An attack of peevishness is defused with a change in perspective.
A Boy, dark-haired, golden-skinned, and almond-eyed, has built a treehouse in a field. It is stocked with the usual: a kazoo, a spyglass, a potted sunflower, a galvanized tub full of festive water balloons. Then a Monster—a purple one with a wide grin and narwhal tusks sticking out of its head—builds a treehouse next door. They become friends even if they can’t communicate all that well at first. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” asks the Boy. “BURLAP!” replies the Monster. The Boy plays a few notes on his kazoo. The Monster responds with a great, rolling blat from a sousaphone, which annoys the Boy. They hurl insults—“Slithey tove!” “Turtle neck!”—engage in a furious water-balloon fight (“And so it went”; from Lewis Carroll to Kurt Vonnegut), then beat retreats. Only when the Boy goes to deliver a friendship-ending note to the Monster’s treehouse (which is empty of Monster, who is guess where?) does he begin to consider that the Monster likes loud music but is a fun neighbor otherwise. The notes hit are those in the keys of empathy and diplomacy, ably supported by gentle, mixed-media illustrations that vary sequential panels, vignettes, and expansive, double-page spreads. Give a little, take a sousaphone.
Listeners should absorb the book’s elegantly executed common sense like a sponge. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-525-42783-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL
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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A feel-good book about self-acceptance.
Empire star Byers and Bobo offer a beautifully illustrated, rhyming picture book detailing what one brown-skinned little girl with an impressive Afro appreciates about herself. Relying on similes, the text establishes a pattern with the opening sentence, “Like the sun, I’m here to shine,” and follows it through most of the book. Some of them work well, while others fall flat: “Like the rain, I’m here to pour / and drip and fall until I’m full.” In some vignettes she’s by herself; and in others, pictured along with children of other races. While the book’s pro-diversity message comes through, the didactic and even prideful expressions of self-acceptance make the book exasperatingly preachy—a common pitfall for books by celebrity authors. In contrast, Bobo’s illustrations are visually stunning. After painting the children and the objects with which they interact, such as flowers, books, and a red wagon, in acrylic on board for a traditional look, she scanned the images into Adobe Photoshop and added the backgrounds digitally in chalk. This lends a whimsical feel to such details as a rainbow, a window, wind, and rain—all reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Bobo creates an inclusive world of girls in which wearing glasses, using a wheelchair, wearing a head scarf, and having a big Afro are unconditionally accepted rather than markers for othering.
A pro-girl book with illustrations that far outshine the text. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-266712-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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