An effective and moving approach to understanding sorrow that children should understand.
A young boy who loses his treasured balloon illustrates the stages of grief in this debut picture book.
Joey has loved his yellow balloon ever since an old man at the carnival wrapped the string around his wrist. The beautifully detailed images by Madrid (Jungle Cruise, 2018, etc.) set the story in the early 20th century; day after summer day, the balloon comes with Joey on his appealingly old-fashioned adventures. At night, Joey tells the balloon: “I love you so much. I can’t wait for tomorrow.” But one day, the balloon somehow slips off his wrist, disappearing into the sky. The previously colorful images turn gray and cold to match Joey’s grief, anger, and confusion. But over time, his sadness lessens, and color gradually returns in his life. Seeing the warm yellow sun, Joey realizes that while he’ll always miss his balloon, it’s a part of him and always will be. In her book, Papageorge deftly tells a fable about grief, one that children could use to better deal with the loss of a relative or pet. The sensitive, expressive illustrations partner well with the text, especially the remarkable gatefold spread that opens up to show, when the book is turned, the yellow balloon rising impossibly high while Joey remains earthbound. The author honors a child’s feelings but also shows how they can slowly change: “As time passed,” Joey “was sad a lot of the time instead of most of the time.”
An effective and moving approach to understanding sorrow that children should understand.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9903370-0-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Minoan Moon Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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