The beginning’s muddled, but the message is clear: Sing your heart out.
The moon has disappeared from the sky above Fulki’s village.
Around the same time, a group of elders declares that the villagers should stop singing. The reason, they say, is that singing attracts dangerous animals from the nearby jungle. When the singing stops and the moon is gone, the sounds of beasts grunting, growling, and bellowing make all the villagers quiver with fear—all the villagers, that is, except for Fulki. Fulki is secretly friends with a tiger, whom she regularly plays with in the jungle. When Fulki tells the tiger that the elders have outlawed singing to protect the villagers from wild beasts, the tiger is puzzled. After all, the tiger is both a beast and very well behaved. The tiger then confesses that he, also, has lost his moon and that every night he sings to try to bring it back. The tiger then teaches Fulki to sing for the moon. Their lesson leads to some wonderfully surprising results. The book’s lyrical text makes great use of devices like onomatopoeia, rendering the story a delight to read out loud. In the beginning, the plot is difficult to follow: It is unclear whether the elders outlaw singing because the moon has disappeared or because they are afraid of wild beasts or both. The fanciful illustrations loosely make use of Eastern motifs, but it is not clear where the book is set geographically. Human characters have brown skin and purple hair.
The beginning’s muddled, but the message is clear: Sing your heart out. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9979580-7-2
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Little Press Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
A disappointing follow-up.
Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).
While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself. But when Abi abandons her project, Izzy salvages the pieces and decides to take Grandpa’s advice to create a machine that “can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable. However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.
A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-164-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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