A fine children’s book with likable characters and strong teaching moments.
A three-part storybook about helping and friendship, starring a big-bellied bat.
In the first of three stories, “Batissimo, the Black Crow, and the Snapping Turtle,” Batissimo, a small but overweight bat, is so badly teased by his fellow bats that he vows to go on a diet, and he drinks nothing but English tea. Batissimo is soon so weak during his routine night flight that he forgets to check his radar and crashes into a black crow. They, in turn, land on a snapping turtle preparing to lay her eggs. Batissimo and the crow serve the angry turtle watermelon to appease her and give her a massage, a manicure and a pedicure. The three become fast friends, and Batissimo and the crow return the following spring to watch the turtle’s eggs hatch. The story effectively explores the importance of helping others and taking responsibility for one’s actions, as well as the meaning of friendship. The prose here, as in the other stories, is slightly complex for a picture book, but its themes are engaging and age-appropriate for early readers. The second story, “Batissimo and the Deer,” deals with heavier themes of death and grief. After witnessing a terrible car accident, Batissimo swoops down to comfort a dying deer, who asks the bat to go to his family and tell them that he’ll see them again in the afterlife; with a heavy heart, Batissimo does as he’s asked. Finally, in “Batissimo and Ratissimo,” the bat investigates a pile of garbage in his forest home and finds a New York City rat. Together, they brainstorm about ways to get rid of the garbage and get the rat back home. Their best idea is to create an earthquake to swallow the garbage, and Batissimo helps an old forest wizard concoct a magic potion to do so. Batissimo is a strong, engaging character likely to appeal to many children, and the stories’ kid-drawn illustrations give the book a charming, handmade feel.
A fine children’s book with likable characters and strong teaching moments.Pub Date: April 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481149709
Page Count: 40
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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