ALA Booklist

In simple, loving words, a small penguin tells her mother about the favorite things they do together. The activities are elemental (I like it when you hold my hand. I like it when you let me help). Bright, clear pictures on differently colored pages show the parent and child physically close and enjoying themselves while they play, dance, read, splash, hug, tickle, and kiss good night. Part of the Red Wagon Preschool series, this is a book to read and act out. Toddlers will learn words and colors, and they will see that books are about them. (Reviewed April 1, 1997)

Horn Book

A child penguin lists the things it likes to do with its parent. 'I like it when you hold my hand. I like it when you let me help. I like it when we eat new things.' Flat, bright primary colors are background for the simple paintings of parent and child celebrating their loving relationship.

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

A cheerful little penguin enumerates the things he likes to do with his or her mother (or conceivably father) in this buoyant British import. Drenched in broad fields of reds, blues and greens, each spread shows the pair together, holding hands, playing peekaboo, splashing, dancing or kissing good night-all activities that get the flippers-up from the narrator. Other examples reinforce desirable behavior: in """"I like it when you let me help,"""" the parent thanks the satisfied-looking helper, and in """"I like it when we eat new things,"""" the child penguin looks happily expectant, utensils at the ready (no turning up his beak or dumping his fish on the floor here). First-time author Murphy's artwork achieves an expressive simplicity. The faces and the plump bodies of the penguins, though starkly simple, are remarkably animated. In one spread, a trio of drawings evokes the motion of the parent penguin picking up the child for a big hug; the book's endpapers echo this squeeze motif in a colorful checkerboard pattern. While penguins may evoke an icy climate, the loving and playful relationship between this penguin parent and child makes for an exceptionally warm little book. Ages 1-4. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-In her new time-travel adventure featuring 15-year-old Miranda Browne (heroine of Time Windows [Harcourt, 1991]), Reiss creates an intriguing situation: a 13-year-old girl, caught outside of time in 1693 when her family home burns, is doomed to go on living for centuries without growing older. When Abby appears as a lonely new student at Miranda's school, the Brownes invite her to stay with them. At first resentful of Abby's presence, Miranda begins to suspect that there is something strange about her. Where does Abby go when she disappears, and why can only Miranda hear her crying? What part does a mysterious stone whistle play in Abby's story? In the end, it takes a frightening journey back in time to resolve Abby's problems. The story contains appealing elements: hints of witchcraft, a glimpse of life in 17th-century New England, and a budding romance, but it just misses its mark. The writing style is uneven, slowing the pace. Characterization is not deep enough to sustain the extended drama of the plot, or the questions Reiss raises about life and death.-Ruth S. Vose, San Francisco Public Library