Hoping to introduce the rich heritage of Spanish nursery rhymes to children of all backgrounds, the editors have selected many of the best-known traditional rhymes, most originally from Spain, but now spread throughout Latin America. In this bilingual presentation, Schertle avoids a word-for-word translation and presents instead what the introduction calls a “poetic re-creation.” While small details may differ, the English versions flow easily off the tongue. A few of the rhymes are associated with children’s games, such as “El patio de mi casa” and children can get the sense of the game from the words, but there are few notes accompanying the individual rhymes. A preface acknowledges some sources and provides limited background information for adults. Escrivá’s pastoral paintings of sweet-faced children and adults dressed in a mix of traditional and contemporary clothing are pleasant accompaniments. (Poetry. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-688-16019-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sleepers awake. An uncommonly pleasing consideration of wakeful wanderings.
Midnight insomnia meets wide-awake waterfowl when an old poem appears in a new form.
On a bit of a poem-to-picture-book tear since she illustrated poet Mary Oliver’s Goldfinches (2026), artist Sweet once more plucks verse from the past. This time E.B. White’s 1928 perambulation poem “Natura in Urbe” is the star of the show. Inspired by his sleepless nights spent walking around Central Park, the poem begins, “While midnight clung to every shore, / I walked me round the reservoir.” On this ramble, the subject encounters a duck swimming serenely at the same late hour. White’s delicious language infuses this simple encounter with wonder as he describes the fowl’s “negligible wake” and asks if he is pondering problems of his own. “A midnight sail to clear his vision / And help him reach some duck decision.” Sweet has a true talent for presenting poems that were never originally intended for children as entirely accessible, even enticing, to young readers. Relying on her signature mixed-media collage style, she incorporates maps of stars and Central Park, alongside painted scenes depicting both nighttime in the city and the nocturnal beauty of nature. The book includes a note from White’s granddaughter Martha discussing her grandfather’s love of nature and offering background on the poem.
Sleepers awake. An uncommonly pleasing consideration of wakeful wanderings. (Picture book/poetry. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9780063304291
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11131-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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