Title: She Yelled. I Screamed…She Pulled my Hair!
Author: Tracy Leshay
Publisher: again AGAIN books
ISBN: 9780989998833
Pages: 48
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
A keepsake of love created by a mother for her two young daughters, the private moments of a tiff between Phoebe and her younger sister Audrey become preserved for all to enjoy in “She Yelled. I Screamed … She Pulled my Hair!” by Tracy Leshay.One hot summer day with temperatures and tempers above and beyond the comfort zone, Phoebe and Audrey were playing as little girls do, when sharing a toy wasn’t fairly done causing the frustration levels to boil. That’s when Audrey yelled, Beebee (Phoebe’s nickname given to her from her younger sister) screamed, and then Audrey pulled Phoebe’s long locks of curly blonde hair. Witnessing this, no doubt, Tracy Leshay took her observation as inspiration to capture the moment, just as the shutter of a camera capturers a thousandth of a second as an image; Tracy scribed the poetry to the galley text of this book and synced it to her portfolio of stylish images. This book is about real kids, real emotions, real sisters’ playful moments, with real photographs – a true story made into a trophy “unfairy tale” memento.
With whimsical changing typestyle of each word to reflect expression, reminiscent to me of a ransom note from a kidnapping, the rhythmic pace and narrative is embellished with artful black and white photographs. It was easy for me to read the sentences; however I noticed it slowed down our 7 year old daughter, as character recognition processes of interpreting images in children are not yet developed to the speed of an adult. Nevertheless, the onomatopoeia added a mental soundtrack to the words and dialog allowing for the progression of the story to unfold enjoyably.
The photographic images are those created by the author as well; dream-like and subtle in their beauty, cropped and dropped into appropriate pages to enhance the emotions of the story’s elements. This book is a generously candid look into the young girls’ perceptions of their tunnel vision world being narrowly concerned with solely the “here and now.
Tracy Leshay used comic relief quite subliminally at a time in the story when Phoebe was told by an angel to give Audrey a kiss and a leaf from a shade tree to “make up” from the tiff. After one leaf didn’t do it, she “turned another leaf.” We all know what that expression means, to start again, but the leaf referred to a real leaf in the story, when by definition it is to turn a page in a book. How this subtle joke was interleaved I found quite memorable.
“She Yelled. I Screamed … She Pulled my Hair!” is a time capsule for the Leshay family, plus an impressive debut in creativity by Tracy. It would be a wonderful birthday gift to any family … especially one with two young daughters. As for Phoebe and Audrey, they have this book now as a remembrance of an instance in their childhood, plus the story of reading it if and when they have their own children, decades from now, as their playfully fiery tempers will undoubtedly be inherited in their future generations.
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