Hi

by Ann Herbert Scott

While waiting in line with her mother at the post office, Margarita greets the patrons who come in carrying different types of mail

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1994

About the author

Ann Herbert Scott describes herself as "a transplanted Easterner who has come to love the wide skies and far mountain ranges of the West." She is the author of SAM, ON MOTHER'S LAP, and several other picture books. She lives Benicia, California.

Ann Herbert Scott was born in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and grew up writing. Her first children's book, co-authored with a friend and never published, was written at the age of 13. Many honors and children's books followed with a hiatus to marry and raise a family. Today, Scott is one of America's foremost authors of children's literature. She deftly uses her B.A. in English (University of Pennsylvania) and M.A. in Social Ethics (Yale University) to bring both credibility and wonder to her work. Many of her books deal with western, ethnic, and rural themes.

Scott moved to Reno in 1961, when she married William Taussig Scott (1916-1999), a physics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her work as an "enumerator" in the agricultural census of 1964 eventually led to her writing a history of the U. S. census, with the cooperation of the Bureau of the Census. Her novel Sam was an American Library Association Notable Book for 1967. Another of her books, On Mother's Lap, was read by Captain Kangaroo on his television program as part of the national Reading is Fundamental literacy initiative. In 1996, the paperback edition of Cowboy Country was awarded the Parents' Choice Silver Honor. Scott is active in the Northern Nevada arts community and is the co-founder of the Annual Art of the Children's Book Festival. She and her husband were co-founders of Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace, a non-profit public benefit corporation in Washoe County, Nevada.

Reviews

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this sweet, simple story of a little girl who goes to the post-office and says hi. The illustrations make it magical because they show so clearly how Margarita gets sadder and sadder as no one notices her "hi!" At last, her greeting is returned.
#brownkids
#kidsofcolor
#girls
#maingirls

[Samara Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hi" written by Ann Herbert Scott is a simple but sweet book. The main character is a little girl named Margarita. In this book Margarita and her mom take a trip to the post office to send a package to her grand mother. When Margarita and her mom ingot he post office no one speaks back to her as she waves and says hello. Every time a new person walks into the post office Margarita says Hi but no one hears her, they are all preoccupied. When her mother and her reach the from of the line she hands the package over to a woman behind the desk and whispers Hi. They lady behind the desk looks up at her and says hi back to her. Then Margarita and her mom are on the way home.

I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book. I do believe this book could be told without the illustrations but there would be pathos missing. The illustrations help to emphasize how the little girl is feeling and helps the readers sympathize with her. When she fist says hi to the people in line you can see that they are all in their own world and she just standing there looking up at them. After trying to speak to everybody she looks defeated and hurt. Her head is held down and the mother looks as if she is trying to reassure her and help her feel better. At the end when the lady behind the desk says Hi back to her, her face lights up. Her eye bros are raised, her eyes are big, and she's smiling. The illustrations in this book are very true. By that i mean true to the reactions people make. When the lady with the baby came in, everybody in line turned to look at the child and see what the baby was crying about.

A theme i caught from this book is friendliness. Margarita seems like a happy, caring, optimistic little girl. She spoke to every single person that she say in the post office. This wasn't anything her mother told her to do, she just wanted to say hello to people. She never got angry or threw a temper tantrum. She simply tried and tried again. Even when she was ready to give up she tried the last person she hadn't spoke to.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hi by Ann Herbert Scott, illustrations by Glo Coalson, is the story of young Magarite's trip to the post office, where she says "Hi!" to all the people in line. No one responds or even notices her, until she tries on more time at the head of the line.

This sweet story will connect with many parents whose children have gone through this HI phase. Coalson's watercolors reflect this gentle story and show a post office being used by a variety of ages and races. 3.5 stars. For post office & mother and daughter themes, ages 1 to 5. Recommended for preschools and public library collections.

[Kristin Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marguerita tries to say Hi to everyone in the post office but no one notices her or even hears her say hi. Every time someone walks into the post office she waves and says hi but not one of them notices her. Then finally someone notices her and she is happy. Can you guess who?

This is a fun book, it is great for younger ages I would say up to five or six but after that I think the older kids would get bored of it and think its childish even though they are still children. Overall it was a fun book.

[Rjgolden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book because it talks about a little girl who just enjoys saying hello to other people, but no one says hello back. Since pre-k to k students are such curious students, and sometimes do not get the attention they expect. This would be a good time to discuss why adults may behave the way they do sometimes. Little kids mean well, so this book would be great at explaining why sometimes people don't say hello back.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another sweet story - I especially like it since Lola always says hi to everybody too.