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I AM A MEADOW MERMAID

Name: I AM A MEADOW MERMAID
Author: Kallie George
ISBN: 9780735271371

by Kallie George ; illustrated by Elly MacKay ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2023

Joyful and memorable.

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A whimsical homage to imaginary play and friendship.

The child narrator, who has light brown skin and wavy dark hair, proclaims, “I am a meadow mermaid.” This tot is a creative, playful sort who dreams of visiting the sea. Despite living on landlocked plains, the meadow mermaid splashes in puddles, cavorts through “waves in the wheat,” and, wearing a blanket that evokes a mermaid tail, uses a seashell to listen to sounds of the ocean. Pairing well with the lyrical text, the illustrations, photographs of cut-paper dioramas, have a three-dimensional quality, the overall warm palette punctuated by the blue of the sky and, in many spreads, the child’s denim overalls. It’s a happy, solitary existence (except for a pet cat who appears on various spreads) until midway through, when text reads, “I listen for the music of a mermaid a million miles away and hear the shout of a…shipwrecked sailor?” The meadow mermaid encounters Milla, a child who has light skin and a blond ponytail. The children are immediate playmates, searching for treasure, gazing at “seahorses” (horses), eating “cookies shaped like sand dollars,” and becoming fast friends. An immensely satisfying conclusion reveals that Milla is “a prairie pirate.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Joyful and memorable. (Picture book. 2-7)

Pub Date: June 6, 2023

ISBN: 9780735271371

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tundra Books

Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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I HEAR YOU, MOUNTAINS
by Kallie George ; illustrated by Carmen Mok

- BOOK REVIEW
DOT THE LADYBUG
by Kallie George ; illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman

- BOOK REVIEW
MUSHROOMS KNOW
by Kallie George ; illustrated by Sara Gillingham

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LITTLE RED SLEIGH

by Erin Guendelsberger ; illustrated by Elizaveta Tretyakova ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2020

Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.

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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)