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To the Pool with Mama
It is Friday, and John J. and Mama are off to the pool. Bathing suit and towel are carefully stowed in a backpack.
"To the Pool with Mama" is told in the first person by John J. as he experiences the joys and wonders of a trip to a large pool. The showers are bigger and different than the ones at home. There are cubbyholes to hide in and heavy doors that he needs help to push open.
In the baby pool are many toys, and the water is just the right height for a toddler to splash and roll around in. Water is great fun to play in, but it is important for John J. and his friend Elise to remember that water belongs in the pool, not on the deck or each other's heads!
Experience the thrill of a small child at all the new sensations found at the swimming pool: the noise of many children, the feel of water and the warm hair dryer, even the texture of the rough, non-slip floors.
Going to the pool is tiring, and at the end of the day a happy, snuggly little boy is carried home, warm and safe in the arms of Mama.
"To the Pool with Mama" is told in the first person by John J. as he experiences the joys and wonders of a trip to a large pool. The showers are bigger and different than the ones at home. There are cubbyholes to hide in and heavy doors that he needs help to push open.
In the baby pool are many toys, and the water is just the right height for a toddler to splash and roll around in. Water is great fun to play in, but it is important for John J. and his friend Elise to remember that water belongs in the pool, not on the deck or each other's heads!
Experience the thrill of a small child at all the new sensations found at the swimming pool: the noise of many children, the feel of water and the warm hair dryer, even the texture of the rough, non-slip floors.
Going to the pool is tiring, and at the end of the day a happy, snuggly little boy is carried home, warm and safe in the arms of Mama.
24 pages, Library Binding
Published February 5, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 27, 2022
So first and foremost, Sue Farrell's To the Pool with Mama is essentially a short, simple picture book story that shows to the intended audience (this basically being preschoolers) what is to be expected during a visit to a public swimming pool, and with Friday being pool day for young John J and his mother (his mama). And yes, the entire excursion to the pool is described in meticulous but also in simple and engaging detail within the pages of To the Pool with Mama, from packing John J's swimming trunks and towel to blow drying with the hot air dryers in the change room after swimming time has been completed (all most delightfully and wonderfully textually described by Sue Farrell through John J's eyes and from his perspective, involving all of the five senses, but in particular sight and touch).
But while John J's mother is always present during To the Pool with Mama (watching over her son, helping him when needed), Robin Baird Lewis' accompanying water colour illustrations (which are bright, colourful and imaginatively realistic) very much ingeniously always tend to show Mama only incompletely, only partially (since To The Pool with Mama is as mentioned featured as coming completely from young John J's perspective and that his mother is in fact only there as a quasi supportive tool), rendering To the Pool with Mama for and to me as a perfect marriage and combination of Sue Farrell's text and Robin Baird Lewis' images (sweetly four stars and highly recommended, and in particular so since both the author and the illustrator are also not at all shy about depicting bare bottoms both textually and illustratively, although this might sadly also put To the Pool with Mama on the radar of potential book banners, of those puritanical weirdoes who see any form of nudity as problematic and evil).
But while John J's mother is always present during To the Pool with Mama (watching over her son, helping him when needed), Robin Baird Lewis' accompanying water colour illustrations (which are bright, colourful and imaginatively realistic) very much ingeniously always tend to show Mama only incompletely, only partially (since To The Pool with Mama is as mentioned featured as coming completely from young John J's perspective and that his mother is in fact only there as a quasi supportive tool), rendering To the Pool with Mama for and to me as a perfect marriage and combination of Sue Farrell's text and Robin Baird Lewis' images (sweetly four stars and highly recommended, and in particular so since both the author and the illustrator are also not at all shy about depicting bare bottoms both textually and illustratively, although this might sadly also put To the Pool with Mama on the radar of potential book banners, of those puritanical weirdoes who see any form of nudity as problematic and evil).
September 7, 2022
Mama takes the kid to the pool.
March 24, 2017
I found this book to be a little boring, and the illustrations are just ok. There is not much of a point to the story, and even though it's supposed to be about the pool, most of the book takes place in the locker rooms.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews