All About Me: A Keepsake Journal for Kids

Christine Linge is a past director of the Toronto & District Parent
Co-operative Preschool Corporation, a freelance writer, and a bookseller
specializing in children’s literature.

This keepsake journal for kids is designed to inspire children to write
about their lives beyond the simple cataloguing of facts and events. To
encourage children to explore their thoughts and feelings, Kranz places
on the border of each page such provocative questions as, “What do you
think are the three main problems in the world? What would you do to
change them?” Pages are reserved for the reader’s notes and artwork,
and there are drawing pages with specific subjects (“trace your
hand”).

There are 19 full-page paintings. Some feature children of various ages
and races, often with old people. A few depict comical animal
characters. Though engaging and rich in emotion, most of the images are
drawn from the landscape and culture of the southwestern United States,
which may be mystifying to many Canadian children.

Some of Kranz’s “thought-starters” include simple activities such
as recording current food prices, describing parents’ jobs, or drawing
the layout of one’s bedroom. In this way All About Me doubles as an
activity book that may prove successful in persuading children of both
sexes to put pen to paper. Recommended.