A clumsily executed tale, although its happy ending will have some appeal.
An illustrated debut children’s book that tells the story of a family and their beloved cat.
Every morning, a beautiful, unnamed Himalayan cat wakes up a woman named Pepe with howls that can be heard throughout the house. After Pepe shushes the feline, the two snooze a bit together—but then the hungry meows start up again. Young siblings Pam and Andy wait in bed as Pepe, their mother, goes downstairs to feed their pet, who keeps making noise all the way. After breakfast, the Himalayan runs outside the house, known as Worthwyle, apparently to explore the neighborhood—and it soon gets lost. Pepe’s neighbor Sam helps in the search for the cat and soon returns it, much to the delight of the praying family. Everyone agrees that what makes Worthwyle so wonderful are its residents’ “thoughtfulness and love / virtues to practice all of life / for you and me.” The subject of DeFina’s brief book—a family pet who escapes but returns—offers a relatable, reassuring scenario for youngsters, and it’s underscored by a final image that shows the big hearts of the family members. However, the prose is often awkward, and it employs no consistent rhyme scheme. Sometimes it uses quatrains in an ABCB pattern, or it uses another scheme entirely, such as AAABCB. It also employs lines of variable length to facilitate rhymes (“Pepe puts on her robe and slippers / and steps down the stair / for to keep the Himalayan howling / would not be fair”) or introduces an element seemingly for rhyme’s sake, such as a hen to rhyme with “open.” The illustrations are colorful but often have a flat, generic quality, and their lack of diversity—all four humans appear white with light-brown hair—may disappoint some parents.
A clumsily executed tale, although its happy ending will have some appeal.Pub Date: May 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5245-0185-3
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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