A tale of familial warmth and strength, steeped in generations of tradition.
A young Korean girl overcomes her initial resistance to a long-standing birthday custom.
An unnamed child sits at the table, clearly disappointed by her mother’s offering of miyeok-guk, or seaweed soup. It’s “not the strawberry cake, not the chocolate cupcakes I want,” she pouts. But Mom explains that eating miyeok-guk is a tradition that goes back generations. “I had it every day for a month after you were born,” Mom notes. Grandmother prepared it for her as she recovered from childbirth—as did her mother, and the child’s great-great-grandma, who was a haenyeo, or freediver. Yum deftly sheds light on the legacy of freediving; women often brought their daughters along on dives and even dove while pregnant. A haenyeo who observed a whale eating seaweed after giving birth inspired the tradition of the soup. Now fully appreciating its significance, the girl savors her soup, much to the delight of her mother. Her bowl transforms into a seascape filled with women divers as she observes, “My birthday soup is miyeok-guk. It smells like grandma’s town. It tastes like my birthday.” Visible pencil marks and soft splashes of color give Yum’s illustrations a tender intimacy and a coziness befitting her gently told tribute to the ties that bind. An author’s note offers more information on the women who have dived for octopuses, seaweed, shellfish, and more for hundreds of years near Korea’s Jeju Island.
A tale of familial warmth and strength, steeped in generations of tradition. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781324053699
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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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