This attempt at a parallel-migration narrative doesn’t quite cohere.
A bird and a young girl travel across the world, meeting at the common end of their journeys.
On a crisp autumn morning in the north of England, Alfie, a young white boy, greets a bird in his garden. She flies away and begins her journey across fields, seas, and mountains. In the desert, when the bird is exhausted, she comes to an oasis where a brown-skinned girl named Leila, dressed in a headscarf and flowing dress, offers her some water. The bird then continues her journey above the jungle and across a river, until finally she crosses the plains and grasslands to the place that she will stay during the cold European winter. At the end of the season—which, in southern Africa, is summer—the bird retraces her journey back to England. But when she stops at the desert oasis, as she always does, she finds Leila’s house abandoned, and Leila is nowhere to be found. The bird calls for Leila, but the girl doesn’t answer, and the bird flies on. At the end of the bird’s journey, she returns to Alfie only to find that he has a new neighbor: Leila, the bird’s missing friend. Addison’s poetic text renders the bird’s journey fascinating and awe-inspiring. However, Leila’s parallel migration story lacks the same detail and care as the bird’s: Other than a hint in the illustration in the form of a picture of dark bodies huddled in a boat on a stormy sea, readers are given no sense of what Leila has been through or where she has gone. The result is a tenuous association that makes the book’s ending fall flat.
This attempt at a parallel-migration narrative doesn’t quite cohere. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-911373-67-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lantana
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together.
A clueless duckling tries to make a new friend.
He is confused by this peculiar-looking duck, who has a long tail, doesn’t waddle and likes to be alone. No matter how explicitly the creature denies he is a duck and announces that he is a cat, the duckling refuses to acknowledge the facts. When this creature expresses complete lack of interest in playing puddle stomp, the little ducking goes off and plays on his own. But the cat is not without remorse for rejecting an offered friendship. Of course it all ends happily, with the two new friends enjoying each other’s company. Bramsen employs brief sentences and the simplest of rhymes to tell this slight tale. The two heroes are meticulously drawn with endearing, expressive faces and body language, and their feathers and fur appear textured and touchable. Even the detailed tree bark and grass seem three-dimensional. There are single- and double-page spreads, panels surrounded by white space and circular and oval frames, all in a variety of eye-pleasing juxtapositions. While the initial appeal is solidly visual, young readers will get the gentle message that friendship is not something to take for granted but is to be embraced with open arms—or paws and webbed feet.
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86990-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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