Ocean's Child
From Booklist
As an Inuit mother paddles her baby home at dusk, she identifies baby ocean animals as they prepare for night. Despite the Arctic Ocean setting, the language is warm and assuring bedtime fare with two freeverse lines introducing each animal, followed by a refrain, e.g., “When the last lullaby of whale song is sung / Baby naps on Mother’s back. / To ocean’s child we say good night. / Good night, little baby, good night.”As the story closes, the Inuit mother perceives her own sleeping child as Mother Ocean’s child, too. Beautifully stylized animals glide among ocean currents and swirling ribbons of kelp and seaweed. Close inspection of mother and child’s parkas reveal delicate indigenous designs, and the bright fur enveloping their faces makes them appear starlike against the sky. The soothing flow of rhythmic language and elegant images creates a serenity just right for bedtimes.

Snow!
- Selected as a Book-of-the Month Club.
- It is listed on Listmania, a list of great and goofy books for preschoolers
- SNOW! is on the Recommended Reading List for the Chicago Public Schools.

From Booklist
From the Growing Tree series comes another fine picure book for the youngest book lovers. Ford's rhyming verse is age appropriate: "Wiggle wiggle / window squiggle / Frosty smiles / giggle giggle." The couplets work well with Whitman's watercolor collage illustrations, and they show readers the great and special things about a snowy winter. Brother and sister and their pet dog spend the day with Dad outside in the freshly fallen snow. They go sledding, catch snowflakes on their tongues, throw...

The Soldiers' Night Before Christmas
Editorial Reviews from Library Journal
This version of the Clement Moore poem takes place on a US Army base in the desert.The narrator wakes up when her hears a crash, and sees a Blackhawk helicopter giving the all clear to nine Humvees and a jeep, all loaded with gifts. Sergeant McClaus calls the drivers by name, Cohen! Mendoza! Woslowski! McCord! Now, Li! Watts! Donetti! And Specialist Ford! When he the leaves, the sergeant calls out, HAPPY CHRISTMAS BRAVE SOLDIERS MAY PEACE COME TO ALL! The illustrations help to make this a light-hearted, even humorous retelling that will probably be most appreciated by military families who know the original... Virginia Walter University of California, Los Angeles.

Scout
Book Review from School Library Journal
It explores love and friends, courage, grief, guilt and loss.In the end, it is a story of hope. Booktalking can alert middle graders to the treasure inside. Nancy Reeder, Heatherwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC

Kirkus Reviews
Ford shows considerable skill in distilling the complexity of grief and emotional renewal in poetry that often sings...