Good for one-on-one sharing or paired with titles such as Saxton Freymann’s Fast Food (2006) for a festive, food-themed...
Peek into worlds where the trees are made of broccoli and the clouds of sweet meringue.
Warner’s monochromatic photographed landscapes, constructed from an astounding array of edible items, take center stage in this offering. He begins with a yellow landscape in which a beach, pyramids, trees and a hot-air balloon are constructed from couscous, rice, beans, cheese and pasta. The image takes up three-quarters of a two-page spread, with half of a single page devoted to rhyming verse that describes the image. Other photographs include a gray landscape made mostly of mushrooms, a delectable chocolaty-brown image featuring a train, with cocoa-powder hills in the distance, and a disquieting red landscape presenting mountains made of raw meat and a scorpion of peppers. Kids and adults alike will marvel at these painstakingly assembled and composed photos, eagerly identifying the foods that make up the details of the landscapes. While the accompanying verse names some of the foods, which is good way to get kids to begin hunting for items in the images, it seems forced and awkward in several instances, serving only to detract from the featured landscape.
Good for one-on-one sharing or paired with titles such as Saxton Freymann’s Fast Food (2006) for a festive, food-themed storytime. (list of foods portrayed in each photo) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0162-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination.
In Fliess’ update, Mary is an inventive scientist, but she’s a lonely one.
“Mary had a little lab. / She tested and created. / While other kids were at the park, / she built and calculated.” The window of her lab provides views of the kids’ fun, and they inspire her to make a friend. Literally. She bikes to a farm for a snip of wool and heads back to use her latest invention: the Sheepinator. The resultant pet is everything she could hope for, not only providing companionship, but also helping out around the house and lab. And when he follows her to school, the kids all ask for their own wooly friends. What could possibly go wrong? Bouloubasis’ hysterical illustrations show the chaos that ensues, but the scientist and her new human friends think of a clever solution that leaves the whole town satisfied…and warm. Fliess’ verses include enough of the original poem (but tweaked) to tickle readers’ funny bones, and the rhyme and rhythm are spot-on. Mary is a wild-haired white redhead who is depicted as safety-conscious (bike helmet, ear protection, rubber gloves, etc.); the other kids are a diverse group. Most diverse (and somewhat distracting) of all are the noses on their faces—all sizes, shapes, and colors.
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4982-7
Page Count: 37
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
There’s always tomorrow.
A lyrical message of perseverance and optimism.
The text uses direct address, which the title- and final-page illustrations suggest comes from an adult voice, to offer inspiration and encouragement. The opening spreads reads, “Tonight as you sleep, a new day stirs. / Each kiss good night is a wish for tomorrow,” as the accompanying art depicts a child with black hair and light skin asleep in a bed that’s fantastically situated in a stylized landscape of buildings, overpasses, and roadways. The effect is dreamlike, in contrast with the next illustration, of a child of color walking through a field and blowing dandelion fluff at sunrise. Until the last spread, each child depicted in a range of settings is solitary. Some visual metaphors falter in terms of credibility, as in the case of a white-appearing child using a wheelchair in an Antarctic ice cave strewn with obstacles, as the text reads “you’ll explore the world, only feeling lost in your imagination.” Others are oblique in attempted connections between text and art. How does a picture of a pale-skinned, black-haired child on a bridge in the rain evoke “first moments that will dance with you”? But the image of a child with pink skin and brown hair scaling a wall as text reads “there will be injustice that will challenge you, and it will surprise you how brave you can be” is clearer.
There’s always tomorrow. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-99437-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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