A light but uneventful tale of fanciful fairy love.
A mouse fairy with singular features finds romance in this debut children’s book.
Weefeefee, a magical mouse fairy (with his ears, tail, and eyes all shaped like hearts), resides in a sublime “green-aqua valley.” He enjoys spending time with the animals there (“He had many friends in the valley, including the birds, the monkeys, the squirrels, the tigers, and the lions”). One day, Leebeebee, a cherry fairy who lives on the fruity mountain, arrives for the happy feet dance celebration, parents in tow. The event is “the biggest, happiest gathering of each year.” At the extravaganza, they all perform the happy feet dance, having a wonderful time, and Leebeebee and Weefeefee fall in love almost immediately. They hail from different fairy families, sure, but that is of no importance—they marry and soon have as many cherry mouse babies as they can. These infants—Weeweelee, Weeleelee, Weefeebee, Weebeefee, and Weebeebee—are spitting images of their parents. They’re adorable little rodents with cherry mouse noses and, as happens in an idyllic valley of greenery, they all live happily ever after. This sunny book focuses on Kerber’s (The Clockwork Owl, 2016, etc.) colorful illustrations. Rotsaert’s text is quite sparse, and the drawings brightly fill in the huge gaps that exist in the meandering story. The images also help to define the characters. Names like Mama Applericoe and Papa Grapedeo can be hard to understand, and the pictures help readers imagine the realm that Weefeefee inhabits. While the text is whimsical and breezy, it is suited only for the youngest readers. The language is quite simple, and because the tale has no heft, experienced readers will likely be bored after one perusal. One lovely part of the enterprise, though, is the audience interaction that the work encourages. The images from the yarn are repeated, this time in black and white, in the back of the book so that youngsters can add color, creating their own world of Weefeefee. The illustrations can be colored or painted, as the prologue explains, allowing children to add their own spin to the frolicking couple and their cherry mouse kids.
A light but uneventful tale of fanciful fairy love.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5246-3626-5
Page Count: 26
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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