This graphic-early-reader entry from Toon Books is itself an objet d’art. The slight story, in basic comic-book format, briefly and joyfully bounds through the seasons at the rate of four panels per page. The crisp, bright watercolors depict Lilly, a bouncy, endearing child with black pigtails and vim for life, as she happily engages each season. In the spring chapter, “Silly Lilly at the Park,” she shows her teddy bear what she likes to do at the park: dance, jump and nap. In summer, she daintily tiptoes through the shore’s shallow water, clad in her red two-piece, finding little treasures and surprising herself with a snail hidden within a shell. Fall is summed up in bite-size tastes of a sampling of colorful apples. Winter, of course, offers bountiful snow and Lilly’s wayward snowballs. Emergent readers will be drawn to Lilly’s ebullient perspective and captivated by the uncluttered layout; the easy lesson on the seasons is a bonus. (Early reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 5, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9799238-1-4
Page Count: 36
Publisher: RAW Junior/TOON Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
PLB 0-06-028114-6 An Edward Lear Alphabet (32 pp.; $14.95, PLB $14.89; Apr. 30; 0-06-028113-8, PLB 0-06-028114-6): By injecting Lear’s alphabet with vivid shots of color and joyful graphics, Radunsky blasts this Victorian verse into the 21st century. For some readers, Lear’s rhymes on their own border on precious: “J was once a jar of jam/Jammy/Mammy/Clammy/Jammy/Sweet Swammy/Jar of Jam.” However, juxtaposed with an acid-blue background, topped with a bright yellow lid, and designated with a green and orange letter J, this jam jar jumps. The colors and graphics add a very effective jolt to this silly, quite old, ABC. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028113-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-688-15996-6 The familiar plight of the smallest is the subject of this picture book from Keller (Brave Horace, 1998, etc.), featuring a baby bear, who is smaller than his mother, father, and siblings. Jacob is frustrated when he can’t reach the cookie jar, see himself in the mirror, or climb to the top of the jungle gym. Papa and Mama tell him he must wait to grow bigger, but Jacob hates waiting. Paint marks on a tree replace the traditional notches in a door frame to mark Jacob’s height. No matter how many vegetables he eats, he doesn’t grow; when the snows come, his mark is buried in a drift. After the snow melts, the reassuring ending finds Jacob grown, not only in stature but in maturity. The apple-cheeked characters are round and cuddly, while the homey, pen-and-watercolor scenes are ever-affable. At their center, the demonstrative Jacob is an everychild, learning to find joy in small measures. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15995-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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