WHEN I LOOK UP

Name: WHEN I LOOK UP
Author: Ellen DeLange
ISBN: 978-1-60537-431-4

by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Jenny Meilihove ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2019

Wish, imagine, wonder, hope, dream…and choose a different book about imaginative flights of fancy and appreciating the here...

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A young child relates all the everyday things observed and encountered that spark a sense of wonder in this Dutch import.

From the back of a spring horse at the playground, the child spies a plane and thinks of “flying to faraway places.” Some cloud-watching leads to imagining “join[ing] the parade.” And while harvesting carrots (in the dark!), the child spots a white rabbit in the moon and wants to share. A shooting star, some butterflies, and a rainbow are more ordinary than the giant giraffes and less harmful than the balloon release that finds the child wondering if one might carry a note aloft. The ending is a bit out-of-the-blue. Although her pup appears in each scene, there’s been no interaction between the two, so the child’s declaration that “everything that makes me HAPPY is right here in front of me” rings a little false. It’s exemplary (and rather noteworthy) that only two scenes are indoors. Background people have diverse skin tones while the child has a red dress, peach skin, a dark pageboy, and bright red cheeks and nose. Indeed, the illustrations are a bit stylized and odd, with humans who mostly have noses that range from pink to bright red, almost clownlike, especially when paired with too-small cone-shaped hats with pompoms on top, as several people sport.

Wish, imagine, wonder, hope, dream…and choose a different book about imaginative flights of fancy and appreciating the here and now. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: May 15, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-60537-431-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clavis

Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THEO'S PRINCESS
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Monty Lee

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PITTER, PATTER, GOES THE RAIN
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Anna Lindsten

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WHO IS SHRIEKING SO EARLY?
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Zafouko Yamamoto

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TOO MUCH GLUE

by Jason Lefebvre ; illustrated by Zac Retz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013

Great gobs of glue should be more fun than this. (Picture book. 4-7)

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Can there be too much glue? Matty’s about to find out.

Matty’s art teacher warns him that too much glue will never dry, but Matty (and his dad) loves glue; they play with it constantly. So Matty finds the “fullest” bottle in the art room and squirts it all over his project. Then he flops down in the middle of the mess…and gets stuck. He’s “a blucky stucky mess!” His friends try to lasso him with yarn and haul him out, but the yarn breaks and gets stuck; now, he’s “a clingy stringy, blucky stucky mess.” A Lego tow truck snaps apart in another rescue attempt, making him a “click-brick, clingy stringy, blucky stucky mess!” When the bell rings, the glue’s dry, and dad must peel gluey Matty off the table. At home, he’s divested of his glue suit, and Dad puts a magnet on it and sticks it to the fridge. After dinner, the family explores the fun of duct tape. Despite the busy plot and superabundance of exclamation marks, Lefebvre’s debut never rises to the level of mayhem or fun it aspires to. The cumulative portion of the tale loses rhyme, rhythm and logic six pages before it ends. Retz’s Photoshop paintings are bright, wide-eyed and goofy, but they can’t add enough fun to compensate for the lackluster text.

Great gobs of glue should be more fun than this. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-9362612-7-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Flashlight Press

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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SEE PIP POINT

From the Adventures of Otto series

by David Milgrim & illustrated by David Milgrim ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2003

Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...

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In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.

The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.

Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)