Bake next week? Maybe next week’s lesson should include cleaning up.
A little girl spends time making a mess—er, baking, with her dad.
Regardless of the mess the two make in the kitchen, this little girl certainly has the steps down for baking a cake: choose the ingredients, add them one by one, mix, add fruit, then: “Be patient. Let the magic begin!” It’s not clear from the illustrations whether the decorating step is for the house or for the cake, but both look festive by the time the doorbell rings: Happy Birthday! “Wow! What a cake!” Some tunes, some hats, and some additional, racially diverse guests make it a party. Orange, yellow, and blue dominate the palette in the illustrations, which feature simple backgrounds and a scribbly style. Father and daughter are both white; he is bald with a brown beard, and she has bushy red hair in two straight-up pigtails that resemble horns. The characters’ big white eyes give them a manic look; though the two ape each other’s actions and are obviously having fun together, love is not an overt ingredient in this recipe. While baking, the two sport chef’s hats, though their diminutive size makes them look rather like bones, and the noses often look as though they have toes. The ending, with its white male guest of honor, might suggest a same-sex couple.
Bake next week? Maybe next week’s lesson should include cleaning up. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-8464-3755-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Pedestrian.
Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.
Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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