A touching story about imagination bringing a parent and child closer together.
A boy tries to help his mother find her lost creativity in this debut rhyming picture book.
One day, Kyle and his grandfather find an old box the boy’s mother threw away and turn it into the basis for an imaginary submarine. “A submarine? Is that what it is? I never would have guessed,” Kyle’s mother asserts. After hearing from his grandfather that his mother used to be artistic, Kyle starts making plans to help her find her lost creativity by sharing how he sees the world. The next day, Kyle spends the day with his mother, telling her how even when they are doing errands, they could be rock stars, pirates, royalty, or astronauts. Eventually, Kyle gives up, but when all the chores are done, his mother makes him a surprise decoration to show him she cares. In this moving tale, Pittman deftly captures the way imaginative kids perceive their surroundings as well as the busy sense of urgency many adults have when they feel they don’t have time for creativity. But the rhyming text is laid out in chunky blocks, sometimes making the phrases and rhythms difficult to spot. Rambaldi’s beautiful, detailed, painterly illustrations depict Kyle’s family members with slightly different shades of brown skin. The images alternate Kyle’s imagined world with his mother’s firm reality until both unite at the end.
A touching story about imagination bringing a parent and child closer together.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-578-57620-6
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Cardboard Clouds
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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