Bright colors and approachable analogies make this a reassuring book for youngsters.
In Gullia’s debut children’s book, a young bunny learns that treating cancer is like weeding a flower garden.
Every day Ally, a bunny, wakes up before the sun and races to the bottom of the hill to meet her friends. Then one day, she starts to feel sick and tired; her stomach hurts, and she doesn’t want to eat. When her doctor, Maggie, a dog, tells her that she has cancer, the little bunny isn’t sure what that means. So Maggie shows her a garden in which the flowers and dandelions compete for food. Just as dandelions steal food from flowers, the cancer steals energy from Ally, and like a gardener sprays dandelions, the doctors will use chemotherapy to fight the cancer. Gullia offers these comparisons as a comforting way to reduce children’s fears of cancer and as an accessible explanation for a complicated process. The garden’s vibrant colors also eliminate the sense that cancer is a shadowy thing. Ally goes from being an energetic bunny to a lethargic one, but with Maggie’s help, she becomes determined to “spray all the dandelions!” Although Ally never goes through hair loss (like many children undergoing chemotherapy), it is mentioned and compared to wilted and lost flower petals that grow back.
Bright colors and approachable analogies make this a reassuring book for youngsters.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5255-0959-9
Page Count: 28
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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