A heartwarming story with a timeless message.
Kind, cuddly, community-minded critters keep a garden growing during the gardener’s prolonged illness.
Mabel and Stan, a rosy-cheeked older couple, live in an “ordinary house,” but their garden, filled with curving paths, abundant plants, a greenhouse, and an apiary, is marvelous. It also contains creatures who fill Mabel’s days with cheer. She’s created a welcoming environment for all, even the mouse family that’s just moved into the shed. When Mabel is taken away in an ambulance, all the anthropomorphized creatures are concerned. As the days drag on and Mabel doesn’t return, not only does the garden fall into disrepair, but the mice recognize that Stan is suffering, too, seemingly lost without his beloved counterpart. The animals who were cared for so tenderly by Mabel return the favor by looking after the garden (and Stan) until she returns. With its focus on community care, neighborly love, and outreach to older adults, the story is both uplifting and important—forging bonds with our elders in their sunset years brings connection and combats loneliness for everyone involved. Though adult readers may find the narrative a tad saccharine, the child-friendly message is entirely appropriate for its intended audience. Bright, lively watercolor illustrations fill the pages with cheer. Mixes of full-page spreads and spotlighted illustrations surrounded by white space add dimension and variety to the layout. Human characters have pale skin.
A heartwarming story with a timeless message. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781917366892
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Magic Cat
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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