Strong visual appeal and lively storytelling with a caring, humane message.
A captive young orca is a showbiz star, but he just wants to go home.
This good-hearted picture book about a playful orca named Yuki is clearly based on real-life captive orca Keiko (subject of the 1993 movie Free Willy) and the letter-writing campaign that led to his release. Black-and-white Yuki, dwarfing his goofy ocean pals (including an octopus and assorted fish and crustaceans) with his big, rounded body, becomes the main attraction at an aquarium in Mexico and stars in a movie about Nellie McGee, a whale “who yearned to be free.” The movie’s a big hit, but “one little girl had a curious thought. ‘How come Nellie is free, and Yuki is not?’” Children all over the world write letters on Yuki’s behalf; thanks to their kind hearts, the orca returns to frolic once more in his ocean home. This is veteran animator Bluth’s debut as a children’s author and the first of a planned series of “fables” from Don Bluth Studios, which specializes in hand-drawn illustrations and animation. (It isn’t a stretch to imagine Bluth’s expert, hand-painted artwork as an animated feature.) The story is told through loosely rhyming text, and each full-page illustration conveys a sense of motion in the positioning of foreground details and in the shifting palette of background colors that reflect mood, settings, and plot progression.
Strong visual appeal and lively storytelling with a caring, humane message.Pub Date: April 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798986251912
Page Count: 34
Publisher: 2D Press
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned.
All the reasons why a daughter needs a mother.
Each spread features an adorable cartoon animal parent-child pair on the recto opposite a rhyming verse: “I’ll always support you in giving your all / in every endeavor, the big and the small, / and be there to catch you in case you should fall. / I hope you believe this is true.” A virtually identical book, Why a Daughter Needs a Dad, publishes simultaneously. Both address standing up for yourself and your values, laughing to ease troubles, being thankful, valuing friendship, persevering and dreaming big, being truthful, thinking through decisions, and being open to differences, among other topics. Though the sentiments/life lessons here and in the companion title are heartfelt and important, there are much better ways to deliver them. These books are likely to go right over children’s heads and developmental levels (especially with the rather advanced vocabulary); their parents are the more likely audience, and for them, the books provide some coaching in what kids need to hear. The two books are largely interchangeable, especially since there are so few references to mom or dad, but one spread in each book reverts to stereotype: Dad balances the two-wheeler, and mom helps with clothing and hair styles. Since the books are separate, it aids in customization for many families.
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned. (Picture book. 4-8, adult)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6781-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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