I beautiful story written about all of the emotions that a person can show with their hands. Love, excitement, friendship are some of the main emotions that a person can show with their hands. A person can easily speak with their hands and hands are often used as a way of communicating. The end of the book describes hands of all different races laced together in friendship. I really enjoyed this book the themes of diversity and love. ( )

What is the purpose of our hands? This author does a fantastic job while using many forms of alliteration to show the many useful things our hands can do. The conclusion is the best part of this book because of the way the author shows that the color of our hands does not matter they all go together to form beautiful friendships. This is the overall theme of this book and would be a great poetry read for my students to understand the importance of unity. ( )

Kroll, Virginia. Hands! (1997). Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.

There is no single main character in this book. Instead, the text tells about many things hands do, while the illustrations show many different children and families, all of various races and ethnicities. Some of the things the book tells the reader that hands do are: playing, giving, and praying. They show by example how children are held by their parents, are good sports about winning and losing games, and make music. The story ends by stating what the pictures have been showing, that the hands of people of different races fit into each other in friendship.

This is an uplifting story that will appeal to young readers. The text is clear and simple. The illustrations, done in cut paper and tempera, cheerfully enhance the simple text to show the theme of children of different races playing with each other and being kind to one another. The illustrations’ colors are soft, expressing a gentle tone, and the people in the pictures are all smiling at the love they are showing each other.