I See by Joe Cepada and Where is Mommy? by Pat Cummings

Brian E. Wilson works as a children’s librarian at the Evanston Public Library in Evanston, IL. He served on the 2015 Odyssey Committee and the 2017 Caldecott Committee. He blogs at Mr. Brian’s Picture Book Picks at mrbrianspicturebookpicks.wordpress.com.

One of the best parts of being a children's librarian is sharing new books with young readers in my regularly scheduled storytimes. Every month I visit a preschool class filled with 25 of the most amazing 4- and 5-year-olds, many ready to take on the world when they start kindergarten this upcoming autumn. For this Guessing Geisel assignment, I decided to try out the two new additions to Holiday House's enjoyable I Like to Read series on them. Joe Cepada's I See, which has the publisher's Guided Reading Level B (Middle of Kindergarten) designation, serves as a companion to the author/illustrator's Up and I Dig and stars a boy who examines little creatures with a magnifying glass. Pat Cummings' Where Is Mommy?, given a Guided Reading Level D (End of Kindergarten), shows a girl piecing together clues about her nearby mommy's location after waking from a nap. Would the students enjoy these books?

I See contains very simple sentences never longer than four words. Each double page spread offers only one sentence. The crystal clear, large bold font is easy to read. Cepada's uncluttered illustrations follow the boy up a ladder and into an attic. The older relative (the children said "his dad" or "brother" when I asked about him) accompanying him finds a microscope while the protagonist holds up a magnifying glass.

The boy then travels solo outside carrying his beloved new object. "I see," he keeps saying. The children started saying the words along with me, unprompted. The next page finds the boy examining tiny critters, seen from a distance, with the magnifying glass. "I see," the boy says with a smile. The students already started yelling "ants" by the time I turned the page. And sure enough, they were right. "I see an ant," the boy declares as we see an enlarged view of the happy ant. We then see the child looking at a butterfly, snail, and robin eggs. The children told me they all loved the book. They liked the way Cepada drew the animals. And they loved the final moment that show all the animals following him into his house.

Where Is Mommy? has slightly longer sentences (never longer than six words) and more text. Some spreads have two or three sentences on them. The children had a blast watching the girl trying to solve this lighthearted mystery. Cummings fills the story with delightful visual cues. Mommy has seemingly disappeared, although the girl's cat, and the children in my group, observe mom outside in her garden. They liked knowing something the girl did not notice. When I asked the students their favorite part, they said they loved the girl putting on her mother's glasses, slippers, and scarf. They found the cat funny, the ending happy. The kids followed the story with ease.

I did not ask them which book they enjoyed more. I simply asked "who liked both of the books?" All the hands shot up in the air. Success!!!