A whimsical tale of imagination, human inventiveness, and interspecies cooperation.
The team behind Mending the Moon (2022) follows it up with another sweet, moving fantasy in which Poppa and Luna must avert natural disaster.
Every year, Poppa and Luna, both tan-skinned, visit the child’s favorite place, Summer Island, but this time, “the sun was too hot.” Instead of vanishing below the horizon, the fevered disc splashes into the cool sea. Seeing the sky look “all wrong,” Luna wakes Poppa: They must help! She has an idea: tie palm fronds together to make a long rope. As the rapidly cooling sun bobs on the waves, dolphins appear, carrying the rope out to the sun. A whale offers to tow the sun over the horizon so that it can be in place to return next morning. As night deepens, Luna thinks the stars might be falling: It’s fireflies, and she dreams “of dolphins and shooting stars.” Next morning the sun rises—but lightless. Helped by monkeys, Luna makes a tall bonfire; birds carry flaming sticks to light the edges; and the wind spreads the fire over the sun. The sun “would never go swimming again,” and, grateful that order has been restored, it offers a beautiful sunset each evening. Earning praise from Poppa, Luna feels “glad as a butterfly.” The poetic text is more than matched by glowing illustrations. They are particularly strong in shades and tints of the main color, creating an almost shadowless sense of depth and animation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A whimsical tale of imagination, human inventiveness, and interspecies cooperation. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781645679882
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably...
A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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