There are better rainy-day romps to be had.
An onomatopoeic celebration of rain, translated from Dutch.
A light-skinned youngster and a canine pal peer out the window at the rain. They rush to don universal rain gear (yellow slicker and red boots—even for the dog) and run outside. The duo sees many creatures large and small on their adventure. Lindsten peppers the landscape with smiling trees, tiny snoozing birds, and lines of rain splashing down. Alas, while there are playful word strings that are immensely fun to recite—“splish, splash, splish, splash” or “squish, squash, squish, squash”—there are more than a few scansion stumbles in the rhyming text. Some stanzas get mired in too much detail: “Pitter, patter, pitter, patter, / swallows flying low, / excitingly swooping for flies, / while rabbits shelter in the burrow.” Others are just clunky: “Flip, flap, flip flap, / big bird trying to catch a worm. / Dog jumps, bird drops worm / with a squirm.” The narrative’s focus zooms in on ladybugs, ants, caterpillars, and more and how the rain affects them, which is an appreciated angle. However, the text mentions “happy slugs,” but the corresponding illustrations show snails. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.4-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 43.6% of actual size.)
There are better rainy-day romps to be had. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60537-590-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful.
Life buzzes in a community garden.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, this city garden gets plenty of human attention, but the book’s stars are the plants and insects. The opening spread shows a black child in a striped shirt sitting in a top-story window; the nearby trees and garden below reveal the beginnings of greenery that signal springtime. From that high-up view, the garden looks quiet—but it’s not. “Sleepy slugs / and garden snails / leave behind their silver trails. / Frantic teams of busy ants / scramble up the stems of plants”; and “In the earth / a single seed / sits beside a millipede. / Worms and termites / dig and toil / moving through the garden soil.” Sicuro zooms in too, showing a robin taller than a half-page; later, close-ups foreground flowers, leaves, and bugs while people (children and adults, a multiracial group) are crucial but secondary, sometimes visible only as feet. Watercolor illustrations with ink and charcoal highlights create a soft, warm, horticulturally damp environment. Scale and perspective are more stylized than literal. McCanna’s superb scansion never misses, incorporating lists of insects and plants (“Lacewings, gnats, / mosquitos, spiders, / dragonflies, and water striders / live among the cattail reeds, / lily pads, and waterweeds”) with description (“Sunlight warms the morning air. / Dewdrops shimmer / here and there”). Readers see more than gardeners do, such as rabbits stealing carrots and lettuce from garden boxes.
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1797-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Animated and educational.
A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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