A sweet but plotless mother-child interlude.
An elephant calf gives readers his imaginative perspective on life with Mama.
Van Haeringen’s tongue is firmly in cheek here. The opening spread shows a very pregnant, upright mama elephant wearing a white dress with colorful designs; the text reads: “I’ve known my mama for a long time. / For my whole life, actually.” A page turn later, the calf, sporting white pants covered in large orange stars, is old enough to be playing with toy cars with Mama, explaining that it’s good fun as long as she helps clean up. And so the book continues, readers never sure where the page turn will lead them: to the market, the swings, mountain climbing (up Mama’s not inconsiderable bulk). Readers will enjoy the perspective of the calf, but even more, they’ll like to be in on jokes the earnest narrator misses: The child likes “watering the plants” (a little urination joke) but notices that “when I do, it always starts to rain”—Mama stands behind with a watering can. Still, the book as a whole suffers from the lack of a solid narrative arc. Though the simple compositions on generous white space keep the focus on the relationship, it’s not quite enough to make up for the basic absence of a plot, though the last page comes close: “At bedtime, my mama shakes the stars off my pants.”
A sweet but plotless mother-child interlude. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-776572-67-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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