A chipper frolic through nature’s colorful palette.
An extended family gathers on the porch of a country home to enjoy cool lemonade and time together on a hot summer day.
Two kids run off to gleefully explore the colorful countryside. However, when a sudden summer storm pops up, they must race home to avoid being caught in the downpour. While many first concept books that teach colors use a repetitive format (simply introducing objects and their corresponding colors without much emphasis on story), this book weaves color into an already engaging plot. The pace of the rhyming text perfectly matches the action; it meanders a bit as the family members arrive and greet one another in the hot sun and then quickens as the storm approaches. Both text and illustrations are celebratory of rural life in general; the mentions of peaches and egrets call to mind the southeastern United States specifically. The full-bleed illustrations are lively and saturated. They neatly depict the menacing darkness that takes over the sky with the arrival of a summer storm without becoming scary. However, the exact relationships of the characters depicted are unclear at times (there are three children, so why do two leave one behind?), which unfortunately confuses the text rather than enhancing it. Still, the book is well-crafted and appealing, and the conscientious attention to diversity in both race and family structure makes it noteworthy.
A chipper frolic through nature’s colorful palette. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-37094-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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