An ingenious, inspiring lesson in the crafting of poetry.
Everywhere this kid goes, they create poems about poems.
In the opening scene, a pale-skinned kid with black hair in a pageboy carefully stacks gray rectangles containing single words in a wagon. A brown-skinned kid observes, asking “What are you making?” The answer: “A poem.” Indeed, the sequence of rectangles poetically reads, “then fall like / a warm / spring shower.” As rectangles pile higher in the wagon, a new set of lines forms, this one about a poem that soars like a kite and climbs like a tower. When the wind carries the words like pieces of paper across the landscape to create another poem, this one speaks of poems jumping up, taking flight, climbing higher. Moving from one landscape to the next, the protagonist’s poems pass like snakes through grass, float like toy boats, hang singly like laundry on a line, get carried away by a dog, nest in a tree, and so on. With each new sequence of words, a new poem emerges as the poet and the word wagon visually progress from woods, over hills, and through fields to a village, gradually attracting a diverse collection of children who are advised to “set your poem free” and watch it grow, “row by row, / rhyme by rhyme.” By assembling individual words into poems, the protagonist effectively creates the text, while dynamic, contemporary, stylized illustrations cleverly incorporate the poems into each double-page spread.
An ingenious, inspiring lesson in the crafting of poetry. (Poetry. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68464-223-6
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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A bittersweet tale for kids that deftly illustrates the conflicting emotions that can occur when a loved one is struggling...
In Bertone’s illustrated children’s book, a young boy navigates his increasingly complex but loving relationship with his grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
Nate loves his Nana, but lately he’s noticed “something going on with her mind.” She begins acting oddly: attempting to read a book upside down, for instance, or forgetting that it’s his birthday party and not hers. As she becomes more preoccupied with “imaginary friends” that Nate can’t see, he becomes increasingly upset that she doesn’t play with him the way she used to: “Sometimes my Nana goes far away, traveling, in her mind. But, where? It’s hard to say! To Italy, outer space, or back to 1952. When Nana’s not here, I don’t know what to do.” Although other people, including Papa (Nate’s grandfather), tend to argue with her when she gets in those moods, Nate tries his hardest to be understanding. As he wonders if she’ll be around to see him get older, she reassures him that her love will remain forever, “though I may forget your name and your face.” Bertone tells the story in verse, with only one or two sentences per page. Claridades’ cartoon illustrations feature wide-eyed characters and pops of color that perfectly encapsulate the story’s shifting moods. When Nana talks to people who aren’t present, for example, the illustrator shades the ghosts of her past in a solid color to differentiate them from reality. The book skillfully blends hard facts and feelings, mentioning Alzheimer’s disease symptoms, such as mood swings, while also demonstrating Nate’s patience and adoration. The lack of parental figures in the book seems like a missed opportunity for the story to clearly explain to Nate, and young readers, what’s happening with Nana. By and large, though, the book manages to convey the reality of the disease to kids in an approachable way that encourages discussion. The book ends with resources for “Understanding aging, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.”
A bittersweet tale for kids that deftly illustrates the conflicting emotions that can occur when a loved one is struggling with dementia.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9798989403417
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Susan Schadt Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Whether in hand or on shelf, this one’s sure to make a splash anywhere and everywhere.
A frog tries to do everything a goat does, too.
Goat asks Frog to look at them before declaring “I’m ON it!” while balancing atop a tree stump near a pond. After an “Oooh!” and a “You know what?” Frog leaps off their lily pad to balance on a rock: “I’m on it, too!” Goat grabs a prop so that they can be both “on it AND beside it.” (It may take young readers a little bit to realize there are two its.) So does Frog. The competition continues as Frog struggles to mimic overconfident Goat’s antics. In addition to on and beside, the pair adds inside, between, under, and more. Eventually, it all gets to be too much for Frog to handle, so Frog falls into the water, resumes position on the lily pad, and declares “I am OVER it” while eating a fly. In an act of solidarity, Goat jumps in, too. In Tsurumi’s first foray into early readers she pares down her energetic, colorful cartoon style to the bare essentials without losing any of the madcap fun. Using fewer than 80 repeated words (over 12 of which are prepositions), the clever text instructs, delights, and revels in its own playfulness. Color-coded speech bubbles (orange for Goat, green for Frog) help match the dialogue with each speaker. Like others in the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading series, Elephant and Piggie metafictively bookend the main narrative with hilariously on-the-nose commentary.
Whether in hand or on shelf, this one’s sure to make a splash anywhere and everywhere. (Early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-06696-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
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