A young ballerina excited about the evening’s upcoming performance discovers that she and Monsieur Degas, at work in the rehearsal studio on The Dance Class, have switched bags. He has her tutu and she has his paints. Frantically, she pursues him through Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day, past Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines and Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre. She enters a studio where Cassatt is at work on Little Girl in a Blue Armchair and returns in triumph to star in Degas’s Ballet: L’Étoile. Readers will enjoy a charming study of French Impressionism as the dancer is directed from one great painter to the next. Montanari melds images of the artists at work on their canvases with a young dancer moving and posing beautifully. The slightly elongated figures combined with unusual perspectives and a pastel palette of yellows, browns, blues and pinks evoke the time and set the tone. Along the way, there are nuggets of information about the artists’ techniques. A lovely book to share with budding artists and families off to visit an art museum or Paris. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8109-3878-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bird-finding made easy and attractive.
A veteran birder invites young readers to look for the birds around them.
“There are lots of ways to find a bird. / That’s the wonderful thing about birds.” Ward, author of many nature titles including Mama Dug a Little Den, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (2018), offers good suggestions for bird-finding at any age. Move slowly and quietly. Try to blend in. Look up, down, and also straight ahead. And, finally, “the best way to find a bird”: close your eyes and listen. Ward makes clear why birds are where they are. Some are feeding or nesting on the ground; some are snacking or splashing in the water; some are high in the sky; others perch on wires or feed in your own backyard. Sudyka’s opaque watercolors are as engaging as the text. A smiling black child and a shorter child with pale skin and straight, black pigtails discover birds in a variety of environments. Hand-lettered labels identify the many birds shown. Two spreads make a puzzle: Three birds blend into a tree’s bark so well they can barely be seen; a page turn shows them close-up and labeled. The birds might not realistically all be found in the same parts of this country or at the same time, but they are reasonably common (except on the spread showing five extinct birds) and clearly identifiable in these illustrations. An afterword for older readers or caregivers provides good suggestions and further resources.
Bird-finding made easy and attractive. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6705-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Sure to ease the worries of human campers before their own forays.
Various animals reveal their worries to readers as they pack for summer camp.
Skunk doesn’t like scary stories, and feeling afraid sometimes leads to stinky incidents. Duck never learned to swim. Mole is worried about sports due to poor eyesight (archery, anyone?). And Mouse fears sleeping on the top bunk. Sloth, Rabbit, Snake, Bear, Kangaroo, and Parrot share worries of their own as they each pack their belongings in a suitcase (readers will chuckle at the small, carefully chosen details in these scenes). Once they all arrive at camp, though, they discover a larger problem than their own specific fears: Their new counselor, Cat, is stuck up a tree. By cooperating and each doing jobs that are well suited to them, they can get Cat out of the tree and thereby become a team that can work on their individual fears. For example, under an alligator counselor’s close eye, Duck works on floating, Snake acting as a ring buoy around Duck’s waist. Climo’s cartoon illustrations use format conventions to marvelous effect, imaginary scenes encased in cloudlike bubbles to separate them from reality. The characters are simply drawn with minimal details, but this serves to highlight their expressive faces. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23.1% of actual size.)
Sure to ease the worries of human campers before their own forays. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11098-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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