What Sisters Do Best/What Brothers Do Best

( 6 )

Overview

What Sisters Do Best/What Brothers Do Best-- This delightful flip book by renowned author-illustrator team Laura Numeroff and Lynn Munsinger celebrates all the wonderful things brothers and sisters can do together, from climbing trees and sharing snacks to playing sports and making music. After reading what brothers do best, simply flip the book over and enjoy the story again—from a sister's perspective! With charming mirrored text and adorable illustrations, this exciting follow-up to the best-selling What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best and What Grandmas Do Best/What Grandpas Do Best is sure to appeal to any child who has—or wishes for—a brother or sister to play with.

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Overview

What Sisters Do Best/What Brothers Do Best-- This delightful flip book by renowned author-illustrator team Laura Numeroff and Lynn Munsinger celebrates all the wonderful things brothers and sisters can do together, from climbing trees and sharing snacks to playing sports and making music. After reading what brothers do best, simply flip the book over and enjoy the story again—from a sister's perspective! With charming mirrored text and adorable illustrations, this exciting follow-up to the best-selling What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best and What Grandmas Do Best/What Grandpas Do Best is sure to appeal to any child who has—or wishes for—a brother or sister to play with.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
This lighthearted companion book to What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best can be flipped over and read from either direction as brother and sister animals playfully engage with one another. On one side, a brother pig assists his piglet sibling (“Brothers can help you climb a tree, push you on a swing, and share a delicious snack”), while a brother lamb and his sister make music, play pretend and build a clay castle. Meanwhile, on the flipside a sister lion teaches her younger sibling how to swim, while an older dog helps clean a messy room and consoles her sister when her baseball team loses a game. Both stories end with the cheery message that “best of all,” siblings “can give you lots and lots of love!” Ages 4–8. (Oct.)
Children's Literature
The author and illustrator of What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best team up again to convey the same endearing message about siblings that they did about parents. Sisters and brothers help in myriad ways but the best way is to "give you lots and lots of love!" The text is identical for both sides of this flipbook but the illustrations (all of them inviting), activities (all realistic), and characters (all appealing) vary. When sisters "share a delicious snack," koala bears eat together from a tub of popcorn at a movie theater. Brothers, in the form of piglets, eat from opposite ends of a long baguette at a picnic. Big sister lion cub helps little sister put together a simple puzzle while big brother tiger, looking perplexed, tries to help little brother solve a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. The illustrations are careful not to stereotype boys or girls; both sides show a bit of mischief as well as a great deal of caring. Boys and girls, big and little siblings, will find gentle lessons about family togetherness in this book, which they will probably reach for over and over. Reviewer: Cynthia Levinson
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2—The creative team behind What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best (S & S, 1998) scores again. In an understated text that is the same for both siblings, the book shows all the good things about having an older brother or sister, such as teaching you how to swim, helping to clean your room, playing pretend, and being there when you need them. Munsinger's delightful watercolor illustrations are stories in themselves and really deliver the message. The children are represented by various cuddly-looking animals including pigs, bears, lions, tigers, koalas, and pandas. This would be a great book to share with a child who is anticipating a new sibling or who needs to be reminded of the perks of being the older one. Each situation shown would also be a great jumping-off point for a creative-writing project for primary grades.—Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780689829376
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
  • Publication date: 9/28/2003
  • Age range: 4 - 7 Years

Meet the Author

Laura Numeroff
Laura Numeroff

Laura Numeroff is the New York Times best-selling author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best, and she's also the youngest of three sisters. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she now resides in Los Angeles.

Lynn Munsinger has illustrated dozens of children's books, including Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester and What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best by Laura Numeroff. She spends winters in Vermont and snowless seasons in Connecticut.

Biography

If you give a series-prone author an inch, she'll take a mile -- and fortunately for fans of Laura Numeroff's books, she took her concept and is still running with it. Her aphoristic animal stories show what happens when you give a little something ... and get a big list of follow-up requests.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and its companion titles have become favorites not only of parents, but of teachers who like the books' visual elements and domino-effect storylines. Numeroff's other popular titles, What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best and What Grandpas Do Best/What Grandmas Do Best, are loving paeans to activities shared with adults.

A would-be fashion designer who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in California with a mini-menagerie of pets, Numeroff's stock in trade is her "silly imagination" and her love of animals. Her versatility as a storyteller has been enhanced by the fact that she works with different illustrators, though it also means that all Numeroff titles may not suit the same reader. Her anthropomorphic stories often capitalize on fantasy, but she also has a knack for rhyme, evident in particular in her books Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers and Chimps Don't Wear Glasses.

Numeroff doesn't seem to run out of ideas for ridiculous situations to put people and animals in, nor does she stop celebrating what's special about family relationships. This is what will keep readers coming back to her titles, series-oriented or not.

Good To Know

Numeroff says her parents instilled a love of science and stamp collecting in her as a child, and she has grown into a collector as an adult. Among her collections: stuffed animals, old photographs, autographed children's books, and Halloween masks.

As a teenager, Numeroff was inspired by her sister to become a fashion designer, leading to her attendance at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for college. "Unfortunately," she says, "I hated everything about the fashion department and I couldn't sew to save my life!" Instead, she took a class on writing and illustrating books for children. Her first effort, about the tallest girl in the third grade, was sold before Numeroff graduated. (Amy for Short is now out of print.)

    1. Also Known As:
      Laura Joffe Numeroff
    2. Hometown:
      Brentwood, California
    1. Date of Birth:
      July 14, 1953
    2. Place of Birth:
      Brooklyn, New York
    1. Education:
      B.F.A. with honors, Pratt Institute, 1975; attended Parsons College, 1975
    2. Website:

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
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