small moments in the life of a small person.Harris, a tiny blond white boy with a mom and a dad, has a happy life in a friendly city. Thirteen vignettes show moments in his life that will be immediately familiar to young children and their grown-ups. He falls off a toy truck, pretends to be a truck during Thanksgiving, experiments with permanent markers, and gets chocolate cake all over a pristine outfit. The illustrations are loose but expressive; everyone has tiny black eyes and relatively blank faces, but much is expressed through body language. Bright, primary colors match the simple, innocent text. These anodyne stories seem tailored to hark back to a fictional simpler time, like the "Here and Now" style pioneered in an earlier era of children's literature, but unfortunately these come across as cloying rather than refreshing today. Despite the situational diversity (people of color in the background, including Harris' black friend Ayana), this book feels old-fashioned rather than timeless. While children might laugh at some of Harris' antics, and adults may chuckle along, the structure of 13 very short stories that don't quite fit together makes this less than effective as a read-aloud.Sweet but bland. (Picture book. 3-6)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Through 13 vignettes set in an urban neighborhood, Schwartz (Busy Babies) introduces readers to Harris, a blond, curly-haired preschooler leading what appears to be a charmed childhood. Many of the collection-s flash-fiction-like chapters end with wondrous discoveries: in one, Harris babysits a hamster named Stanley and later finds six tiny pink babies in the cage; in another, Harris and his mother shake a jar of cream until it turns to butter. And in the book-s shortest story, the child-s mother stands before a wall covered in colorful scribbles: -That-s why they call permanent markers permanent,- she says. Harris-s playfulness is a constant, as when he draws a chalk line so long it leads him back home, but at the heart of the book is his purehearted friendship with brown-skinned friend Ayana, which culminates in an ending tribute to the pair-s affection for one another. If gender roles feel a touch outdated (it-s Harris-s mother-s shopping list that blows away when the family walks together), Schwartz-s simple, straightforward diction maps precisely to her delicate line drawings to create nostalgic snapshots that demonstrate the way magic can be found in the mundane. Ages 4-8. (July)

School Library Journal (Fri May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

Toddler-PreS Toddlers don't look toward the future, unless it's a birthday coming, of course, nor do they mull the past. They're kind of in the moment. The brilliance of Schwartz is that she knows how to mirror the way they see the world. Harris, an imaginative, creative, and curious three-year-old, and his best friend Ayana are the central characters in these 13 episodes that are not necessarily connected, or even very important. A narrator chronicles unfolding events without any judgment at alleven when the little ones use permanent marker on the wall, even when they each come home from the beach wearing one sock. One day, Harris pretends he's a truck all day long. And he learns so much from all of this play: His mother puts cream in a jar, and Harris shakes it like crazy. When he's done, the cream is butter, which tastes delicious with bread and jam. This book is exactly what being a toddler is all about, and Schwartz shares it with simple language, wonderful art, and an attitude of sheer delight. VERDICT Harris and Ayana are best friends who will hold hands forever, and readers need to know more about what becomes of these two cuties. A must for every collection serving toddlers and their adults.Joan Kindig, James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA