Comforting to the littlest of ones who find themselves in a change of surroundings.
A tiny polar bear must learn how to cope after moving.
Snow loves her tundra friends, snowy hills, and polar treats. But her mom gets a new job far away, and suddenly Snow must leave everything that she knows. In her new home, vegetation grows thick and green, animals eat strange yellow fruit with a peel, and it is hot. Very, very hot. Snow feels isolated and alone. She can’t even understand what her classmates are saying! Snow tries to make friends, but everyone seems standoffish—until Snow realizes they are busy creating a surprise to make her feel welcome. This chunky little bear (who looks precisely like a chiseled block of ice) slowly finds her way through the anxieties of moving to a new place. One of the most endearing sentiments important for parents to remember: “Only her mother’s hug felt the same as always.” Hofmann-Maniyar, in her picture-book debut, explores a difficult transition that many children face, using a metaphor that rings true. A child experiencing any type of move, whether across the world or across the town, certainly can feel like a polar bear being plopped smack in the middle of a jungle! (Editor's note: This book was originally reviewed in our Sept. 15, 2015, issue as Ice in the Jungle. On Dec. 1, 2020, the publisher renamed the protagonist and reissued the book in a bilingual Spanish/English edition as Nieve en la jungla / Snow in the Jungle. This review has been updated to reflect these changes.)
Comforting to the littlest of ones who find themselves in a change of surroundings. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78628-515-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
The story’s slight but allows kids to practice identifying and dealing with their own big feelings.
The diverse group of kids from All Are Welcome (2018) this time gathers in a vacant lot with tools in hand to clear the debris and make something new. But therein lies the rub: What should the something new be? While the exact nature of the disagreement is unfortunately not made clear to readers, the big feelings that the children exhibit are very clear (and for readers who need practice reading facial clues, there’s a labeled chart of 15 in the frontmatter). This book’s refrain is “How can I help? / What can we do?” And the answers, spread over several pages and not spelled out in so many words but rather shown in the illustrations, are: talk it through, compromise, and see things from another perspective. As a guide for dealing with feelings and problem-solving, the book is a bit slim and lacks a solid story to hook readers. But, as with its predecessor, its strength is again the diversity on display in its pages. There’s a rainbow of skin tones and hair colors as well as abundant variation in hair texture, several children exhibit visible disabilities, including one child who uses a wheelchair, and there are markers of religious and cultural diversity. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 29.6% of actual size.)
The story’s slight but allows kids to practice identifying and dealing with their own big feelings. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-57974-8
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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