Honey Baby Sugar Child

by Alice Faye Duncan, Susan Keeter (Illustrator)

Overview

A mother expresses her everlasting love for her child in this warm, poetic picture book.

I’m gone always be yo sweet Ma’Dear, and you gone always be my baby.

Alice Faye Duncan’s playful, affectionate text and Susan Keeter’s tender paintings will touch your heart and soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689846786
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	01/01/2005
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Alice Faye Duncan is the author of several books, including the classic NAACP Award–nominated board book, Honey Baby Sugar Child, and Just Like a Mama. Ms. Duncan is a school librarian in Memphis, Tennessee, and conducts writing workshops for parents and educators. Her latest picture book, Memphis, Martin and the Mountaintop, received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

Susan Keeter is a fine artist and illustrator with degrees in these subjects from Syracuse University. She illustrated The Piano by William Miller, which received the Best Picture Book Award from the Society of School Librarians International; and Tippy Lemmey by Patricia C. McKissack. Her paintings have been shown in both juried group shows and several one-person shows. Keeter lives in Syracuse, New York, with her husband, Seth, and their daughters, Sara and Emma.

Editorial Reviews

PreS-Rhythmic, somewhat dialectal prose combines with Keeter's warm and expressive oil paintings to convey a sense of song and motion across the pages of this simple book. Heartwarming scenes of an African-American mother and child cuddling, playing, dancing, and napping together are sure to evoke powerful feelings of love, nurturing, and security in both parent and child. Pair this lyrical offering with one of these other stories depicting young children, mostly African American, within the context of a loving family: Trish Cooke's So Much (1994) and Full, Full, Full of Love (2003, both Candlewick); Ann Tyler's Baby Dance (1999); and Vera B. Williams's "More More More," Said the Baby (1990, both HarperCollins).-Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

The use of oils on gessoed paper makes for extraordinarily rich painting, and Keeter's double-paged, full-bleed, beautifully colored illustrations have a delicious power. A mother and her son fill these pages, usually in tight close-up, while the mom cuddles her little one, feeds him, takes him out to run in the grass and play patty-cake. Mom, with her gold jewelry, corn-rows, and open, smiling face is as beautiful as her bright-eyed little one-who appears to be about one or two-is cute. And what does she say? What all moms say, crooning a maternal love song: "Sugar Child, / Sweet Puddin' 'n' Pie, / Lord knows / it's true what I say. . . . You the star in my crown. / You the joy in my smile. / You the angel in my dreams." This paean to maternal heart's delight is couched in lilting language with a touch of black or Southern intonation, excellent for reading aloud and rocking along. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews