A sensitive topic swum with mindful strokes.
A tale of two youngsters told with alternating human and fish points of view.
Balcombe’s insightful juxtaposition of two youthful experiences wades through an emotional journey of learning and compassion. At each turn, Balcombe’s approach compares the naïve assumptions of a young boy named Jake and a juvenile fish named Ava, finding opportunities to recognize similarities across diverse perspectives as their storylines converge and paths prepare to cross. Jake’s outing with his grandfather begins as his first fishing trip and a meaningful time for learning with an elder. That morning finds the young fish Ava also setting off, to catch insects with her uncle, and learning the techniques and hot spots just as Jake learns from Grandpa. When Jake worries about how the worm may feel, readers get a hint as to what may be on the horizon for Ava. The grandfather and child in the story both appear White, with no noted ethnic or racial identities. Evans’ richly hued watercolors evoke fluid movement and a vibrant natural landscape filled with wildlife. The expressive features bring these lives into focus, building to a sequence with Ava first vividly centered and then pulled into tension with Jake; a picture of a sorrowful Jake gazing at an equally distressed Ava, hanging from the hook across the gutter, says it all. Illustrations and story harmonize well, highlighting vulnerability and the importance of compassion, and an informative endnote quells concern over anthropomorphic storytelling.
A sensitive topic swum with mindful strokes. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-940719-46-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Gryphon Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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