Dreamy.
An imaginary expedition to find a mythical sea creature.
Savage’s new book follows a similar storyline as her debut, The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish (2023). Light-skinned Dr. Rose, an intrepid marine biologist, gathers a diverse crew to prove the existence of an elusive, legendary sea creature that resembles a giant squid, though its species is never identified. Carmella, as they call the beast, supposedly “roams the deepest, darkest oceans, lighting up the water with its magic.” To track the creature, Dr. Rose descends into the ocean in a submersible, along with brown-skinned pilot Anne and Stanley the dog. It’s not clear where this expedition takes place, but there are flamingoes on the ship’s deck and flying nearby. “Mile after mile, they see absolutely nothing at all,” but readers are in on Savage’s hide-and-seek game: Lurking above the submersible is a giant crimson tentacle likely belonging to Carmella. Dr. Rose and Anne don’t see the tentacle, but they delight in the oddball gossamer glowing white creatures floating around them, “some tiny, some spiny, some like squishy, shimmering jelly,” artfully and whimsically illustrated in ink and watercolor. The women keep searching but never glimpse what readers see as Carmella lurks below them, culminating in a beautiful spread of the submersible reflected in the eye of the beast. As with her previous book, Savage includes playful ship cutaways that show the activities of the crew on board.
Dreamy. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781536238976
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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