by Dar Hosta & illustrated by Dar Hosta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2006
Hosta’s latest is an imaginative feast about the moon and its many phases. Miss Mavis Sugar is a striped orange cat who loves to cook. She makes all sorts of sweet treats that her friends love to share, but her specialty is mooncake. For 14 days, she makes just one slice per night until the cake (the full moon) is finally done. Then her friends gather ’round to help eat the cake, one slice at a time, for another 14 days. “Mooncake, mooncake is so nice. / Yes, go ahead and eat a slice!” By the end, all the friends are asleep in their beds under a dark, new-moon sky. A final page labels the nine phases of the moon and lists some interesting facts. Repetitive refrains will have youngsters joining in, but the rhymes may be lost as a result of the text’s formatting. There is a folksy, quilt-like feel to Hosta’s collage illustrations. She combines dark backgrounds with bright foreground details, creating pictures that pop off the pages. The gentle cats and forest animals celebrating the moon may be just the ticket to dreamland—if one doesn’t mind the sugar. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-9721967-2-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Brown Dog
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2006
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More by Dar Hosta
BOOK REVIEW
by Dar Hosta
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Sandra Equihua ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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More In The Series
adapted by Hannah Eliot ; illustrated by Nivea Ortiz
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
More by Chloe Perkins
BOOK REVIEW
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova
BOOK REVIEW
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
by Abdul-Razak Zachariah ; illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2019
Vital messages of self-love for darker-skinned children.
On hot summer nights, Amani’s parents permit her to go outside and play in the apartment courtyard, where the breeze is cool and her friends are waiting.
The children jump rope to the sounds of music as it floats through a neighbor’s window, gaze at stars in the night sky, and play hide-and-seek in the moonlight. It is in the moonlight that Amani and her friends are themselves found by the moon, and it illumines the many shades of their skin, which vary from light tan to deep brown. In a world where darkness often evokes ideas of evil or fear, this book is a celebration of things that are dark and beautiful—like a child’s dark skin and the night in which she plays. The lines “Show everyone else how to embrace the night like you. Teach them how to be a night-owning girl like you” are as much an appeal for her to love and appreciate her dark skin as they are the exhortation for Amani to enjoy the night. There is a sense of security that flows throughout this book. The courtyard is safe and homelike. The moon, like an additional parent, seems to be watching the children from the sky. The charming full-bleed illustrations, done in washes of mostly deep blues and greens, make this a wonderful bedtime story.
Vital messages of self-love for darker-skinned children. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55271-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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