Delightfully imparts the joy and discovery of reading—and many chuckles and guffaws.
Lemmings don’t jump off cliffs; someone just needs to tell the lemmings.
Foxy, a crew member aboard the aptly named S.S. Cliff (a container ship that happens to be a whale), reads a fascinating book about lemmings. The book says that lemmings do not jump off cliffs. But when Foxy relates this tidbit to Capt. PB (presumably short for “Polar Bear”), three stubby little lemmings hear the word “jump” and gleefully throw themselves overboard. “Jump? I’ll jump!” / “Me too!” / “Ditto!” Foxy fishes them out and urges them to read the book so they can see for themselves that lemmings do not jump off cliffs. “Jump? I’ll jump!” / “Me too!” / “Ditto!” Off they go, over the side. “I don’t think they read the book,” Capt. PB says ruefully. After a few more foolish leaps, each one more perilous than the next (“Sinking! Sinking fast!” / “Me too!” / “Glub!”), Foxy realizes the lemmings cannot read. He works with them until they can all comprehend the most important words in the book: “Lemmings DON’T jump off cliffs,” (earning a thumbs-up from curmudgeon Capt. PB). OHora applies his customary matte paints to his Arctic Ocean scenes, peach skies, teal seas, and white icebergs dominating the backgrounds. Foxy and Capt. PB make convincing if fuzzy tars, the lemmings look like tribbles with faces and stubby little legs, and it’s nice to see a real working vessel in a picture book.
Delightfully imparts the joy and discovery of reading—and many chuckles and guffaws. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-34348-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
A welcome addition to the vast sea of friendship books for children.
Can Oona the mermaid figure out how to get Stanley the hammerhead shark to be her friend?
A little, cherubic, dark-skinned mermaid with an epic Afro has no problem making friends with sea creatures of all sorts. She navigates her undersea world with an endearing combination of confidence, care, charm, and creativity that wins everyone over…except for Stanley. Oona shares some of her prized possessions with him—a fishing hat, a loud musical horn, and a squeaky, inflatable unicorn swimming tube—in an attempt to strike up a friendship, but Stanley doesn’t take to the items in the least. She then tries to win him over with her flashy inventions, but he is engrossed in his seashell collection, and Oona only succeeds in rankling him. Exasperated but determined, she resorts to throwing a big party; alas, Stanley doesn’t even attend. Only when she dives down to the ocean floor in defeat and experiences complete peace and quiet does she realize what she needs to do to connect with the shy shark. Inspired, she goes to her workshop and carefully creates a special invention that draws Stanley right to her side. Figueroa’s digital watercolor illustrations use washes and blooms effectively to convey an underwater atmosphere, though the shifting color scheme creates a slightly disjointed visual experience. Oona’s missteps and eventual success will inspire children to be more observant and tolerant of personalities that are different from their own.
A welcome addition to the vast sea of friendship books for children. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-307142-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
A story about the importance of ritual and the ability for renewal, itself magnificently renewed by Robinson.
Robinson reimagines the 1958 story originally illustrated by Remy Charlip, in which children find a dead bird and offer it a send-off through ritual and song.
Brown’s lovely, gentle, and reassuring text remains the same. The children find a still-warm bird and experience its loss. Knowing it will never fly again, they create a grave—wrapping the bird in grapevine leaves and burying it with sweet-ferns and flowers. Both innocent and wise, the children sing about the bird’s death and cry before inscribing a stone to place on top. Robinson stays true to the intent of the original text and illustrations but elegantly improves upon it with cinematic storytelling. His setting is a lush urban park filled with trees, bridges, and ponds, framed by a city skyline. And his characters are diverse in gender and ethnicity but universal in their emotions, curiosity, and playfulness (one wears fairy wings and another a fox costume). While simply rendered, with basic shapes and few brush strokes, the design of the spreads and the progression of images are spatially sophisticated. As in his illustrations for Matt de la Peña’s Last Stop on Market Street (2015), the artist’s characters and environments have a realness to them, perhaps because Robinson portrays them with such respect, love, and ease.
A story about the importance of ritual and the ability for renewal, itself magnificently renewed by Robinson. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-028931-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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