Little fashion bugs deserve better.
Fashion Week starring insects.
Spring is here, and everyone arrives to the meadow: models, a fashion editor, viewers, and paparazzi—all insects and other creepy-crawlies. Aponte uses matte colors, often tertiary, to create bustling scenes of the lead-up and the runway show. Before the show begins, the illustrations are visually busy, with no particular place for readers’ eyes to rest or focus; once the show begins, the compositions focus, though color saturation stays monotonously uniform. Various creatures walk the runway as each double-page spread emphasizes one color. The green page is conceptually inventive: models in green dresses appear reflected in the green eyes of green spectators, who hold up their cellphones to record. On the page highlighting white, fireflies—glowing in yellow-white—stride up the runway in gray-and-white capes. The inconsistent text sometimes scans satisfyingly: “ ‘What should we wear?’ ask the six-legged press. / ‘Who should we follow and how should we dress?’ ” Other times it stumbles: “ ‘It’s a season to BEE!’ exclaims Miss V. McQueen, / editor of BUZZ fashion magazine” (requiring incorrect syllabic emphasis). At the end, an extraneous, out-of-the-blue platitude—“In the spring, summer, fall, and winter, too— / the most important thing to BEE is… / YOU!”—undermines the high-fashion theme and falls flat.
Little fashion bugs deserve better. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-99570-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Price Stern Sloan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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