Perhaps best enjoyed by grandmothers.
A little girl’s visit with her grandmother is filled with dancing from the moment the door opens at her New York City apartment.
A former prima ballerina, Grand Jeté passes her love of ballet to her granddaughter as they arabesque to make lunch and plié before eating. Then they do their hair and makeup, topping it off with their special holiday outfits. Together they visit Grand Jeté’s friends backstage at Lincoln Center. Finally, they take their seats and the curtain rises on The Nutcracker. Throughout the performance, Grand Jeté fondly remembers when she used to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. When the curtain closes, the duo waltzes away, Grand Jeté telling the little girl that she too could be a ballerina one day. Written by a former prima ballerina, this seasonal book puts the emphasis on the grandmother. Although the little girl narrates the story, it is Grand Jeté who experiences the emotional arc. The brief text moves the story along, only occasionally stumbling during transitions. The detailed illustrations, featuring the New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker costumes and sets, are joyous and bubbly. Although there is a handful of diverse characters in the background, nearly all humans present White, including the main characters. Families preparing to see The Nutcracker for the first time may appreciate the very brief summary of the ballet included within the story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Perhaps best enjoyed by grandmothers. (glossary, author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-239202-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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