The Paulsens (Woodsong, 1990, etc.) create a song—really a lyric verse—in praise of ordinary workers, a refreshing slant for a culture mired in the worship of celebrity. "It is keening noise and jolting sights,/and houses up and trees in sun,/and trucks on one more midnight run." The text doesn't always name the job or worker, but refers to an aspect of it—the mentions of "flat, clean sidewalks" and "towering buildings" force readers to think about the sweepers and construction teams pictured in the illustrations. The artwork serves a dual purpose: The oil paintings gorgeously convey a tangible sense of the work environment while also ennobling its humble inhabitants. Among those shown: the woman who toils in the canteen kitchen ("making things for all to share"), workers at computer terminals ("offices filled with glowing screens"), a new mother and nurse ("gentle arms that lift and hold"). Last and surely not least, the text acknowledges why people work: "It's mother, father in a chair,/with tired eyes and loosened hair./Resting short but loving long,/resting for the next day's song. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-200980-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
This is more than just a book about making and engineering: Make an excellent choice to add this to the shelves.
Follow along as a child makes a spaceship, a friend, and a difference in her community.
“Ask yourself this question in the morning when you wake: / in a world of possibilities, today, what will you make?” Upon waking up, a young girl uses her imagination and things she has at home to make a tower, a drum set, and a spaceship. When she ventures outside, she makes a new friend. Working together, they make a lemonade stand and then make a donation to the local park. Finally, they make a choice to help more in order to make a difference in their community. Howes speaks to readers in rhyming verse about the many things they can make, intentionally repeating the verb throughout. Including themes of creativity, imagination, music, engineering, relationships, economics, and community service, she creates a powerful message about making choices to be proud of. Vukovic uses mixed media, including watercolors and crayon, to create lively, striking illustrations. The pictures capture a child’s imagination and how ordinary things can be made into something extraordinary. Together the text and the illustrations create an excellent read that will empower readers to reflect on their own lives and make a change or two or three. The unnamed protagonist has brown skin and long, dark braids; her friend presents white.
This is more than just a book about making and engineering: Make an excellent choice to add this to the shelves. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5124-9802-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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