Between the mesmerizing art and contemplative verse, readers will be drawn in.
With help from a supportive father, a child vanquishes his inner demons in this follow-up to Drawn Onward (2024).
Inside a fairy-tale castle, a distressed youngster’s big feelings fracture (apparently the result of a devastating personal loss), and his cozy home transforms into a terrifying landscape. Despite brave attempts to navigate it alone, he becomes increasingly dysregulated. His foes, among them lurid, flower-faced guards, a ghostly apparition, and an ominous, dragonlike specter, all “[find] him wanting.” Fortunately, Dad arrives to guide his dispirited son. Using the five senses as touchstones, Dad suggests various sensorial grounding techniques to “tame the voices.” The monsters are rendered harmless, and the boy’s discord is soothed. In an appended note, Nayeri identifies his narrative as a pantoum poem, made up of lines that interweave, interlace and repeat. Discovering the poem’s pulse requires a leap of faith, but once immersed, readers will savor its enchanting cadence. Dark, compelling, and a bit mysterious, Rockefeller's audacious illustrations are a perfect counterpoint to the pensive text. Relying on comics-style linework and digital color, he contrasts foreboding backgrounds with animated bursts of opulent rainbow sherbet color, all while centering the child’s poignant facial expressions through his emotional journey. Readers will be entranced by the fantastical worldbuilding and otherworldly, mystical elements that reflect the young protagonist’s conflicted inner emotions. Father and son have tan skin.
Between the mesmerizing art and contemplative verse, readers will be drawn in. (Picture book. 5-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063277182
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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