From Kirkus Reviews

Five-year-old Rachel happily anticipates a family visit to her cousin Amy-Claire, seven. Unfortunately, unlike last year when the two spent hours playing school, Amy-Claire now turns out to be most interested in playing house with Rachel's scorned little sister Jessie, pretending that she's Jessie's mother. Disappointed and excluded, Rachel sulks at first but then finally comes up with a good solution: she'll join Amy-Claire's pretend family as Jessie's big sister. The warm, realistic story is beautifully visualized in Hamanaka's vibrant oils, where the appealingly expressive Japanese-American children appear in handsomely generalized settings with minimal detail. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Five-year-old Rachel learns that being a big sister is not so bad after all when her adored older cousin, an only child, focuses her attention on Rachel's little sister.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- Both the joy of family relations and the problematic moods of childhood are strikingly conveyed in this fine > book's contemporary oil paintings. Rachel looks forward to a visit with her older cousin, Amy-Claire, who is not like Rachel's two-year-old sister at all. However, relationships among the three have changed since the previous year, and it takes a while for Rachel to re-sort things out. Jealousy and joy, isolation and family unity are some of her feelings, all of which are reinforced and illuminated in bold patches of pure color. The paintings use off-center perspective and unusual cropping to direct readers attention. The faces of the adults and children in these two Asian-American families are animated and sensitive in expression. Mills's first picture book handles childhood rivalry with a subtle, deft, and sympathetic touch that Hamanaka lovingly mirrors. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Martha Washington Library, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.