Too simplistic for the task.
A kid at the beach in Genoa, Italy, starts to eat a popsicle at 5:33 p.m., and “time stop[s].”
In 25 other places around the world, large and small, children and animals go about their lives, with names, activities, places, and times detailed in the text and accompanied by bold, naïve illustrations in bright colors. The hours get earlier on each. As the book travels from place to place, “Tomi [takes] a picture” in London, United Kingdom, at 4:33 p.m., “Biko’s ball [gets] stuck” in Praia, Cape Verde, at 3:33 p.m., and “Aki the penguin hatche[s] in South Georgia” at 2:33 p.m. The book continues in this fashion until it returns to Genoa and the time becomes 5:34 p.m. All locations visited are shown on a concluding map. The logic is sometimes shaky: Why are children in yellow pajamas running out of toothpaste at 11:33 a.m. in New York City? At 5:33 p.m. in Paris, Eric calls his researcher mom, who answers in Concordia Station, Antarctica, at 2:33 a.m. It will take some adult intervention to explain that they are speaking on the phone at the same time. The book provides some information on why there are different time zones but never really satisfactorily explains this. Humans depicted are racially diverse; pleasingly, this diversity is not always linked to location. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Too simplistic for the task. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-3-7913-7489-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Prestel
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Little fashion bugs deserve better.
Fashion Week starring insects.
Spring is here, and everyone arrives to the meadow: models, a fashion editor, viewers, and paparazzi—all insects and other creepy-crawlies. Aponte uses matte colors, often tertiary, to create bustling scenes of the lead-up and the runway show. Before the show begins, the illustrations are visually busy, with no particular place for readers’ eyes to rest or focus; once the show begins, the compositions focus, though color saturation stays monotonously uniform. Various creatures walk the runway as each double-page spread emphasizes one color. The green page is conceptually inventive: models in green dresses appear reflected in the green eyes of green spectators, who hold up their cellphones to record. On the page highlighting white, fireflies—glowing in yellow-white—stride up the runway in gray-and-white capes. The inconsistent text sometimes scans satisfyingly: “ ‘What should we wear?’ ask the six-legged press. / ‘Who should we follow and how should we dress?’ ” Other times it stumbles: “ ‘It’s a season to BEE!’ exclaims Miss V. McQueen, / editor of BUZZ fashion magazine” (requiring incorrect syllabic emphasis). At the end, an extraneous, out-of-the-blue platitude—“In the spring, summer, fall, and winter, too— / the most important thing to BEE is… / YOU!”—undermines the high-fashion theme and falls flat.
Little fashion bugs deserve better. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-99570-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Price Stern Sloan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
The aesthetic pleasures are very strong, but one-on-one adult guidance will be necessary to help young mathematicians make...
Exquisite watercolor-and–gold-leaf paintings of animals and objects that look as if they tumbled out of medieval illuminated manuscripts distinguish this counting book.
The book starts off simply enough: “One cherry, one cheetah.” A background of textured gold and bluish-purple, embellished with biomorphic designs, completes the spread. Two regal dogs appear, with “two balls, one big, one small.” “Three bears, three bowls, three silver spoons” follow, but why are there just three berries to go along with “four fine foxes, sharing strawberries.” The seven giant pandas have only five parasols. Then the book really breaks the mold. Now there are “Ten cherries, one cheetah.” Those dark red, glistening cherries look good enough to eat; the last page shows the sated cheetah, with 10 cherry pits neatly lined up, and the text reads: “No cherries, one cheetah. / None, all gone.” But the cheetah is still here. The front endpapers display unordered floating numerals (1 through 10), the cheetah, and the cherry, but no other numerals appear until the end. A chart showing the numerals and the associated flora or fauna (with cherry but sans cheetah) is found on the back endpapers. These pictures differ slightly from the inside pages, and sometimes the attendant objects are omitted.
The aesthetic pleasures are very strong, but one-on-one adult guidance will be necessary to help young mathematicians make sense of these complex images. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-91095-928-2
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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