Even veggies get tired, it seems.
Illustrator OHora’s adorable anthropomorphic veggies star in this bedtime ramble. The illustrations, appropriately created with 100% vegetarian paper and acrylic paint, portray veggies in brilliant realistic colors with thick, black-line details that pop against a pale sky or textured brown earth. A pink-segmented worm guide with a rakish hat and one sock and sneaker winds its way through an urban rooftop community garden as day ends, visiting every veggie preparing for bed or “snoozing, / beneath the moon so bright, // for nothing’s more exhausting / than growing day and night.” In Murray’s playful rhyming text, “tuckered-out tomatoes” hum lullabies, cauliflowers cuddle, “beets are / simply beat,” and “celery is snoring / as sunset disappears.” With just two to nine words per page, the story makes for quick reading, but its steady rhythm, whimsical rhymes, abundant alliteration, and hand-lettered sleep-appropriate sounds to share like “zzzzz” and “snore! snore!” extend the read-aloud experience. The illustrations are equally charming, smiling faces on most of the vegetables matching the worm’s grin. One rhubarb stalk improbably holds a book, reading aloud to some broccoli. The eggplants are revealed to have expansive dreams! Familiar garden creatures also hide in plain sight on most garden spreads. The human gardener, seen tangentially at the beginning of the story, has brown skin.
A bedtime veggie feast for the eyes and ears. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-86683-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A rhyming celebration of imagination.
A child with brown skin offers gentle, artful ideas about what to do with autumn leaves. The picture book's idyllic setting seems Northeastern in nature, with deciduous trees shedding leaves, which the child scoops up. Could a leaf from a tree become a hat, a Halloween mask, a hammock, or something else entirely? "It could be a horn that blows, announcing that we're here. // A leafy parade to celebrate our favorite time of year." Rhyme rules the text but isn't forced in the least. Collaged leaves against painted illustrations encourage play and imagination. A nod to winter and spring make this a year-round read. Endpapers with realistic labeled images of leaves provide an injection of information in this otherwise dreamy musing. The backmatter includes instructions on collaging—a meaningful and fun activity that builds upon the text. While there's nothing groundbreaking here, there is opportunity for both learning and whimsy. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sweet, poetic ode to autumn. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-30659-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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