The Kids Knee Garden
From the adventures with Lamb E. Boy Series
Rosemary Reagan Hall
Illustrated by Tracey Souza Burner
ISBN: 1-4196-8967-3
30 pages, including 11 illustrations 

The Kids Knee Garden is an enchanting and entertaining book by Rosemary Reagan Hall with the intended audience being children who are four to eight years of age.  I read it to my four-old-grandson and my nine-year-old granddaughter and both of them wanted it read over and over again.  Eventually, my granddaughter read it to her younger brother, using her imagination to add on to the story since she didn’t want it to end. She happily explained to her brother that this was to be a series and promised to read him the next book that was published.  The illustrator, Tracey Souza Burner, uses age-appropriate illustrations to help convey the storyline and hold the interest of young readers. 

This book is original and unique in presentation and written in sentences that children will understand.  The intent of an author is always to captivate the minds of the children—to allow them to live the story along with the main characters; Mrs. Hall is successful in doing this. 

As Haley prepares to go to kindergarten for the first time, Lamb E. Boy, her beloved stuffed animal, is frightened of the bus, the driver, and the teacher.  Most of all, I think the little lamb is afraid of the unknown and of being separated from someone he adores.  He dreams all kinds of bad things about the experience.  But when Haley arrives home, in spite of going to the “knee garden,” she still has her knees and is smiling.  Everything she has to say about the day is good.   

Because it sounded like school was fun, Lamb E. Boy wiggled inside Haley’s backpack the next morning so he could experience his own first day of school.  If you want your children to find out how it went—and surely you do—I recommend that you parents and caregivers purchase this for the children in your lives.  Buy an extra one for a gift.

Bettie Corbin Tucker
For IP Book Reviewers
May 19, 2008