Lovely and quiet, this is a book to savor again and again.
Following Ming Goes to School (2016), the little girl is back for another subtle journey through the year’s seasons.
“Ming and Poppy know their way” and travel back and forth on foot, by bus, from school, through the park, to restaurants, on noisy streets, and in quiet places. Ming’s name is Chinese; Poppy could be Asian or white, allowing readers to imagine various family structures. In any case, their loving relationship is evident in the sketchy line-and-watercolor illustrations showing a little pale-skinned girl with black pigtails that stick straight out and a tall pleasant-looking gentleman, often holding hands or sitting close together, enjoying ice cream or doughnuts. The seasons are never mentioned in the spare, poetic text but are noted in the clothing, as Ming’s red school jumper is covered up by her coat and hat; boots replace shoes, which return; and finally she’s in blue shorts and sandals. Red leaves drop, and new spring flowers bloom to give further proof of the time of year. The little girl is mostly carefree, enjoying her friends and her grandpa, but there is a hint of childhood strife in the line “by sticks, by stones, / by names that sting,” when three children are shown whispering to one another and Ming plays alone on the sidewalk as Poppy looks sadly on.
Lovely and quiet, this is a book to savor again and again. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2943-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Though books on childhood anxiety are numerous, it is worth making space on the shelf for this one.
Brock may be dressed like a superhero, but he sure doesn’t feel like one, as social anxieties threaten to rain on his fun .
Juan’s superhero-themed birthday party is about to start, but Brock is feeling trepidatious about attending without his brother as his trusty sidekick. His costume does not fit quite right, and he is already running late, and soon Brock is “way past worried.” When he arrives at the party he takes some deep breaths but is still afraid to jump in and so hides behind a tree. Hiding in the same tree is the similarly nervous Nelly, who’s new to the neighborhood. Through the simple act of sharing their anxieties, the children find themselves ready to face their fears. This true-to-life depiction of social anxiety is simply but effectively rendered. While both Nelly and Brock try taking deep breathes to calm their anxieties without success, it is the act of sharing their worries in a safe space with someone who understands that ultimately brings relief. With similar themes, Brock’s tale would make a lovely companion for Tom Percival’s Ruby Finds a Worry (2019) on social-emotional–development bookshelves. Brock is depicted with black hair and tan skin, Nelly presents White, and peers at the party appear fairly diverse.
Though books on childhood anxiety are numerous, it is worth making space on the shelf for this one. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8075-8686-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Low grade.
A gray character tries to write an all-gray book.
The six primary and secondary colors are building a rainbow, each contributing the hue of their own body, and Gray feels forlorn and left out because rainbows contain no gray. So Gray—who, like the other characters, has a solid, triangular body, a doodle-style face, and stick limbs—sets off alone to create “the GRAYest book ever.” His book inside a book shows a peaceful gray cliff house near a gray sea with gentle whitecaps; his three gray characters—hippo, wolf, kitten—wait for their arc to begin. But then the primaries arrive and call the gray scene “dismal, bleak, and gloomy.” The secondaries show up too, and soon everyone’s overrunning Gray’s creation. When Gray refuses to let White and Black participate, astute readers will note the flaw: White and black (the colors) had already been included in the early all-gray spreads. Ironically, Gray’s book within a book displays calm, passable art while the metabook’s unsubtle illustrations and sloppy design make for cramped and crowded pages that are too busy to hold visual focus. The speech-bubble dialogue’s snappy enough (Blue calls people “dude,” and there are puns). A convoluted moral muddles the core artistic question—whether a whole book can be gray—and instead highlights a trite message about working together.
Low grade. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4340-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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