You Don't Look Like You Have Fangs

"That's funny, you don't look like you have fangs," said Pat Cummings as she sat down by me at a conference we both attended last fall. This may not be a conventional salutation, but I knew where it was coming from. As the current face of Kirkus Reviews in the children's-literature world, I represent a publication that has a reputation for cruel (if you’re an author), honest (if you're a review reader) reviews. When many authors think of Kirkus, they probably imagine someone with fangs, horns and a barbed tail.

"You should come ...

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A Picture Book That Holds Water

A trip to the park is an excursion many young children know and know well. It is the subject of Emily Jenkins’ newest picture book, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin, called Water in the Park: A Book About Water & the Times of the Day. As you can tell from the title, the story is specifically about the role that water plays during a single day, sun-up to sun-down, for creatures—human and furry-all-over, likewise—in a public park.

I think that when Emily Jenkins is at her very best—and I find her picture books consistently good—she has a lot ...

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In Memoriam: Bernard Waber, 1921-2013

Bernard Waber died on Thursday, May 16^th at the age of 91. The author of over 40 children’s books, he is probably best-known for series of books about Lyle the crocodile that began with The House on East 88th Street. In a brief essay he wrote about his career, Waber remembered that

My own early efforts at drawing were mostly confined to the laborious copying of

photographs of film stars and other celebrities. I received respectable grades in art classes

during my school years but doubt I thought it seriously indicated a career direction.

Perhaps art seemed too ...

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In Memoriam: Liesel Moak Skorpen, 1935-2013

I have reached the age when I habitually read the obituaries; reading of lives well-lived pleases me, and fortunately there are more of those than the other in my local paper. One name in particular caught my eye this past Sunday: Elizabeth Frackelton Moak Skorpen. When your last name is Smith, just about any other surname is cooler than yours, and this surely was one to conjure with. But it also rang a faint bell.

Reading along, I learned that she was familiarly known as Liesel, and the ringing became a little stronger. Then I came to this bit: “Liesel ...

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The Challenge of No Words Wasted

I’ve always wanted to chat with picture book author Linda Ashman. She’s written a big stack of well-crafted picture books I’ve enjoyed over the years with my own children, as well as the students with which I worked as a school librarian.

Now’s my chance, I decided, at the recent release of two new books she’s written. In Rain!, illustrated by newcomer Christian Robinson, Linda—as Kirkus’ starred review notes—chooses just the right words to tell an exuberant tale of kindness. And in Peace, Baby!, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff, she offers children a gentle ...

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A Picture Book That Packs a Punch

Some picture books really pack a punch.

Matthew Olshan’s The Mighty Lalouche is one. It tells the eccentric story of a slight (but nimble) postman who is fired from his job in Paris “one hundred and a few-odd years ago,” all thanks to the introduction of electric autocars. Lalouche takes up boxing and meets a host of colorful characters in the ring (Old Shatterhand and the Misanthrope are but two), fighting in the name of “country, mail, and Geneviève,” his pet goldfinch. Fame and victory are sweet, but stationery stores still make him sad. Turns out those autocars ...

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A Couple of Odd Ducks

I have elementary-aged daughters, and I often tell them how much I like weird people. I think most of us adults tend to think of childhood as this romantically quirky time, during which children readily accept the eccentricities of other children. And, yes, this happens sometimes (the younger they are, the more likely it is), but I’m also struck by how often it doesn’t happen in the elementary years. It’s remarkable to me at what young ages children identify the odd ones out and how they subtly exclude those a bit left of center, so to speak ...

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Famous Last Words

“So, um, well, will you give it a read...please?”

Here at Kirkus, we pay a lot of attention to our last lines. So do our readers. I have heard multiple readers say that they just skip to the end of a review to get the Kirkus verdict, then they go back to the beginning to read how we arrived at it. Knowing this, we put a lot of effort into that last line.

When we love a book, we try to pour all our emotion into it. The review of M.T. Anderson’s savagely brilliant Feed concludes, “The ...

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Rotters Through and Through

Recently, I gave a talk about children’s literature in an academic setting, and a student who plans to work in education one day told me he struggles with the ending to Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back. Personally, he told me, he enjoys the story, but he wondered how he could reconcile that with reading the violent ending to a child. The ending is ambiguous, but clearly this person had decided that the bear in the book kills the rabbit, and he was worried about what type of message that sends to a child.

I don’t ...

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Breaking the Rules (But Learning Them First)

Contained within Jaclyn Moriarty’s A Corner of White are rules for writing a fantasy novel. Madeleine, a girl living in the recognizable world of Cambridge, England, informs her correspondent, Elliot, a boy living in the fantasy kingdom of Cello (whom she doesn't quite believe in), that, “You've got to get your science figured out up front!” and “You're way too hokey and sweet. You need an edge.” Then she worries that maybe he plans “to rip off Philip Pullman's Northern Lights.”

“Fantasy was a new genre for me and I was very conscious of giving ...

