A remarkable collaboration.
In this Dutch import, Westera presents 16 seasonally arranged poems representing 13 separate verse forms.
Each section begins with a scene-setting haiku, nestled against four repeating, multicolored woodcut spreads whose farmhouse, field, pond, and trees reflect seasonal changes. Westera employs traditional and modern forms and invents one herself: the stacking poem, “in which words are stacked upon each other.” The four haiku embody the Japanese form’s crystallizing turns of phrase and traditional focus on nature. “Ice forms on the pond / It can grow thicker or thaw / Winter will decide.” The rondel, the pantoum, the tanka, and the sonnet all appear, reflecting poetry’s cross-cultural roots. Playful modern forms include the double dactyl (invented in 1951 by two American poets) and the diamante, a diamond-shaped form created by another American, Iris Tiedt, in 1969. A Dutch form, the elevenie, is just as it sounds: 11 words in a specified sequence. (In a note, translator Colmer explains that, in consultation with Westera, he substituted certain forms, such as December’s limerick, for those less familiar to English-speaking readers.) April’s “Spring Fever” is an acrostic whose lines’ initial letters spell “Vincent Van Gogh.” The middle stanza reads “Velvety bees / Attack the almond blossom, / Nectar sweet as honey.” Boerendans’ facing woodcut is a distinctive homage to Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms, and her work throughout is masterful. The book’s design is innovative, while the verse is thoughtful and immersive.
A remarkable collaboration. (information on verse forms) (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9780802856524
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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