There are no bad sock monkeys, not even the one or two who have forgotten themselves for a second.
A sock monkey goes to the dark side, or as dark as a sock monkey can get, in Kirk’s dovelike tale of dawning self-awareness.
Readers meet Monkey on the first page. It is a close-up of his face, and he has a grump on. “You took my ball— / just like that! // You wouldn’t give my ball back. You wouldn’t share.” That’s four pages of text. Monkey does not mince words. “I had to grab it when you weren’t looking! // Now I have my ball / and YOU cannot play with it anymore!” Indeed, “YOU cannot play with ME.” Period, as it were. So Monkey goes about pretending he is having a good time with his ball. He will play by himself, with new friends (a houseplant, a rock and a worm) and even with the big dog—though the dog doesn’t seem interested in playing. Kirk is all emotive and deliberate. Readers can feel the initial indignation and then its ebb as Monkey—and Kirk’s digitally collaged artwork gives him not only plenty of pathos, but lots of wooly texture—feels the sting of his friend’s absence. “Maybe I wasn’t a great friend,” Monkey comes to realize. Easy-peasy, Monkey. Kirk’s skillfully paced mix of vignettes, close-ups and long shots guide readers smoothly through this emotional odyssey.
There are no bad sock monkeys, not even the one or two who have forgotten themselves for a second. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1236-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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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