Not perfect but still soothingly reassuring for children learning to share parents with the workplace.
There's a talkative shoe for every occasion.
Perry the preschooler loves that each kind signals a special time with Mama. Want to cuddle on the couch? Slide into the “swish-swush” slippers. Want to splash in the rain? Pull on the “pat-put” rain boots. Chatty footgear carries Perry happily from one mother-daughter adventure to another—until the arrival of the dreaded “click-clack” shoes. These strange high-heeled contraptions don’t take Mama to Perry, they take Mama away from Perry. After tearful fits and starts and plenty of patience from Mama and Nan, the little girl accepts that even though the click-clack shoes take her mother to work, they also bring her back in time for some bare foot-to-foot “tickle-tickle” sharing. Levis’ concept of associating specific shoes with specific bonding activities is charming, but it’s undercut by rampant onomatopoeia. Instead of limiting the sounds only to shoes, which are nearly protagonists in and of themselves, the text gives voices to the door, the kiss, and more. This, coupled with overlong intervals with Nan, somewhat disrupts both the narrative flow and the emotional impact. Brantley-Newton’s collaged depictions of a middle-class, rambunctious, mixed-race child, her exuberant single mother, and the vivacious Nan (both women of color) are bright and dynamic.
Not perfect but still soothingly reassuring for children learning to share parents with the workplace. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2554-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)
Doctor X-Ray, a megalomaniac with an X-ray blaster and an indestructible battle suit, crashes through the ceiling of the local mall.
Innocent patrons scatter to safety. But one curious child gazes directly at the bully and asks: “Why?” At first, Doctor X-Ray answers with all the menace and swagger of a supervillain. The curious child, armed with only a stuffed bear and clad in a bright red dress, is not satisfied with the answers and continues asking: “Why?” As his pale cheeks flush with emotion, Doctor X-Ray peels back the onion of his interior life, unearthing powerful reasons behind his pursuit of tyranny. This all sounds heavy, but the humorously monotonous questions coupled with free-wheeling illustrations by Keane set a quick pace with comical results. At 60 pages, the book has room to follow this thread back to the diabolical bully’s childhood. Most of the answers go beyond a child’s understanding—parental entertainment between the howl of the monosyllabic chorus. It is the digital artwork, which is reminiscent of Quentin Blake’s, that creates a joyful undercurrent of rebellion with bold and loose brush strokes, patches of color, and expressive faces. The illustrations harken to a previous era save for the thoroughly liberated Asian child speaking truth to power.
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6863-0
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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