An engaging multigenerational homage to enchanting family adventures.
A family car trip enables magical memories, new and old, thanks to Ama’s magical purse.
“Thump! goes Ama’s purse as we start a new adventure.” Everyone piles in: parents in the front seats, Ama (Grandmother in various Chinese dialects) and the young narrator in the back. The quartet leave the city, making various stops; Ama’s purse releases charming surprises along the way. “A powder-white moon rabbit bounces merrily” across laps when Ama pulls out her compact. At the farmers market, Ama extracts her purse and “fragrant blooms begin to sprout from an island far away.” As the road swerves, Ama pulls out prayer beads wafting with “the smell of the smoky incense” to quell the protagonist’s motion sickness. The family stops at a gas station; when Ama stumbles and the purse tumbles, the child quickly retrieves and returns the precious treasures. Finally arriving at the beach, the family joyfully jumps into making new memories. Author and illustrator reunite after I Miss You Most (2024) with another adept collaboration. Yan enhances Cheng’s sweet prose with visual details: The narrator still requires a booster seat, the rising sun marks the family’s progress, and the loss of the child’s grandfather is fairly recent. Yan presents her spreads and scenes in soft, inviting hues, particularly highlighting the unconditionally nurturing relationship between grandparent and grandchild. The family is apparently of East Asian descent; the farmstand customers (the only other peripheral characters) are diverse.
An engaging multigenerational homage to enchanting family adventures. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9780593696774
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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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
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