Readers will want to reread the simple but meaningful text and bask again in the glorious illustrations of this splendid...
A little boy’s imagination creates a beautiful, mysterious, snowy world outside his home.
Expressive oils on paper are equally adept at showing the snow’s softness and a little boy’s changing moods. The wraparound cover art immediately draws readers in, and the quotation from Yeats opposite the dedication sets the tone: “The world is full of magic things, / patiently waiting / for our senses to grow sharper.” The first double-page spread shows an isolated, wooden house in steadily falling snow with these words: “Outside, snow falls silently on the house.” The next two pages illustrate the sentence, “Inside, a boy has nothing to do.” When the boy goes outside, his mood begins to lift, despite his disappointment at an older brother’s refusal to join him. By the end of the boy’s time outside, an enchanting, magical world of castles and snow creatures has elevated his spirits—and will have a similar effect on readers. The palette moves through the colors of a perfect winter’s day in New England, from the blue-grays of falling snow to the golden-pink tones of sunset—ideal colors for the boy’s dragon ride—to the deeper blues of approaching evening. The double-page spread that introduces the dragon is especially enthralling.
Readers will want to reread the simple but meaningful text and bask again in the glorious illustrations of this splendid debut. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-547-91065-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Informative, empowering, and fun.
Girl power abounds in this book about coding that introduces young readers to the world of programming while offering them hands-on activities via a companion app.
In this title that was first introduced as a customizable, personalized print-on-demand product, Rox has a superpower. Using code, she programs toy robots that can do things like make broccoli disappear—or mischief. When Dad tells Rox to clean her room, she quickly thinks up a bot that will do it for her, writing code that instructs her bot to use artificial intelligence to sort objects by color and type. Though Rox knows that there’s a high potential for her creation to rebel, the perks outweigh any potential adverse effects. Rox’s robot has her room neat and tidy in no time—and then the entire home. Chorebot’s AI allows it to keep learning, and it seems Chorebot can do no wrong until the robot decides to rearrange the entire city (both buildings and people) by type, style, and gender. Chorebot goes “out of his artificial mind!” Rox must now stop her creation…without the assistance of the internet. The artwork, styled in the tradition of popular superhero series, is peppy and colorful, and it depicts Rox as an adorable black girl donning a black bomber jacket and a pink tutu. A companion app (not available for review) allows readers to create a bot of their own.
Informative, empowering, and fun. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57687-899-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: POW!
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
An important environmental message obscurely delivered.
A young Asháninka girl in the Peruvian rain forest enjoys exploring her surroundings—until one day she sees something that frightens her.
Zonia is Asháninka, the largest Indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. “Every morning, the rain forest calls to Zonia. / Every morning, Zonia answers.” Following a blue morpho butterfly, she greets the sloths; sings with the birds; says hello to a band of coatis; rides on a jaguar; watches Amazon river dolphins swim by; congratulates a giant anteater with new babies; sits on a giant lily pad as a caiman floats nearby; and even hangs upside down side by side with a boa constrictor. Sweet illustrations done on handmade banana-bark paper depict a spunky and happy brown-skinned child with high cheekbones and long black hair flying in the wind. Zonia’s life as portrayed here feels beyond idyllic—cartoonishly so, if not for the quality of the art. Abruptly, after her sequence of delightful encounters, Zonia comes across a section of the forest that has been clear-cut. Frightened, she runs home and tells her mother the forest needs help. When her mother tells her the forest “is speaking to you,” Zonia declares, “We all must answer”—and the book ends. With no buildup or explanation, the last sentence carries no emotional weight. The real substance of the book is in its backmatter. There, readers will find the story translated into the Asháninka language by Arlynder Sett Gaspar Paulino, information on the Asháninka and the Amazon rain forest, and the names of the animals depicted in the story. A Spanish edition, La selva de Zonia, publishes simultaneously.
An important environmental message obscurely delivered. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0845-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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