Heartwarming.
Friendship endures despite warfare.
Sheila the baby elephant is the only one of her kind at the zoo, but her redheaded, pale-skinned keeper is her family; they do everything together. But their routine changes when war breaks out. Planes drop bombs, causing loud explosions that hurt Sheila’s ears. The keeper sneaks into the zoo at night and rubs Sheila’s ears to calm her. Soon, the two companions get braver and leave the zoo together—Sheila thinks she is very stealthy, squeezing through iron fences—all the way to the keeper’s “enclosure,” where they spend the night before returning each morning. As the war continues and Sheila keeps growing, this situation gets harder to maintain, until one day Sheila breaks through a fence while chasing a dog. Sheila’s no longer allowed to leave the zoo, but the keeper continues to keep her company at night. This sweet story of animal-human friendship is based on a real zookeeper who cared for an elephant housed at Northern Ireland’s Belfast Zoo during World War II. Backmatter offers more background on Sheila and her keeper, Denise Weston Austin, as well as some context for the war. Sheila narrates, so the tone mostly remains light, focusing on the little elephant’s relationship with her beloved keeper even as the sounds of bombs fill the air. The charming illustrations are soft with a vintage quality, using lighting and shading to great effect.
Heartwarming. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593703267
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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