Jars of honey make fine presents for friends, but while on his rounds, Cooper the bear delivers an even sweeter gift.
Having brought out a Welcome Wagon (2020) for an opener, the tightly knit community of Cubby Hill is coming together for its Great Giving Festival. “Bee careful!” Grammy Bea warns little Cooper, sending him out with some of the last of the summer’s golden harvest. As everyone is busy setting up on the fairgrounds, Cooper offers to lend a paw at each stop—watching the baby Bouncey bunnies, debugging the VR flight simulator for his friend Stella, and hefting paint-a-pumpkins with another friend, Henry. Unfortunately, at each stop a honey jar somehow ends up spilled or broken (“Oh my gourd! I’m sorry!”), with the inevitable result that Cooper trails sadly back to Grammy’s booth certain that she’ll never trust him again. Imagine his surprise when a crowd rushes up to thank him warmly for his assistance…including Grammy, who makes the lesson explicit: “I want to thank you too,” she says. “For always helping anyone and everyone who needs it.” In populous illustrations that reflect the narrative’s playful tone, Cooper, styling himself “Super Cooper,” is easy to pick out in his cape and outsized eyeglasses amid a bustling, multispecies cast of cute, smiling, bigheaded animals in human dress. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Worthy values delivered with a wink...not to mention a generous dollop of sticky sweetness. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4419-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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From an artist, poet, and Instagram celebrity, a pep talk for all who question where a new road might lead.
Opening by asking readers, “Have you ever wanted to go in a different direction,” the unnamed narrator describes having such a feeling and then witnessing the appearance of a new road “almost as if it were magic.” “Where do you lead?” the narrator asks. The Road’s twice-iterated response—“Be a leader and find out”—bookends a dialogue in which a traveler’s anxieties are answered by platitudes. “What if I fall?” worries the narrator in a stylized, faux hand-lettered type Wade’s Instagram followers will recognize. The Road’s dialogue and the narration are set in a chunky, sans-serif type with no quotation marks, so the one flows into the other confusingly. “Everyone falls at some point, said the Road. / But I will always be there when you land.” Narrator: “What if the world around us is filled with hate?” Road: “Lead it to love.” Narrator: “What if I feel stuck?” Road: “Keep going.” De Moyencourt illustrates this colloquy with luminous scenes of a small, brown-skinned child, face turned away from viewers so all they see is a mop of blond curls. The child steps into an urban mural, walks along a winding country road through broad rural landscapes and scary woods, climbs a rugged metaphorical mountain, then comes to stand at last, Little Prince–like, on a tiny blue and green planet. Wade’s closing claim that her message isn’t meant just for children is likely superfluous…in fact, forget the just.
Inspiration, shrink wrapped. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26949-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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