A preschool boy with a white father and Asian mother is the first person narrator of this story of his family’s morning rituals. He adorably mimics his father’s shaving and getting dressed and “helps” his mom make morning drinks. I like the way the author and illustrator integrate the natural environment into the text via the view through the open windows and the narrative language. Starting with the opening line describing a bee feeding from a flower, the lawn mower on the front lawn, and closing with the boy sniffing a flower, nature is the quiet secondary character in this story. Other fun and sensory stimulating aspects of the story are all the sounds of the morning. Like a child’s attention span, when the protagonist sits down to breakfast, his focus switches from his parents to playing with his airplane. This play is full of sounds and characteristically pre-school age clumsiness which ends in an accident that mom must clean up. Preschoolers will identify with that moment of being pulled out of their imagination into the real world by a spill they caused and still being kissed by mom despite the mistake. The illustrator, Margaret Chodos-Irvine, makes great use of the page, a number of times choosing to paint several scenes on one page. Although this story feels short, it is a fun and sensory stimulating read.

Recommendation: Highly Recommended; Ages 0-7

Reviewer:  Omilaju Miranda