School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2-A colorful rendition of Coleridge's 1834 poem. It begins, "January brings/the snow,/Makes our feet/and fingers glow." Each month appears on a spread depicting modern children participating in seasonal activities. Rhyming couplets are written in large, clear text in a color column on one side of one page. Bright watercolor illustrations cover the remainder of the spread with a portion of each scene exuberantly overlapping into the text column. Weller's contemporary style aptly captures active youngsters at play. Her whimsical illustrations provide lightness and humor that simultaneously contrast and highlight the Victorian text. A few of the verses may need to be explained to today's children. For example, "May brings/flocks of pretty lambs,/Skipping by their/fleecy dams." In addition, some illustrations present a more contemporary interpretation of the text. In "Warm/September brings/the fruit,/Sportsmen then/begin to shoot," the traditional apple trees laden with ripe fruit are shown, but the sportsmen are children shooting goals in a field hockey game. Picture books describing the months of the year are always popular, especially with teachers. However, libraries that already own Nancy Raines Day's A Kitten's Year (HarperCollins, 2000), Crescent Dragonwagon's Alligators and Others All Year Long (S & S, 1993), Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice (HarperCollins, 1962), and Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen's The Year at Maple Hill Farm (S & S, 2001) may consider The Months an additional purchase.-Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.