Icicle Hands and Icicle Knees. 2nd. ed. Cindy O'Neil. Illustrated by Grant Weiss. Naughton, ON: Cindy O'Neil (www.IcicleHands.net), 2010. 12 pp., stapled, $8.95 (plus shipping). ISBN 978-0-9730329-2-5. Preschool-kindergarten / Ages 3-5. Review by Dave Jenkinson. ** / 4

excerpt:

Icicle hands and icicle knees

won't you help me warm them up please?

This very, very short book resulted from O'Neil's personal experience with rheumatoid arthritis. In an introduction, she says, "When my illness was at its worst I was constantly freezing. One night while in bed, O'Neil, to warm up her cold hands, tucked them between her knees, but her "icicle" hands, instead of becoming warmer, instead transformed her knees into icicle knees. From this experience spontaneously sprang the book's first line.

     In Icicle Hands and Icicle Knees, a little girl, accompanied by her dog, goes in search of some way to warm up these two cold parts of her body. While a sink's warm water will help her hands, the sink is much too small to accommodate her knees. Similarly, the little girl's placing her hands in her pockets, in an oven mitt or even under her arms or in her hair still leaves her with cold knees. The solution appears in the form of the girl's mother who puts her daughter in her lap while holding her daughter's hands and draping a blanket over her knees.

     Weiss has illustrated the brief, rhyming story in a cartoon-like fashion, but unfortunately the dog's face shows much more emotion than does the little girl's.

     According to a note on the back cover, "A portion of proceeds from the sale of this book is donated to The Arthritis Society of Canada." Icicle Hands and Icicle Knees is also available in French as Mains gelées et genoux galcés (ISBN 978-0-9730329-3-2).


     While reviewers are to review the book in front of them, I would observe, nonetheless, that, given the picture book's brevity and its subject matter that would best appeal to a toddler audience, Icicle Hands and Icicle Knees should really have been published in board book format.

Recommended with reservations.

Dave Jenkinson, CM's editor, lives in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

 

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