Give this to the sparkle- and cupcake-obsessed child in your life
Fabled equines party and play in a bright confection of a picture book.
“Hooray! Hooray! It’s Unicorn Day!” In galloping rhyming text that mostly scans, a community of chipper, bright-eyed unicorns obeys the three rules of Unicorn Day: “Show off your horn,” “Fluff up that hair,” and “Have fun, fun, fun!” They dance, frolic with butterflies, and of course eat cupcakes. But then they discover an interloper: A dun-colored quadruped, with a horn suspiciously attached with string, is outed as a horse. He mopes off, but the unicorns come running after—“they don’t want to lose a friend!”—and his horn is tied back on. With tension limited to a page turn, this very minor climax is resolved immediately. Then it’s back to the fun, as lots of other creatures (human children, a rainbow octopus, a Yeti, and more) join the unicorn parade with their own tied-on horns. Is this an allegory about straight people at pride parades? An argument that appropriation is OK sometimes? Should one read meaning into the identity of the only brown “unicorn”? Or is it just a zany, philosophy-free, sugar-fueled opposite-of-a-bedtime story? Regardless of subtext, conscious or otherwise, kiddie readers hungry for fluff will be drawn to the bright, energetic illustrations as to cotton candy.
Give this to the sparkle- and cupcake-obsessed child in your life . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6722-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Breathtaking in scope, consider this a wordless testament to the power of not just imagination, but art itself; picture...
On the coattails of Journey (2013), Becker gleefully expands and details his award-winning fantasyland, growing even more ambitious with his storytelling.
When readers last saw the boy and girl protagonists, they were sharing a tandem bike; this adventure opens with the children sheltering from raindrops under a bridge, the bike propped up against the wall. Suddenly, a desperate king bursts through a door set into the base of the bridge. He charges the two young heroes with collecting the six magic crayons that will defeat his realm’s enemy once and for all. Supplied with a map indicating where the crayons are hidden, the kids find each one (the girl stores them in a crayon bandolier), leading to a showdown with the bad guy that ends with a brilliant, rainbow-hued win for the forces of good. Harold-like, the children use the crayons to draw themselves out of scrapes along the way. Broadening his palette, Becker fills his book with myriad colorful details that will reward sharp-eyed fans. At the same time, his ink and watercolors evoke different kinds of architectural wonders (everything from Atlantis to Chichén Itzá). Part Indiana Jones, part Avatar: The Last Airbender, this book proves to be more exciting than its Caldecott Honor predecessor, emphasizing adventure over evocative metaphor.
Breathtaking in scope, consider this a wordless testament to the power of not just imagination, but art itself; picture books rarely feel this epic. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6595-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
School-supply battles like this one aren’t likely to occur among the picture-book set: skip.
A back-to-school shopping trip highlights the differences in style between a young witch and her more conservative mother.
Witches R Us, with its “Back to Ghoul Sale,” is the store to visit to get all the items on the Picky Little Witch’s school-supply list: cape, hat, boots, broom, cauldron, cat and several spell ingredients. But Mama’s tastes are way too plain or tight or splintery for the little witch who knows her likes and dislikes. Just when it seems as if the mother and daughter won’t agree on anything, a saleslady’s kitten intervention points the way toward compromise. Small details in the illustrations will keep readers engaged: Brooms occupy the parking spaces of the shopping plaza, whose stores include Ice Scream and Potions, and Harry Potter fans can’t help but think of Diagon Alley. But the overall package, while amusing, is amateurish in both text and artwork. A spiky typeface and small font make it difficult to read the text, which haphazardly (and distractingly) switches from snappy rhyming verses to plain text. Expressions and body language are both stiff, and though the palette relies heavily on witchy purples and greens, the illustrations otherwise have the appearance of early television cartoons.
School-supply battles like this one aren’t likely to occur among the picture-book set: skip. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4556-1887-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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