In his debut as an author, Velasquez, illustrator of The Sound That Jazz Makes (2000) tells an entertaining first-person story (presumably autobiographical) of an unnamed Puerto Rican boy in the ’50s who spends every summer with his grandmother in Spanish Harlem. The boy draws in his sketchbook as Grandma Carmen tells stories of her childhood in Puerto Rico and plays her much-loved records, especially her favorite song that she always listens to with one hand raised and her other hand over her heart. When the narrator and his grandma attend a concert by the most famous band in Puerto Rico, the band dedicates this special song to Grandma Carmen, and the audience members also listen with one hand raised and the other over their hearts. We learn along with the young narrator that “En Mi Viejo San Juan” is special to those of Puerto Rican heritage, capturing their longing for their homeland. The story ends with the grown narrator, now an artist in his own studio (painting this work’s cover), remembering his grandma and playing her favorite song on his modern sound system—with his hand over his heart. Several Spanish sentences and phrases are worked into the text (with English translations), and the words to Grandma’s song are also included in both Spanish and English. Velasquez is a talented painter whose illustrations capture the love between generations and the excitement of attending a live concert and meeting professional musicians. Thoughtful details add to the flavor of the period; tiny phonograph album covers fill the endpapers, historical artifacts to today’s readers. Although we can’t hear Grandma’s song, this heart-felt story has a melody of its own. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8027-8760-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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