Books with author Melanie Hope Greenberg

The Mermaid Parade, a summer solstice ritual to open the beach season at Coney Island, started in 1983 as the revival of an older festival. Greenberg paints detailed--and accurate--layouts of the neighborhood, complete with shops, arcades, the F train to Coney Island, Astroland, and diverse people decked out in their sea-creature finery. She lavishes each joyful spread with upbeat colors and patterns. Skies echo the changing blue tints of the ocean. The minimal story line--a young girl narrates as she marches in the parade with her parents--functions like a tour guide, calling attention to the sights. The wealth of detail turns the pages into a Where's Waldo game: adults and children might challenge each other to locate the three main characters in an amusement-park panorama, or to count the number of pirates dancing on the Boardwalk. This is a fine way to keep the warm sun, sand, and celebration around all year. School Library Journal

In this slice of urban life, readers are introduced to Aunt Lilly, who left her beloved homeland many years before to come to New York, where she operates a laundromat. Lilly is outgoing and cheerful, and continually sees connections between her world in Brooklyn and her life as a child in Haiti. Throughout the text, which follows the woman through her day of washing, drying, folding, and chatting, she recalls sensations and colors and then records them on canvas in her back-room studio. The decorative, full-page illustrations alternate lively scenes that evoke a sense of Carribean color and charm with equally vivid pictures of the laundromat.

Your 2 1/2-year-old will enjoy pointing out familiar places and people in your neighborhood.Tips for reading and sharing:Discuss the people and places you and your child regularly see in your neighborhoodIdentify each character, then pause to let your child fill in his or her activityMake up rhymes about people you knowFor additional tips and more information on Harper Growing Tree, visit our website at