The Best Way to Play
 Bill Cosby
 Illustrated by Varnette P. Honeywood
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1997 Cartwheel Books - Scholastic Inc NY USA
  ISBN: 0590137565


Little Bill & his friends want the new Space Explorers video game! Their parents won't buy it so how can Little Bill & his friends have fun without it?

Written by America's most beloved comedian & storyteller, Little Bill Books affirm the value of friendships & family. The Best Way to Play encourages children to solve problems fairly & creatively.
 
There's a letter to parents from Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School & Judge Baker Children's Center, Boston, Massachusetts. In this open letter the good doctor sends out a couple of important messages to the adults who bring reading materials to their childrens' attention.

One point is that all the passive watching of television children do is a hazard for their health as in obesity & lack of body tone. The good doctor reminds us that television doesn't encourage our children to use their own imaginations, flex their own mental muscles & learn how to play with each others. That's what free time or play time is for.

Varnette Honeywood's illustrations brightly bring to life Bill Cosby's story about one Saturday in the life of Little Bill & his friends when their favorite television personality insists they get the video game of the show in order to show people that they are one of them.

This is a cool read - breathless, simple & vivid. Lots to think about, to talk about. Ideas, relationships & the magic of the mind.

Good stuff, folks & for those looking for gifts for kids & their parents, this one will do very well!

An Oprah Book Club Book.

More in the LITTLE BILL series:
The Meanest Thing to Say & The Treasure Hunt
From Varnette P. Honeywood: Let's Get the Rhythm of the Band
More from Bill Cosby: Fatherhood; Time Flies; Love and Marriage & Childhood.
(06/06/99)

Rebecca