Child-friendly and appealing.
“Can you be friends with somebody who is…not at all like you?”
This cheerful account of surprising animal friendships assures readers and listeners that they can. The author/illustrator of Found Dogs (2017) and Mail Duck (2020) addresses a just slightly older audience with this simple but effective message. The stories of Owen and Mzee (hippo and tortoise), Kumbali and Kago (cheetah and puppy), Themba and Albert (elephant and sheep), Koko, a signing gorilla, and various kittens, and Ben and Duggie (dog and dolphin) demonstrate that friendship can grow unexpectedly. Each story is told in two double-page spreads. The first introduces the two animals with a pair of quatrains; the second poses the question “Can we be friends?” and answers it positively on one page. On the facing page is a description of the friendship, naming the animals and explaining where and how it happened. The final spread shows a child of color and a variety of animals, asking “Whose friend will YOU be?” Sirotich uses heavy black line to outline her cartoon creatures and their settings. The text is relatively simple, appropriate for fledgling readers to read with an adult or on their own. Some of these stories may be familiar; others, not so widely publicized. A glossary defines animal-related words such as “animal shelter,” “runt,” and “sanctuary.” The author includes a list of her sources and suggestions for further exploration on the internet.
Child-friendly and appealing. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294158-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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