Endearing attempts at art appreciation, though likely to leave readers with more questions than answers.
Through a mouse hole lies a gallery filled with teeny-tiny takeoffs on artistic masterpieces.
Two big-eared rodents—Pépin, who wears a blue bow tie, and Cosette, who sports a pink flower—accompany Grand-mère to the museum, where they gaze at Hawkins’ cartoonish interpretations (or MousterWorks) of well-known paintings by Edward Bannister, Johannes Vermeer, Claude Monet, and others. The enthralled Cosette eagerly engages with the art, imagining the scents and sounds the subjects might be experiencing, while Pépin’s more concerned with tracking down cheese. While readers will enjoy picking out the adorable rodents interspersed throughout the MousterWorks—a mouse is tucked into bed alongside the youngster in Rosa Bonheur’s Child and Cat, for instance—they won’t get that much out of the paintings themselves. The brief, plotless text provides no historical context or discussion of the pieces; readers curious about the performance depicted in Miyagawa Choshun’s Ryukyuan Dancers and Musicians, for instance, will need to go elsewhere to learn more. And though the MousterWorks are cute enough, alterations in composition, facial expressions, and color scheme mean that readers won’t get the full emotional effect. An author’s note includes a link to a website comparing the MousterWorks to the originals, while endpapers list the names and birth and death dates of the artists.
Endearing attempts at art appreciation, though likely to leave readers with more questions than answers. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781957655420
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gnome Road Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Inspiration, shrink wrapped.
From an artist, poet, and Instagram celebrity, a pep talk for all who question where a new road might lead.
Opening by asking readers, “Have you ever wanted to go in a different direction,” the unnamed narrator describes having such a feeling and then witnessing the appearance of a new road “almost as if it were magic.” “Where do you lead?” the narrator asks. The Road’s twice-iterated response—“Be a leader and find out”—bookends a dialogue in which a traveler’s anxieties are answered by platitudes. “What if I fall?” worries the narrator in a stylized, faux hand-lettered type Wade’s Instagram followers will recognize. The Road’s dialogue and the narration are set in a chunky, sans-serif type with no quotation marks, so the one flows into the other confusingly. “Everyone falls at some point, said the Road. / But I will always be there when you land.” Narrator: “What if the world around us is filled with hate?” Road: “Lead it to love.” Narrator: “What if I feel stuck?” Road: “Keep going.” De Moyencourt illustrates this colloquy with luminous scenes of a small, brown-skinned child, face turned away from viewers so all they see is a mop of blond curls. The child steps into an urban mural, walks along a winding country road through broad rural landscapes and scary woods, climbs a rugged metaphorical mountain, then comes to stand at last, Little Prince–like, on a tiny blue and green planet. Wade’s closing claim that her message isn’t meant just for children is likely superfluous…in fact, forget the just.
Inspiration, shrink wrapped. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26949-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
