A timely, vibrant, and cheerfully illustrated reminder about the importance of balance.
An overachieving scout learns the value of saying no in this picture book.
Butterfly Brigade member Jackie, a confident girl with brown skin, curly hair, and glasses, is excited to attend her first scout jamboree. Her enthusiasm for earning patches puts her in the running for the “top scout overall” Golden Monarch Award. She comes up with a plan to enter the Great Jamboree storytelling competition, which would earn her two more patches—she just has to write a tale before the event. It seems simple enough, but when her fellow scouts ask for help fixing their banner and Ms. Cruz needs Jackie to dogsit, the girl finds herself in over her head. Luckily, Mommy’s there with sage advice: “To make people happy, I know how far you would go, / but there often” come times “when you just have to say ‘NO!’ ” For children (and adults) who struggle because they take on too many tasks, this valuable lesson—learned early—could save a lot of future tears. Jackie is a likable protagonist who strives to help everyone. She eventually learns that taking care of herself is just as vital. Ferguson’s humorous, rhyming stanzas scan smoothly throughout, and the invented scouting organization allows more children to identify with Jackie’s goals. The action-oriented illustrations that depict a brown-skinned cast are where Jackie really shines. Aryutova deftly captures the girl’s spirit and challenges in soft-edged, cartoon images.
A timely, vibrant, and cheerfully illustrated reminder about the importance of balance.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73616-213-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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