The squabbles caused by a brief shower on a busy street turn to smiles under the ensuing rainbow in this picture-book mini-drama from the author of No, David! (1998). Plunked by the first few drops, some chickens squawk, exciting a cat whose yowls make a dog bark, which makes a man yell, which wakes up a baby . . . and so on, until traffic is jammed, horns are honking, store owners are out on the sidewalk bickering, and an awkward shopper knocks over a fruit stand. Then the rain stops, the sun comes out, bringing a rainbow, and just like that everyone’s annoyance melts away and life is sweeter. Using a bright palette and making small details and facial expressions stand out, Shannon creates a gleaming, rain-washed neighborhood of gently caricatured residents, all of whom fall into conventional gender roles but convey the episode’s moods, changeable as the weather, with theatrical flair. Broader, perhaps, but less refreshing in the end than Karen Hesse’s lyrical Come On, Rain! (1999). Save it for a rainy day. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-05021-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Reprising the theme of Now It Is Winter (2004) this companion volume is likewise (as Kirkus wrote at the time) “a gentle paean to living in the now.” Constructed as a back-and-forth between a young mouse who yearns for cinnamon muffins, jack-o’-lanterns, piles of leaves, school’s start and other tokens of autumn, and his mother’s counter-invitations to enjoy fresh peaches, a picnic on the beach, a glass of cold lemonade and like pleasures of summer, Spinelli’s narrative is less about realistic dialogue than about poetic arrangements of sounds and rhythms: “Will it be autumn soon? / Will a leafy breeze waken me / by ruffling the curtains at my window? / Will it dapple the air with apple-y scent? / Soon?” Clad in overalls or sun dresses and sporting fur in a multiethnic variety of colors, the saucer-eared clan in DePalma’s sweet illustrations enjoys its outdoorsy summer idyll in both quiet and rowdy ways as the interchange continues, the skies gradually darken to starry blues, and at last mother and child “go barefoot down the stairs / and out into the shimmery, summery night” for some quality time together. The soft visual and verbal cadences make this as apt for bedtime reading as for providing reassurance to impatient young mouselings that present joys will indeed in time give way to future ones. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5340-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
A bright, populous countdown for nature lovers, Midwestern or otherwise.
A cumulative tally of flora and fauna in Minnesota—the North Star State.
Bowen’s luminous painted woodcuts, based on designs by Prange, depict 10 northern biomes at sundry times of day and year. The residents of each are different, from an opening aerial glimpse of one moose browsing near a rocky Great Lakes beach followed by two brown bats in a limestone cave beneath one soaring rough-legged hawk to views of 10 teals, nine showy goldenrods, eight milkweed pods, seven Canada geese, and other sights common to a broad tallgrass prairie—all, as the refrain goes, “under one north star.” After a pointed reminder about one final resident—“You live here, too,” showing light-skinned figures at a campfire—Root closes with brief nature notes on the featured plants and animals, plus directions for finding Polaris in the night sky. Despite a patterned format, Root’s not-particularly-rhythmic text isn’t as sonically pleasing as her own Plant a Pocket of Prairie, also illustrated by Bowen (2014), or Donna M. Bateman’s Out on the Prairie, illustrated by Susan Swan (2012), but as befits the various settings, the wild cast is considerably more diverse.
A bright, populous countdown for nature lovers, Midwestern or otherwise. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8166-5063-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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