Friendships do indeed come in all shapes and sizes.
A youngster with a penchant for howling finds the perfect companion.
Willa Cathcart Wilmerding is bold and clever. She climbs supertall trees, befriends arachnids, and can even spell the word “H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R.” But every Friday night, Willa climbs to the roof of her house and howls at the moon. It doesn’t have anything to do with werewolves—she just enjoys howling. (The howls tumble and stretch across the pages as she bellows.) When her mom admonishes her, Willa decides to run away to the mountains where she can howl in peace. However, the mountains are also where Bigfoot lives. And Bigfoot likes to howl just as much as Willa. (This particular version is shaggy, pink, and female.) After a bit of a standoff, the two become fast friends. Willa decides to name her new friend Buttercup. But when Willa’s mom comes on a helicopter and tells her she misses her, sadly the pair is separated. The convenient wrap-up involves the woolly creature’s arrival in the city, where she joins Willa’s life. Everything seems a bit off-kilter (why does Willa howl? Why is her skin tinted blue, with schoolmates having a variety of normal and outlandish tones?), but the romp skims along the surface to simply tell a quirky story of friendship. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 36.5% of actual size.)
Friendships do indeed come in all shapes and sizes. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20934-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message.
Drawing on lyrics from her Mormon children’s hymn of the same title, Pearson explores diversity and acceptance in a more secular context.
Addressing people of varying ages, races, origins, and abilities in forced rhymes that omit the original version’s references to Jesus, various speakers describe how they—unlike “some people”—will “show [their] love for” their fellow humans. “If you don’t talk as most people do / some people talk and laugh at you,” a child tells a tongue-tied classmate. “But I won’t! / I won’t! / I’ll talk with you / and giggle too. / That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Unfortunately, many speakers’ actions feel vague and rather patronizing even as they aim to include and reassure. “I know you bring such interesting things,” a wheelchair user says, welcoming a family “born far, far away” who arrives at the airport; the adults wear Islamic clothing. As pink- and brown-skinned worshipers join a solitary brown-skinned person who somehow “[doesn’t] pray as some people pray” on a church pew, a smiling, pink-skinned worshiper’s declaration that “we’re all, I see, one family” raises echoes of the problematic assertion, “I don’t see color.” The speakers’ exclamations of “But I won’t!” after noting others’ prejudiced behavior reads more as self-congratulation than promise of inclusion. Sanders’ geometric, doll-like human figures are cheery but stiff, and the text’s bold, uppercase typeface switches jarringly to cursive for the refrain, “That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Characters’ complexions include paper-white, yellow, pink, and brown.
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4236-5395-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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