A slight but sweet dogcentric tale that resonates with warmth and sincerity.
A playful pup gives voice to her happy, everyday life in this simple, rhyming children’s picture book by debut author Figueroa.
In this modest new picture book’s disarming dedication, the author credits his wife with inspiring his foray into children’s book writing. It began after she brought home a pup named Mitzi, he writes, “even though she had promised she would not get a dog until after I died!” It’s clear from what follows that Figueroa became an enthusiastic canine convert. The self-described “grandfather and dog owner,” “lover of life and humankind,” and “accountant with a poet’s heart” has crafted what amounts to a love letter to a dog he adores. He depicts her as an affectionate, little canine companion, telling her story in rhyme. Children’s books about dogs abound, and many are more substantive in content and visually original than this effort. However, Figueroa’s very young target audience, and dog lovers in particular, will still get a kick out of seeing Mitzi, the “love dog,” nose a ball, run, bounce, sit up, measure her eight-inch height (“no bigger than a dish rag”) against a ruler, wave her legs in the air to show her soft belly, and give comforting licks and cuddles to her owners. Debut illustrator Cudzilo renders Mitzi in a close-up perspective as a cream-colored, broad-stroke cartoon canine with a red collar and gold tag, giving her a winsome expression that reflects this brief tale’s sweet sensibility. Each simple couplet, divided into four lines and rendered in a pleasant typeface that appears hand-drawn, begins on one page and ends on the next. The book concludes with several white pages, decorated with square, blue borders, which are intended to serve as frames for readers’ own artwork. Figueroa fondly includes his own granddaughter’s crayon portrait of Mitzi as an example and invites readers to get creative and draw pictures of themselves, the story’s canine star (“Now you draw Mitzi”), and the readers’ own pets.
A slight but sweet dogcentric tale that resonates with warmth and sincerity.Pub Date: March 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4834-4318-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Playful, engaging, and full of opportunities for empathy—a raucous storytime hit.
Readers try to dislodge a monster from the pages of this emotive and interactive read-aloud.
“OH NO!” the story starts. “There’s a monster in your book!” The blue, round-headed monster with pink horns and a pink-tipped tail can be seen cheerfully munching on the opening page. “Let’s try to get him out,” declares the narrator. Readers are encouraged to shake, tilt, and spin the book around, while the monster careens around an empty background looking scared and lost. Viewers are exhorted to tickle the monster’s feet, blow on the page, and make a really loud noise. Finally, shockingly, it works: “Now he’s in your room!” But clearly a monster in your book is safer than a monster in your room, so he’s coaxed back into the illustrations and lulled to sleep, curled up under one page and cuddling a bit of another like a child with their blankie. The monster’s entirely cute appearance and clear emotional reactions to his treatment add to the interactive aspect, and some young readers might even resist the instructions to avoid hurting their new pal. Children will be brought along on the monster’s journey, going from excited, noisy, and wiggly to calm and steady (one can hope).
Playful, engaging, and full of opportunities for empathy—a raucous storytime hit. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6456-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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