by Eloise Greenfield & illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2001
Frequent collaborators Gilchrist and Greenfield (Angels: An African American Treasury, 1998, etc.) capture a budding artist's enthusiasm and compulsion to paint: "My room is full, / but my hand won't stop, / won't stop, / putting paint on paper / paint on paper, / paint . . ." What this child paints is dinosaurs of her own invention, including a Speedasaurus ("She never speaks to carnivores"), a (male!) Shoppersaurus, a Weeposaurus, a Sleeposaurus, a Messysaurus, and a Babysaurus: "He's his Mama's little baby, / Smiling sweet in Tennessee, / But his middle's in Montana, / And his tail's in Waikiki." The dark-skinned child in Gilchrist's illustrations positively radiates joy as she presides over an array of smiling, simply drawn cartoon dinosaurs rendered in bright paintbox colors. Children will easily catch the breezy, bouncy mood here, and few will be able to resist the invitation to create more new dinos, in pictures, words, or both. (Picture book/poetry. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 31, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17634-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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by L.E. Page ; illustrated by Stephen Templer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
An engaging tale of laughter versus grumpiness, illustrated in a nostalgic style.
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A plague of grouchy creatures infests a small town in this debut rhyming picture book.
It’s a normal day in a quiet town when the Grumbles arrive: “They made the town folk gloomy and glum, / With the grumbly effect they had on everyone.” But the townspeople don’t want to be grumpy, so they come up with ideas on how to get rid of the creatures. First, they yell at the Grumbles. Unfortunately, the shouts only make the creatures dig in deeper. Eventually, a child suggests making the Grumbles laugh. The residents agree to give it a try, and one man with a long mustache starts telling a knock-knock joke. After the Grumbles back away, the people laugh harder, and when one kid dances, the creatures flee. Page’s rhymes start as a three-line pattern and move to a four-line one, keeping a consistent scansion. With a few intriguing vocabulary words (tolerate, recoil, foiled) to keep children on their toes, the poetry should appeal to young independent readers and lap readers. Templer’s charming, old-fashioned illustrations feature a populace with different skin tones and body types, all troubled by the blobby Grumbles. The creatures have frowning mouths, sharp teeth, and ratlike noses. While the author’s message that grumpiness can be driven away through laughter and music is a familiar moral, the simple delivery and the folk-tale quality of the enjoyable story should strike a positive note with young readers.
An engaging tale of laughter versus grumpiness, illustrated in a nostalgic style.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5434-9583-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Xlibris Corp
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Esther Fausett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2022
Creative, encouraging verses about cancer patients accompanied by uneven illustrations.
Young cancer patients are celebrated in poetry in this debut picture book.
In five striking poems, Fausett captures the struggles of kids with cancer. The first, “Dear Cancer,” is addressed to the disease itself, with the child narrator declaring: “You’re not welcome here to stay, / Allow me to lead you on your way.” A youngster in a hospital gown follows the advice of the narrator in “Dance, Anyways.” Two young patients take a trip using their imaginations in “Journey.” A child describes learning things and gaining strength during the fight against cancer in “Good for Something.” The final evocative poem, “True Warrior,” equates scars with stars, claiming that all of the youngster’s triumphs against cancer are like footprints in a journey. Fausett’s rhythms are often syncopated, giving the lines of poetry an upbeat flow without a firm scansion. She frequently uses near-rhymes (lightly / mighty), and sometimes she turns phrases in inventive ways that may confuse younger readers (“embrace our strive”). The bold-hued digital art by Banerjee features several kids of different ethnicities as cancer patients; all feature nose tubes in a bright color attached to their faces. While there is an attempt to include Native Americans in the cast, the illustrator’s choice of clothing and feathers is stereotypical. One character wears a full headdress and has streaked paint on his cheeks, and a child sports two feathers sticking up from a headband.
Creative, encouraging verses about cancer patients accompanied by uneven illustrations.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781592111718
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Histria Kids
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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