ALA Booklist (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

Sticky and sweet, raisins are such a universally popular snack that they comes in boxes sized to fit a child's hand and have traveled to outer space with astronauts. In lighthearted, four-line rhyming queries, Ryan wonders where and how raisins grow and how they get from grape vines to grocery stores. Her questions are answered in no-nonsense text, with raisins' nutritional benefits, product development, and a little raisin history spelled out at the book's end. Brown's robustly colored art, with bold black lines and stippled details, energizes the text, depicting rows of grapevines stretching to the California horizon as well as the cutting, drying, and collecting processes. His whimsical pictures often play with the humorous rhymes, as when a contented raisin soaks in a tub of purple bubble bath with a yellow rubber duck. The no-bake recipes for raisin treats are a bonus to this delectable book, which, like its subject, packs a lot of value into a small package.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

Fourteen-year-old Staggerlee's growing feelings for her cousin confirm her own suspicions that she might be gay. Resisting the less subtle exploration of girl meets girl and falls in love and lives happily ever after, Woodson crafts a more complex examination of gayness in the emerging adolescent in this welcome reissue of a reflective, lyrical story.

Kirkus Reviews

Offering quite a tasty ode to the perfect snack, Ryan raises queries in a little rhymed ditty and then answers in prose. Readers learn, for instance, that 90 percent of raisins sold in the US come from around Fresno, California, and that 95 percent of that crop is the Thompson Seedless grape, named for the man who introduced the Lady de Coverly green seedless grape to California. Facts include how raisins are grown, cut, dried, and processed, some history (the ancient Phoenicians produced muscat raisins from muscat grapes; tiny seedless grapes grown near Corinth, Greece, called raisin de Corauntz, became currants), and even a recipe or three. Brown's marker-and-pastel pictures are boldly drawn with the same whimsical approach as the verse—drying raisins lie on beach blankets in the sun, and tiny fairy princesses stuff raisin boxes full. One can have one's chocolate or popcorn; youngsters devoted to those cute little boxes of sweet dried treats will revel in learning all about them. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-For the raisin-obsessed child, if there is such a creature, this book would be the ideal choice. Without that devouring passion, this title reads a bit like an advertising venture of the California Raisin Advisory Board (which leads the list in the author's thank-yous that include the Sun-Maid Growers of California). The book includes raisin history, agriculture, trivia, and even a few recipes. Brown's heavily stippled, marker-and-pastel illustrations are fanciful and sprightly. However, the rhymes are of dubious merit ("Do raisins grow in one place,/like Raisin Creek or Raisin Hill?/Is there a special town called/Raisinfield or Raisinville?") and alternate with a long, talky text that gives facts. Ryan stumbles with this title. It may be the ideal book for an assignment; otherwise, it's likely to languish on the shelf.-Dona Ratterree, New York City Public Schools Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.