Goofy fun with wordplay. You can count on it.
Wordplay abounds, as evidenced by the title’s “EnCOUNTers,” in this counting book featuring anthropomorphic creatures in the wild.
Readers count up to 13 with affable animal groups, from one moose to 13 sea gulls. In short sentences, heavy on alliteration, they learn that each group is up to something (a “moose mak[es] a movie”; “bears bik[e] by the bay”; and “seals [go] surfing”). The animals’ speech-balloon dialogue consists of silly wordplay; most of it involves playing with the sounds of English. The moose, for instance, declares its movie is a “moose-ical,” and a young fort-making deer announces it’s “really fawn-d” of its creation. The lively, playful illustrations move the action along as if it takes place on a wide stage. A new animal group appears to the right of the previous one at each page turn. Whatever readers see on the far right of the recto appears on the next spread’s verso: A discarded bottle of cider in the right corner of a spread with two raccoons appears as the centerpiece of the next one, as slugs feast on its contents. The story comes full circle with a black-haired, beige-skinned child who, unseen by the animals, watches the tomfoolery from behind foliage. Despite the inclusion of “Forest Friends” in the subtitle, readers also follow animals to the bay, where they meet groups of otters, orcas, seals, and sea gulls.
Goofy fun with wordplay. You can count on it. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63217-274-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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