An original, charming animal tale that needs a little more visual variety.
A blue jay convinces the other birds that it can play beautiful music with them in this rhyming, rhythmic first picture book from Hagan (A Big Helping of Southern with a Pinch of Poetry: A Sassy Southern Journal, 2017) with vibrant images by debut illustrator Perrin.
“Jay jay jay / I’m a blue jay, wanna play?” asks a sunglass-wearing, guitar-playing blue jay in the book’s primary refrain. But despite the bird’s attempts, no one wants to jam with him: the hummingbirds harmonize softly; the cardinal insists on being the songbird (to the jay’s exclusion); and the owl is nocturnal. Finally, drummer woodpecker explains that the would-be musician has a bad reputation around the tree. The jay asks the group for one more chance, promises to sing a happy song, and hands out sheet music to the other feathery musicians (and also promises not to eat their young). When the owl wakes up to the musical refrain, it also joins the band. A brief afterword from Hagan gives a short history of the blues and notes that real blue jays may have an unearned negative reputation. Hagan’s words are rhythmic, not always falling into a standard rhyme scheme, but appropriate for evoking the sense of blues music. The design sometimes hinders that rhythm, placing the words in a hard-to-read order. Perrin’s birds are just realistic enough to evoke life around the tree and are well-combined with musical imagery. Unfortunately, many of the same images appear repeatedly throughout the book, which diminishes their effect.
An original, charming animal tale that needs a little more visual variety.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Wisdom House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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