Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Bob Marley's daughter adapts the lyrics to his song Three Little Birds, reminding a young boy that, despite a mishap or two, every little thing is gonna be all right. As usual with the song-as-picture-book gambit, some magic evaporates along with the melody and instrumentation. The mix of what looks like cartoons, realistic drawings, and collage has patchwork-y charm.

Kirkus Reviews

An effervescent adaptation of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds," with a skinny plotline supplied by the art and new themes and verses added by the songwriter's eldest daughter. Sporting stubby dreadlocks and a broad smile in Brantley-Newton's sunny scenes, a child with Marley's iconic image on his shirt waltzes out to the playground. There, three songbirds (supervised by an alert cat) "perch on the swing set, / Whistling these words, / These harmonies sweet in the air. / Sometimes you just need to show you care…" as he kicks a soccer ball about with both old friends and a newly made one. Later, he makes a gooey mess in the kitchen, earns quick parental forgiveness ("Everyone can make a mistake they say") and is sung to sleep by birds and parents alike. Being given just once each time rather than repeated as in the song, the chorus looks and (read or sung aloud) sounds choppy, but the new lyrics slip easily into the cadences of the old, and by the end, even the cat is dancing. A sweet elaboration of the original's reassuring message that "every little thing is gonna be all right." (afterword) (Picture book. 4-8)

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

The follow-up to this team-s adaptation of Marley-s father-s -One Love- takes another Bob Marley classic and adds two verses (-Run to the playground,/ laugh with my friends and play./ Three little birds,/ perch on the swing set-) to the immediately recognizable lyrics. Brantley-Newton provides polished mixed-media portraits of a dreadlocked boy with a huge grin and young parents who clearly adore him. The three birds of the original song accompany the boy everywhere, hovering outside the window as he gets into trouble with a baking project in the kitchen, then singing to cheer him up, providing an appropriate setting for the reassuring refrain: -Don-t worry/ about a thing,/ -cause every little thing/ is gonna be all right.- Pictures of the boy playing soccer with his parents and friends, who come from an assortment of ethnic backgrounds, will be appreciated by families and teachers searching for representations of communities that look like theirs. As with the previous volume, Marley fans will have to drag out their old CDs or