“Emma copies / everything I do, / and sometimes / I don’t do / something / I might do / or really / want to do / because / I know / she is / always /watching / every single thing I do” (“Rode Model”). Slice-of-life poems catalog the ups and downs of a sibling relationship from big sister Jessica’s perspective. Jessica can be embarrassed or annoyed or angered by Emma, but those moments find balance—in this collection as in life—by Emma’s companionship, not to mention her appreciation and even adulation for her big sister. There’s a definite sense of story-making as the poems progress, with “Role Model” foreshadowing later events when Emma’s desire to be like her big sister results in a broken arm for Emma and a heavy heart for Jess, until her parents reassure her: “It was an accident.” Kristine O’Connell George deftly reveals the many sides of a sibling relationship, while the pen-and-ink and digital illustrations by Nancy Carpenter make fine use of facial expressions and body language to extend the feelings expressed in the poems. (Ages 5–9)

Emma is Jess's little sister . . . and her dilemma. How can one small girl be sweet, funny, imaginative, playful, and affectionate as well as a clinging vine, brat, tattletale, and nuisance-all at the same time? Why is Jess supposed to be a good big sister while Emma doesn't have to be a good little sister? The highlights and low points of this sibling relationship are insightfully evoked in short and simple poems, some funny, some touching, and all resonant with emotional truth. Every child with a younger sibling will recognize Jess's dilemma and the combination of ambivalence and deep loyalty that is built into the sibling relationship. Nancy Carpenter's graceful illustrations perceptively complement Kristine O'Connell George's agile poems.