A delicate, devastating story about living with loss.
Cotton-candy clouds, sweet forest animals, and a strong bond between a girl and a monster frame an unexpectedly poignant story of grief.
Young Valentina, a girl with pale skin and a tangle of red hair, comes to a forest one day, attracted by the scent of sugary sweetness. The source is a new cotton-candy stand run by Monster, a giant, shaggy, horned creature covered in pale pink fur. The two become instant friends, building spun clouds that float above a fantasy world in which verdant hills have eyes and stuffed animals become tea-party companions. But early in the story, hints of a darker subtext appear. Monster helps Valentina with her nightmares, and Valentina brightens Monster’s fur with her love. When the dark of winter arrives, Monster disappears, never to return. The forest animals arrive to comfort her. A rabbit elder explains, “At some point, when the body grows old, it stops feeling, stops breathing. It fades away. We leave this world to start a new journey. It was Monster’s time to journey on.” The memory of Monster’s love keeps Valentina’s nightmares from returning, and when she grows up and has a daughter of her own, Monster’s legacy and the forest’s healing powers stay with her. Ruiz’s tale is haunting and uniquely styled, with its fantastical elements perfectly balanced by a profoundly wise understanding of grief. Unlike the stretchy pink clouds that dot the sky, it’s an examination of death and trauma that is anything but sugarcoated. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
A delicate, devastating story about living with loss. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4788-7059-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Reycraft Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures.
Pippa conquers a fear of the creatures that emerge from her storybooks at night.
Pippa’s “wonderfully wild imagination” can sometimes run “a little TOO wild.” During the day, she wears her “armor” and is a force to be reckoned with. But in bed at night, Pippa worries about “villains and monsters and beasts.” Sharp-toothed and -taloned shadows, dragons, and pirates emerge from her storybooks like genies from a bottle, just to scare her. Pippa flees to her parents’ room only to be brought back time and again. Finally, Pippa decides that she “needs a plan” to “get rid of them once and for all.” She decides to slip a written invitation into every book, and that night, they all come out. She tries subduing them with a lasso, an eye patch, and a sombrero, but she is defeated. Next, she tries “sashes and sequins and bows,” throwing the fashion pieces on the monsters, who…“begin to pose and primp and preen.” After that success, their fashion show becomes a nightly ritual. Clever Pippa’s transformation from scared victim of her own imagination to leader of the monster pack feels fairly sudden, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. The cartoony illustrations effectively use dynamic strokes, shadow, and light to capture action on the page and the feeling of Pippa's fears taking over her real space. Pippa and her parents are brown-skinned with curls of various textures.
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9300-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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