Raja, an Indian family’s dog, chews everything that’s red: shawl, shoes and socks, and he and his friend, Champ (a Dalmatian), love playing with a red ball. When the ball becomes lost, he goes in hot pursuit, asking the gray pigeons and the orange kitten. He spies his red ball in Mr. Mehta’s backyard, but Mr. Mehta hates dogs—he always turns his blue hose on them. But Raja bravely slips under the violet gate, leaps onto the green cooler, slides under the silver car and gets it! When Raja returns home, he is covered with brown mud, pink netting, blue cloth and a peach sock from the assortment of colored objects he encounters in making his escape. His reward as a hero? A bath! The bright illustrations highlight each color cited, but they appear cramped on the pages. Moreover, the scratchy typeface often becomes lost against the backgrounds when it is placed over illustrations. There are better picture books on color than this Indian import—the Caldecott Honor–winning Red Sings from Treetops, by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (2009), and the ebullient I Ain't Gonna Paint No More, by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow (2005), being just two. The only thing going for it is the Indian setting and names, as well as the endearing way sausage-dog Raja wags his tail. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-935279-83-9
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel.
In this Japanese import, the first in a long-running series to appear in English, two girls ride bikes through a forest—with stops for clover-blossom tea and jam sandwiches.
It’s such a benign wood that Chirri and Chirra—depicted as a prim pair of identical twins with straight bob cuts—think nothing of sharing both a lunch spot and a nap beneath a tree with a bear and a rabbit. Moreover, at convenient spots along the way there is a forest cafe with a fox waiter plus “tables and chairs of all different size” to accommodate the diverse forest clientele, a bakery offering “bread in all different shapes and jam in all different colors,” and, just as the sun goes down, a forest hotel with similarly diverse keys and doors. That night a forest concert draws the girls and the hotel’s animal guests to their balconies to join in: “La-la-la, La-la-la. What a wonderful night in the forest!” Despite heavy doses of cute, the episode is saved from utter sappiness by the inclusive spirit of the forest stops and the delightfully unforced way that the girls offer greetings to a pair of honeybees at a tiny adjacent table in the cafe, show no anxiety at the spider dangling above their napping place, and generally accept their harmonious sylvan world as a safe and friendly place. Doi creates her illustrations with colored pencil, pastel, and crayon, crafting them to look like mid-20th-century lithographs.
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-199-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With the right kid in the right mindset, this escape into ludicrous answers may yield some very real explorations.
Musician, singer/songwriter, and multimedia artist Fite takes a headlong dive into the world of the absurd.
After being introduced to a bucket that looks empty but is in fact “FULL of QUESTIONS,” readers are asked a number of them. “Why do seals clap?” “Why do kids lose their teeth?” “What are hot dogs (actually) made of?” Each question is accompanied by three or four potential answers of varying silliness (“Hot dogs are made of lost teeth”). Meanwhile, wild typography and design and supremely busy black-and-white images give the entire book an outsider artist vibe comfortable with its own finely controlled chaos. Kids who balk at the lack of colors may find that the sole two-page spread of vibrant hues and shades at the heart of the book more than makes up for the dearth elsewhere. While each answer is silly, the questions act as prompts that could, if shared with inquisitive youngsters eager for discussion, lead to larger conversations or fun writing projects. And aside from an out-of-place cutesy note to readers at the start (wherein the author describes himself as “100% pooky-pooky”), the title does a good job of respecting the intelligence and curiosity of its intended audience. Humans depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
With the right kid in the right mindset, this escape into ludicrous answers may yield some very real explorations. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-831-2
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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