Sweet, true, and tenderly told—a hug of a book.
A baby macaque born at a Japanese zoo in 2025 captured the hearts of millions online—and now his story has found its perfect form.
When Punch’s mother cannot care for him, zookeepers hand-rear the tiny monkey and give him a stuffed orangutan—dubbed Oranmama—to cling to for comfort and to build strength. Perry’s text is spare and rhythmic, punctuated by onomatopoeia (“Chit-chit!”“Thump-thump”) that pulls young readers into Punch’s world. The story’s emotional core is Punch’s gradual, hard-won integration into the macaque troop on Monkey Mountain—a process that requires patience, courage, and many setbacks before a female adult finally wraps him in her arms. Syed’s illustrations, rendered in watercolor, ink, and colored pencil, make excellent use of white space. Punch is often a small, solitary figure, his isolation made poignant rather than bleak by the expressiveness of his face. The character expressions throughout are a triumph—Punch’s wide-eyed wariness, a monkey’s suspicious sidelong glance, and ultimately the closed eyes of contentment in that final embrace communicate everything words cannot. A grooming scene, in which the troop’s cautious sniffs and pokes give way to acceptance, is rendered across a full spread with particular warmth. Backmatter includes a detailed author’s note on the real Punch’s story and a “Monkey Matters!” fact page on Japanese macaques.
Sweet, true, and tenderly told—a hug of a book. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2026
ISBN: 9798217394227
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A simple but effective look at a keystone species.
Sea otters are the key to healthy kelp forests on the Pacific coast of North America.
There have been several recent titles for older readers about the critical role sea otters play in the coastal Pacific ecosystem. This grand, green version presents it to even younger readers and listeners, using a two-level text and vivid illustrations. Biologist Buhrman-Deever opens as if she were telling a fairy tale: “On the Pacific coast of North America, where the ocean meets the shore, there are forests that have no trees.” The treelike forms are kelp, home to numerous creatures. Two spreads show this lush underwater jungle before its king, the sea otter, is introduced. A delicate balance allows this system to flourish, but there was a time that hunting upset this balance. The writer is careful to blame not the Indigenous peoples who had always hunted the area, but “new people.” In smaller print she explains that Russian explorations spurred the development of an international fur trade. Trueman paints the scene, concentrating on an otter family threatened by formidable harpoons from an abstractly rendered person in a small boat, with a sailing ship in the distance. “People do not always understand at first the changes they cause when they take too much.” Sea urchins take over; a page turn reveals a barren landscape. Happily, the story ends well when hunting stops and the otters return…and with them, the kelp forests.
A simple but effective look at a keystone species. (further information, select bibliography, additional resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8934-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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