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Connecting Incarcerated Parents with their Children via Personal Recorded Stories

Book Review

Full, Full, Full of Love  by Trish Cooke   April 2018

Candlewick Press:  ISBN  978-0-7636-3883-2

Review by Mary Pietrzykowski

With Full, Full, Full of Love, children’s book author Trish Cooke offers a warm, positive portrayal of African American family life.  It’s Sunday and time for Jay Jay to go to Grannie’s house to enjoy an afternoon dinner with his parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Left to wait with Grannie while his mother picks up his father and dinner cooks, Jay Jay is overcome by delicious smells.  “Is dinner ready, Gran?” is followed page after page by ‘Gran shook her head.”  “Dinner’s not ready yet.”  The repetitive language and rhythmic quality of Cooke’s writing makes this book accessible to very young children and to young readers.

Paul Howard’s illustrations are bright and convey a warmth which complements the text.  The descriptions of the Sunday dinner will make the pickiest eater hungry, and the depiction of Grannie as the strong, loving center of this family rings true.