A lovely, poetic, and compassionate tale with appealing images.
This picture book for all ages explores the difficulty of finding connections and meaning.
A curious, alienlike creature with an elephant’s trunk, pointy ears, enormous dark eyes, angel’s wings, and a Santa suit gazes shyly at readers from the first page. Maybe, the work suggests, this is how some of us might imagine an angel. Angels could take other forms, such as animals (so be kind to them). The story then shares a string of thoughtful observations. Our big brains are a gift, but sometimes they make us painfully aware of our loneliness or difference. We’re always hoping to encounter kindred spirits and experience a sense of relationship with the wonders of our existence: “If we are fortunate, we may connect with someone else—another native alien—from time to time.” Sometimes, though, we’re sidetracked or frightened. Even then, “monsters and demons are also creatures of light deep under the water,” with whom we also have a kinship. Curiosity, companionship, and angels in our lives will help us to feel truly at home, in a place where we’re loved and we belong. The tale offers a blessing that can help readers get to that place: “May we always be on the look-out for small, ordinary magic.” In her second picture book, puppeteer and playwright Sawyer tells a charming and lyrical story about the difficulties of and remedies for isolation. Well-chosen quotations from Mary Oliver and David Bowie bracket the tale, their very different styles somehow converging on the theme of imagination’s power to overcome distance. The story’s appreciation for oddity is both moving and hope-giving. The author’s illustrations have the appearance of blue ballpoint-pen lines filled in with gray, grayish-blue, and rich red accent colors. They have a naïve, quirky quality that fits in well with the text.
A lovely, poetic, and compassionate tale with appealing images.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 19
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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