A saccharine bedtime read-aloud about big ideas and the promise in everyone. (Picture book. 3-6)
What’s common among a seed, an egg, a tadpole, a caterpillar, goslings, and you? Each contains the idea of a mature being and the potential all living things possess.
A young, brown-skinned girl holds an apple, and readers are told that hidden inside “is the idea of a tree / wrapped tight / in [a] shiny seed.” The little girl bites into the apple, dropping a seed that could “take root / sprout / shoot up / into the blue.” The story then shows how other living things begin and grow before it shifts back to the little girl. While this middle section reflects similarities between human development and animal growth, phrases such as the “lapping lake” and “over lake and field / through clouds and miles / and days and nights” feel overdone. Additionally, near the story’s end, the celebration of a metaphorical orchard field “with creatures singing, springing, fluttering, winging— / and people laughing, lounging, munching, swinging” also reads as sappy. Primarily a story encouraging children to cultivate their remarkable selves, the book also teaches that “work and [a] long, loooooooong wait” are necessary to grow an idea. Opaque, spring-bright colors in the watercolor, pencil, and gouache illustrations extend to the page’s edge, eliciting the feel of being in the scene, and complement the text’s suggested importance of a human connection with nature.
A saccharine bedtime read-aloud about big ideas and the promise in everyone. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68119-183-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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