How to Take Your Grandmother to the Museum

Wyse (whose books for adults include Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother) teams up with her granddaughter for this energetic museum tour. Young Molly acts as an amiable guide, showing her grandmother around the American Museum of Natural History and spouting snippets of information on dinosaurs, African animals, underwater creatures, bugs and the Ice Age. While the text effectively mimics a child's varied interests, its haphazard quality sometimes results in confusion. For example, when the pair heads to Africa, the text reads, ""We took a shortcut through Asia and turned left at Central America. Soon we were surrounded by antelopes and monkeys and cheetahs""; some readers may be confused about which continent they're visiting. However, Molly's concluding notes clear up most of these questions and also expand on some of her sketchier explanations of the museum's artifacts. Gay's art cleverly incorporates photos of museum objects (dinosaur bones, animals in diorama settings) into brightly hued, lighthearted cartoon art. The warm rapport between granddaughter and Grandma make the field trip immediately accessible. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)