Another lovely, if imperfect, book for the spring shelf
Rhymes, magic words, and gatefolds celebrate the transformations of spring.
“Sunshine warms a patch of snow. / Hocus-pocus! // Where did it go?” A mother rabbit with four kits snuggled beside her looks out at a snowy clearing; with the opening of the gatefold, the kits have woken up, the snow in front of their den has largely melted, and green shoots stipple the brown earth. In the next tableau, one of the shoots becomes a crocus watched over by a smiling mole. Pussy willows emerge, leaves appear, birds build nests and lay eggs, and fruit trees bloom. While at times O’Brien needs to stretch for her magic words and phrases (“alizebu” is quite obscure, and the negative connotations of “mumbo jumbo” are unfortunate), her rhymes and scansion never falter. Gal choreographs the progression smoothly, taking readers from early spring to the lushness of summer. The only sequential misstep is in taking the book back to early spring in the penultimate tableau with the discarding of winter boots—children who’ve seen the advancing spring phenomena in the preceding pages will have mentally stowed theirs much earlier. Gal combines charcoal and digital collage for a beautifully smudgy look, and details charm: on close inspection, a fly’s transparent wing displays a paisley pattern. The final tableau features a multiethnic group of children playing among all the “bright new things.”
Another lovely, if imperfect, book for the spring shelf . (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1891-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Lots for young readers to see and count.
A little boy has misplaced his pet dragon and must search for him all over the city, counting up from one dragon to 20 lanterns.
Black line pen-and-ink drawings in finely patterned detail depict a vital, lively New York City of the imagination. Colored-pencil images on each double-page spread are reserved for the city-specific items to be counted along the way, and the endpapers depict a loosely interpreted map indicating the sites. Readers first meet the adventurous dragon in all his greenness, as he is, of course, the representative of the number one. As he moves about the city, the unnamed little boy hypothesizes the locations at which he might find his pet. He is quite accurate in his guesses, but the dragon seems to be a master at blending in to the background, mysteriously having lost his color. But there are things to count, like two pink hot dogs in brown buns, three purple buses and four blue sailboats on the river, all the way up to 20 red lanterns in Chinatown, where he finally spots the dragon, “[r]ight where I left him.” If this is an attempt at reminding young readers that the dragon is imaginary, it’s a bit of an anticlimax, and it takes a great deal of the fun out of the previous travels around the city. But the visual appeal overcomes it all.
Lots for young readers to see and count. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6648-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
A simultaneously empowering and instructive bedtime tale.
Klassen opens the door to imagination within the strict parameters of a little world.
Right from the start, this book places young readers directly at the center of its universe. “This is your sun. It is coming up for you.” Next, little ones meet each element of the farm. Each is punctuated with a clear message that it’s the sole property of the reader, along with instructions on where to place it. “This is your tree. It can go under the sun.” The objects all have eyes that stare out, making the audience the clear focus of the narrative. (This is not to say that the eyes don’t move; the barn, for example, looks over at the tree.) Then, once all the objects are in place (sun, tree, barn, horse, hay, truck, stool, and fence), the sun starts to sink, and every eye grows lidded and sleepy. By the end, readers are reassured that since it’s bedtime, they “can sleep too and think about what [they] will do there tomorrow.” While the narrator may have all the power of placement, once more it’s young readers who are reminded that their choices are the ones that truly count—a refreshing message, and one that kids can’t hear often enough.
A simultaneously empowering and instructive bedtime tale. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781536230826
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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