Every Little Thing

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 17, 2012

The follow-up to this team's adaptation of Marley's father's "One Love" takes another Bob Marley classic and adds two verses ("Run to the playground,/ laugh with my friends and play./ Three little birds,/ perch on the swing set") to the immediately recognizable lyrics. Brantley-Newton provides polished mixed-media portraits of a dreadlocked boy with a huge grin and young parents who clearly adore him. The three birds of the original song accompany the boy everywhere, hovering outside the window as he gets into trouble with a baking project in the kitchen, then singing to cheer him up, providing an appropriate setting for the reassuring refrain: "Don't worry/ about a thing,/ 'cause every little thing/ is gonna be all right." Pictures of the boy playing soccer with his parents and friends, who come from an assortment of ethnic backgrounds, will be appreciated by families and teachers searching for representations of communities that look like theirs. As with the previous volume, Marley fans will have to drag out their old CDs or vinyl to teach children the melody, since none is supplied with the book. Ages 4 8.