Infectiously enthusiastic about dance and imagination.
A girl learns to trust her bunny choreographers when planning a dance for a talent show in this third installment of a picture-book series.
Lizzy, a white, energetic, red-haired girl, can hardly wait to tell her animal friends about the Spring Jamboree, where she wants to perform. She’ll need help in choosing a talent, and makes several efforts based on animals (“chirp like a bird”; “grunt like a moose”), but they fizzle. Then Lizzy notices some bunnies “with feet in the air”; she knows they can teach her to dance exuberantly. Yet when Lizzy tells her school friends about it, they laugh at her, and she decides: “It’s time to be grown. / No more listening to critters. / I’ll go it alone!” But the bunnies insist on being seen, showing off dances and getting her attention. Lizzy cheerfully realizes that “I can dance to my rhythm and choose to be me!” The book, by the team of Faatz and Trimarco (It’s Just So...Little!, 2017, etc.), includes a useful glossary of dance terms, from “Ballet” to “Toe Tappin.’ ” Faatz generally employs rhyming couplets of sometimes uneven meter. A few lines vary, such as: “It’s just so… / …toe tappin’ / …jump jivin’ / …free stylin’ / …beboppin’ / …bunnybombastic!” The bouncy, vibrant verbs make this an excellent read-aloud tale. Trimarco’s full-color, whimsical illustrations nicely capture the story’s kinetic joy (and depict diverse students). Splashy typography and appropriate fonts add to the action.
Infectiously enthusiastic about dance and imagination.Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9970851-7-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Notable Kids Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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