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In Memoriam: E.L. Konigsburg, 1930-2013

In 1967, Konigsburg published two books, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She received the 1968 Newbery Medal for Frankweiler but also received the Newbery Honor Award that same year for Jennifer, Hecate. She is the only writer to receive a Newbery Honor and the Newbery ...

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In Memoriam: Fredrick McKissack, 1939-2013

Award-winning author Fredrick L. McKissack, who with his wife and collaborator Patricia McKissack created more than 100 children’s books about the African-American experience, died of heart failure on Sunday, April 28 at the age of 73.

According to his publisher, Scholastic, Fredrick worked first as a civil engineer for the city of St. Louis and the U.S. Army, and later owned his own general contracting company in St. Louis.

“There is no magic formula,” Fredrick told Scholastic about his collaboration process with his wife. “Pat and I talk all the time.” “After talking through a project,” Patricia continued ...

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Let's Play Ball!

Just this week, illustrator Don Tate wrote at The Brown Bookshelf on recent picture books about baseball. Included in his line-up is Robert Skead’s Something to Prove: The Great Satchel Paige vs. Rookie Joe DiMaggio, illustrated by Floyd Cooper and released in April.

In what Kirkus’ starred review calls “a loving tribute to Satchel Paige,” readers are front and center at the historic ball game that set out to test Yankees prospect Joe DiMaggio. It was 1936, and New York Yankees general manager, Ed Barrow, and his scout needed the rookie to prove his worth: “To see how good ...

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Revisiting Old Friends in Sequels

Though I’ve never written one myself, I’ve no doubt that picture book sequels are challenging to write. As Cynthia Leitich Smith wrote in this 2012 post at her site for an interview with picture book author Kate Hosford, the author has to ensure that the sequel is more than a “thinly veiled rehashing of the first book.” Given the brevity of your typical picture book, such a copycat arrangement might be easy to fall prey to.

Today I take a look at three new picture books which constitute a pleasing return of characters, sequels of sorts that I ...

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Spoiler Alert

Call me crazy, but spoilers don’t bother me. I remember years ago just blinking when a librarian colleague complained that a review she’d read revealed the end of a book. She asked me whether I thought it wasn’t the duty of the reviewer to keep key plot points under wraps, and my utter lack of response visibly frustrated her. It just hadn’t occurred to me.

Some background is probably in order. The vast majority of my review reading has been done as a professional librarian, when I typically read four or five different review journals in ...

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'The Boy and the Airplane' is a Lifetime's Worth of Fun

I pay close attention to contemporary picture books, and it seems that Mark Pett’s The Boy and the Airplane is generally flying pretty low under the radar. I hadn’t heard about it at all till I saw the cover somewhere and was intrigued by the soft art and sturdy design. It’s not a book that is rolling over, sitting pretty or jumping through any hoops in an attempt to get our attention. This is not a book with its palm out, waiting for us to high-five it.

In other words, blink and you might miss it. But ...

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Paul Thurlby's Picture Books are Adult Friendly, Too

London-based illustrator Paul Thurlby is having a good year.

Just before the recent release of his newest picture book, Paul Thurlby’s Wildlife, which Kirkus gave a starred review, he was awarded the Opera Prima Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, an honor given to debut artists. Paul Thurlby’s Alphabet, the 2011 book behind the award, is sleek and sophisticated. Both books are treats for those who appreciate robust design, clever concept art and retro styles.

And, as Paul notes below in our chat today, they’re books aimed squarely at adults, as well as children. I ...

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3 Striking Tales of India

Great tales deserve to be repeated.

That’s a line from Gita Wolf’s The Enduring Ark, one of a few recent picture book offerings, great tales in their own right, which spring in one way or another from India.

A small man leading a big fight: That’s how Alice B. McGinty describes Monhandas Gandhi in Gandhi: A March to the Sea, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. From March 12 to April 5, 1930, Gandhi led nearly 100 marchers to the village of Dandi at the Gulf of Cambay, all in protest against the British government’s laws against Indians ...

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Imagination Overdrive: Get Lost in 'Tiger in My Soup'

Kashmira Sheth’s Tiger in My Soup is a picture book for book-lovers everywhere. We bibliophiles know what it’s like to get lost in a book, but the young boy in this book has the adventure of a lifetime, thanks to his book—as well as an assist from his own active imagination.

“Today, my big sister is in charge of the house, the lunch, and me,” the boy tells readers on page one. Sure enough, we see the adult driving away. The boy, with book in hand and older sister nearby, waves goodbye. He’s reading a book ...

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The Marvelous, Terrifying Task of Learning to Ride a Bike

There are many things about parenting I find baffling. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m largely winging it when it comes to raising my children. One of those baffling things is the assumption, which I keep encountering, that all children will a) jump at the chance to learn to ride their bicycles, and b) the endeavor will come easy to them.

Well, nope. That’s just not true, I’ve learned. Not only have I met in my life adults who didn’t learn to ride a bike until they were well beyond ...

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