Sweet but unsubstantial.
After a day of play with friends, it’s bedtime, but where is Little Koala’s mommy?
Lots of things seem familiar in the forest—is that flash of gray fur her mommy? No, it’s Mommy Wombat, who gives Little Koala a hug, but it’s not the same as Mommy Koala’s hugs. Is that a snatch of her mommy’s bedtime stories? No, it’s Mommy Platypus, who snuggles Little Koala close as she continues the story she was telling her babies. Similarly, the lullaby she hears isn’t her mommy’s; it’s Mommy Emu’s. And though kind in both action and in appearance on the page, these mothers aren’t her own. Suddenly, she hears a familiar voice calling her name: It’s Mommy Koala, and she has the “most perfect koala cuddle ever.” After hearing about all the ways the other mommies were like Little Koala’s mommy, readers may feel let down that Little Koala doesn’t get a story or a lullaby from her own mother. Still, it’s a mostly satisfying ending to an overall gentle look at being lost—indeed, Little Koala looks worried about her situation on only one spread, otherwise soaking in the love from the other Australian fauna. Readers who find themselves in similar situations will learn little from Little Koala’s experience other than to find another mother with children for help. The black type on increasingly dark backgrounds as night falls becomes difficult to discern.
Sweet but unsubstantial. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68010-187-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unlikely—but the simple story and bright pictures underscore the importance of taking care of our ocean.
When a reef fish becomes stuck in a plastic bottle, a caring human child not only rescues her, but also organizes an ocean cleanup.
Like many humans, Alba, an orange fish with white spots, loves to collect interesting and beautiful objects. As she grows bigger and older, she finds more trash and fewer treasures in her neighborhood—and her reef-dwelling friends disappear. Still searching for treasures, she swims into a bottle to retrieve a pearl inside and becomes trapped. The bottle washes up on shore, where Kaia, also a collector of treasures and shown with long black hair and dark skin, comes to the rescue. Placing the fish temporarily in a bucket, she convinces her whole town to help clean “the mess that they had made.” Hawthorne’s stylized, posterlike illustrations initially show a bright, lively reef full of identifiable fish, coral, and other sea creatures. (A spread at the end introduces some of the other inhabitants, an opportunity for seek-and-find activities.) As the trash increases, the fish vanish. Near the end, a spread shows the windmill-powered town, cleaners on the beach, and even divers removing trash, making possible the busy reef scene that greets Alba’s safe return. First published in England as Alba, the Hundred Year Old Fish, this hopeful fable may help very young readers think about the problem of plastic waste.
Unlikely—but the simple story and bright pictures underscore the importance of taking care of our ocean. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1044-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Big Picture/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history.
A sonorous, soporific invitation to join woodland creatures in bedding down for the night.
As in her Moon Babies, illustrated by Amy Hevron (2019), Jameson displays a rare gift for harmonious language and rhyme. She leads off with a bear: “Come home, Big Paws. / Berry picker / Honey trickster / Shadows deepen in the glen. / Lumber back inside your den.” Continuing in the same pattern, she urges a moose (“Velvet Nose”), a deer (“Tiny Hooves”), and a succession of ever smaller creatures to find their nooks and nests as twilight deepens in Boutavant’s woodsy, autumnal scenes and snow begins to drift down. Through each of those scenes quietly walks an alert White child (accompanied by an unusually self-controlled pooch), peering through branches or over rocks at the animals in the foregrounds and sketching them in a notebook. The observer’s turn comes round at last, as a bearded parent beckons: “This way, Small Boots. / Brave trailblazer / Bright stargazer / Cabin’s toasty. Blanket’s soft. / Snuggle deep in sleeping loft.” The animals go unnamed, leaving it to younger listeners to identify each one from the pictures…if they can do so before the verses’ murmurous tempo closes their eyes.
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7063-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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