A splendidly illustrated picture book that misses the emotional mark.
It’s almost Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, and Gauri can hardly wait.
Gauri’s family announces that, this year, each family member will make their own gulal—or colored powder—out of natural ingredients. Gauri’s father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, and brother choose a slip of paper from a bowl to determine which color they will be assigned. When Gauri closes her eyes to pick her paper, she becomes, unlike the rest of her family, furious: instead of yellow, which is what she longed for, she ends up with red. While everyone else in Gauri’s household gets busy using vegetables, herbs, and spices to create their assigned colors, Gauri stomps around the house and yard feeling upset. She is determined not to participate until her grandfather recounts one of the stories behind Holi, which is about a demoness who unsuccessfully tries to wield the fire of her anger against her nephew, Prahlada. On hearing the story, Gauri wonders whom her rage serves and whether she has the strength to let go of the “anger in her heart.” The book’s illustrations are beautifully textured and artfully designed. While the text’s underlying message is well intentioned, the author’s choice to frame Gauri’s overwhelming emotion as anger, rather than jealousy, makes the story read more like a misplaced condemnation of South Asian girls’ rage than a story about mindfulness.
A splendidly illustrated picture book that misses the emotional mark. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3357-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
The familiar singsong repetitiveness is catchy in all settings, holiday or otherwise.
A hoppy, snappy Easter version of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Three young tots, with varied skin tones and baskets ready in their hands, eagerly scamper on a spring day to find some eggs. But of course, they meet hindrances along the way. “Ooh, look … // Chickens! / Flapping, pecking chickens.” Thus starts the rolling refrain: “Can’t go over them. / Can’t go under them. / Can’t go around them. // Got to go through them!” The waddling chickens don’t pose much of an obstacle, but they do “Cluck-cluck!” loudly as they scatter in the sun. The three youngsters then must face “fluffy, hungry bunnies” (adorable long-eared puffballs with carrot fronds in their mouths) and “happy, hopping frogs” as they balance on stones to cross a pond. All of this leads to a garden bursting with colorful flowers (“Rustle-swish! / Rustle-swish!”) and finally…10 eggs in pastel patterns. Each egg has a number on it to encourage readers to count along and strengthen their numeracy skills. Rozelaar’s plump and rounded world, with roly-poly trees, flowers, and hills, wraps the tale in coziness.
The familiar singsong repetitiveness is catchy in all settings, holiday or otherwise. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798887771304
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one.
It's hard to believe that a pop-up wasn't the creators' original intention, so seamlessly do moveable parts dovetail into this modern classic's storyline.
In contrast to the tale's 1998 pop -up version, the figures here move on every page, and with an unusually graceful naturalism to boot. From pulling down Big Nutbrown Hare's ears on the opening spread to make sure he's listening to drowsily turning his head to accept a final good-night kiss in a multi-leveled pull-down tableau at the close, all of Little Nutbrown Hare's hops, stretches and small gestures serve the poetically spare text—as do Big Nutbrown's wider, higher responses to his charge's challenges. As readers turn a flap to read Big Nutbrown's "But I love you this much," his arms extend to demonstrate. The emotional connection between the two hares is clearer than ever in Jeram's peaceful, restrained outdoor scenes, which are slightly larger than those in the trade edition, and the closing scene is made even more intimate by hiding the closing line ("I love you right up to the moon—and back") until an inconspicuous flap is opened up.
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one. (Pop-up picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5378-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
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