A HOME IN THE BARN

Name: A HOME IN THE BARN
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
ISBN: 978-0-06-623787-9

by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018

The gentle, descriptive text and appealing illustrations succeed in establishing an atmosphere of a warm, crowded, noisy...

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Creatures large and small take shelter together in a warm barn in this evocative collaboration with text by Brown and illustrations from Caldecott Medalist Pinkney.

The first few pages are related in rhyming text, while the illustrations set the scene with a traditional red barn and fall leaves blowing in a gusty wind. The text then shifts to prose that describes various animals coming into the barn, including field mice, horses, bats, and goats. A calf is born in the barn, and the brown-skinned farmer names her Winter Morn. The farmer’s son, who has brown skin and black, Afro-textured hair, is shown milking a cow on the final spread, where the opening rhyming lines are repeated. The text is lyrical and atmospheric though not as exceptional as some of Brown’s better-known works. Pinkney’s luminous watercolor-and-pastel illustrations create a cozy environment for the animals, using a double-page–spread format, a large trim size, and a thoughtful design. Tiny details are hidden in the pages, such as a grasshopper perched on a dried cornstalk and a line of ants marching toward the barn, and sound effects from some of the animals are also integrated into the illustrations. An artist’s note gives interesting, specific details about Pinkney’s artistic process.

The gentle, descriptive text and appealing illustrations succeed in establishing an atmosphere of a warm, crowded, noisy barn where everyone is safe and sheltered. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-623787-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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TWO LITTLE TRAINS
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Greg Pizzoli

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GOOD DAY, GOOD NIGHT
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Loren Long

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MARGARET WISE BROWN'S MANNERS
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

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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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Awards & Accolades

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IndieBound Bestseller

THE WONKY DONKEY

by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010

Hee haw.

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Awards & Accolades

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71

Our Verdict

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IndieBound Bestseller

The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.

In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.

Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)