A nicely understated lesson in politeness for the very young.
He didn’t mean to annoy all the other animals. He was just naturally curious.
“There once was a bear who liked to stare.” He’s big and orange and never says a word, but he never blinks either. On the story’s first page, he sits on the ground and stares a bit unnervingly at readers. On the facing page, he’s a little closer to them. And on the next double-page spread, all that can be seen are just his big staring eyes! Bear stares at the ladybugs enjoying a picnic; they scuttle away. Bear climbs a tree to stare at a bird family; the mother bird squawks at him to go away. He stares into a badger’s burrow and gets a good bite on the nose. But when Bear stares at a frog sitting contentedly on a lily pad, the amphibian just stares back. “Not much fun being stared at, is it?” the frog asks, and Bear admits that this is true. His gaze shifts to the water, where he sees…himself! His mouth curls into a smile, and he feels happy. Bear has learned his lesson, and now when he encounters his forest neighbors, he smiles. The text and pictures are harmoniously minimal, the former simple in structure but with rich vocabulary (“gawking,” “pondered,” “muttered”) and the latter pleasantly flat and planar, in the manner of Jon Klassen. The eyebrows do yeomen’s work.
A nicely understated lesson in politeness for the very young. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0285-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)
Doctor X-Ray, a megalomaniac with an X-ray blaster and an indestructible battle suit, crashes through the ceiling of the local mall.
Innocent patrons scatter to safety. But one curious child gazes directly at the bully and asks: “Why?” At first, Doctor X-Ray answers with all the menace and swagger of a supervillain. The curious child, armed with only a stuffed bear and clad in a bright red dress, is not satisfied with the answers and continues asking: “Why?” As his pale cheeks flush with emotion, Doctor X-Ray peels back the onion of his interior life, unearthing powerful reasons behind his pursuit of tyranny. This all sounds heavy, but the humorously monotonous questions coupled with free-wheeling illustrations by Keane set a quick pace with comical results. At 60 pages, the book has room to follow this thread back to the diabolical bully’s childhood. Most of the answers go beyond a child’s understanding—parental entertainment between the howl of the monosyllabic chorus. It is the digital artwork, which is reminiscent of Quentin Blake’s, that creates a joyful undercurrent of rebellion with bold and loose brush strokes, patches of color, and expressive faces. The illustrations harken to a previous era save for the thoroughly liberated Asian child speaking truth to power.
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6863-0
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back.
Little Nutbrown Hare ventures out into the wide world and comes back with a new companion in this sequel to Guess How Much I Love You (1994).
Big Nutbrown Hare is too busy, so after asking permission, Little Nutbrown Hare scampers off over the rolling meadow to play by himself. After discovering that neither his shadow nor his reflection make satisfactory playmates (“You’re only another me!”), Little Nutbrown comes to Cloudy Mountain…and meets “Someone real!” It’s a white bunny who introduces herself as Tipps. But a wonderful round of digging and building and chasing about reaches an unexpected end with a game of hide-and-seek, because both hares hide! After waiting a long time to be found, Little Nutbrown Hare hops on home in disappointment, wondering whether he’ll ever see Tipps again. As it turns out, it doesn’t take long to find out, since she has followed him. “Now, where on earth did she come from?” wonders Big Nutbrown. “Her name is Tipps,” Little Nutbrown proudly replies, “and she’s my friend.” Jeram’s spacious, pale-toned, naturalistic outdoor scenes create a properly idyllic setting for this cozy development in a tender child-caregiver relationship—which hasn’t lost a bit of its appealing intimacy in the more than 25 years since its first appearance. As in the first, Big Nutbrown Hare is ungendered, facilitating pleasingly flexible readings.
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1747-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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