by Donna J. Napoli & illustrated by Cathie Felstead ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2002
As a little girl tells of her father’s death from cancer, she mixes tender memories and great pain in an unvarnished account. She and her dad take a trip to the places in Florida he loved when growing up. Her dad is funny and silly, and wonders, as they collect pink and white flamingo feathers, if maybe she’s a flamingo at heart. When they come home, she sits with him after school every day. She knows he is dying, and she’s not surprised when he goes to the hospital for the last time. At his funeral service, all of his friends bring her flamingos, as her father had asked them to do after his death. She fills the yard with them, then knocks them down in pain and in anger. Later, she carefully stands them up again, and scatters her father’s ashes under their feet. When the flamingos disappear under the snow, she dreams that they—and her dad—went back to Florida for the winter. Her father made a Year Book on her birthday each year full of his photographs; she takes all the mementos and flamingo feathers and puts them together for her own Year Book. The art is a wonderful collage mix: objects, torn paper, and childlike drawings colored in pencil or crayon, echo the honesty and realism in the text and are exactly what this little girl would have drawn or collected. Napoli (Daughter of Venice, 2002, etc.), who has written many intense tales for children and for teenagers, takes a page from her own life (and a nephew’s death) here, and transforms it into a wrenching, powerful, four-hanky story. (Picture book. 4-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-688-16796-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
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by Phil Rosenthal & Lily Rosenthal ; illustrated by Luke Flowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
Amusing but misleading on the nutritional and behavioral fronts.
With one taste of despised mustard, a child pivots from rejecting new foods to seeking them.
Dad takes Lil to a food truck festival. Lil, who narrates the story, is nervous; this child’s list of acceptable foods is short (pizza, rice, grilled cheese, french fries, and vanilla ice cream). Dad loves varied tastes and repeatedly reminds Lil of his rule: “Just try it!” With a “YECCCH!” or an “EWWWWWW!” Lil refuses a bagel loaded with toppings, linguini with clams, Peking duck, pizza with spinach and garlic, and a pretzel covered with Lil’s most hated of foods: mustard. Frustrated, Lil accidentally knocks the pretzel onto Dad’s shirt. Lil apologizes, takes a lick of mustard…and instantly learns to appreciate every rejected offering. Lil then uses the title mantra to pressure Dad onto a nausea-inducing roller-coaster ride. Bright, cartoon-style illustrations emphasize the pair's upbeat mood. Food neophobia, or an aversion to eating anything novel, has complex psychosocial roots. But in this blithe little fable, the child’s resistance is completely overcome with a single accidental exposure, and the formerly picky eater immediately becomes a novelty seeker. The turnaround here is implausible; if this book creates any expectations of a sudden dramatic change in a child’s behavior, that would be a disservice. Both Dad and Lil are light-skinned.
Amusing but misleading on the nutritional and behavioral fronts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781665942638
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2005
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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