Heartening and uncomplicated—a rousing modern-day fable.
In Doornebos’ debut picture book, a host of Ukrainian sunflowers resists an invading bear.
Standing in their patch in rural Ukraine, a young sunflower and his fellows feel an ominous rumbling through the ground: Something is wrong. Sure enough, a ferocious, bullying bear comes stomping along. It blocks out the sun and crushes flowers underfoot. (“‘I want your land!’ the bear roared.”) All of the sunflowers are scared, but the young sunflower stands up to the bear. With flattery, trickery, and the support of its fellows, it leads the bear far away and dumps it into a watering hole. Doornebos relates the sunflowers’ tale in the mode of a fable, employing simple language and recounting events that unfold more through moralistic intent than the logic of cause-and-effect. Though quite overtly an analogue to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the story functions perfectly well as a standalone piece—its message of resilience is universal, and adults and children alike can take heart from the sunflowers’ triumph. Anderson’s crayon and watercolor illustrations mirror the narrative’s simplicity against mostly white backgrounds. The bear, in its savageness and entitlement, is evocative, as are the frailty of individual sunflowers and their recognition of strength in numbers. The yellowness of the sun and the sunflowers offers a constant reiteration of hope, which ultimately prevails in a joyous scene of cultural celebration.
Heartening and uncomplicated—a rousing modern-day fable.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9798989439508
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Rock Paper Flower Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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