Perfect for animal lovers and old souls who harbor a touch of melancholy.
A lonely child and a bison become soul mates in this affecting French fantasy.
A little girl is walking with her mother the first time she encounters the creature. After a few days, she gets close enough to touch him—and, eventually, to feed him. Wisniewski’s narrative, voiced in the first person by the protagonist, is spare, stating the essentials. Sometimes it is only a sentence or two on an otherwise blank page, a choice that draws attention to the exquisite charcoal-and-ink compositions, arranged in changing page designs. The shaggy softness of the bulky creature is matched by the white girl’s appearance, her wooly layers underscoring their simpatico relationship. They sometimes blend together. A friendship is established, with the bison reappearing each winter. The first time he returns, strokes of blue watercolor animate the snowy woodland scene, the bison spotlighted in a clearing. A cozy spread shows the two sipping hot chocolate indoors while the girl tells stories: “Sometimes he wouldn’t say anything. / I loved his silence.” Eventually both characters’ hair turns white. The last time they are together, she wonders if he misses his mother as much as she misses hers. Searching for him in vain the next winter under a blue, starlit sky, she finally realizes: “He was always with me.” Wisniewski’s words and images capture the deep satisfaction of an interspecies bond.
Perfect for animal lovers and old souls who harbor a touch of melancholy. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61689-886-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text.
A unicorn learns a friendship lesson in this chapter-book series opener.
Unicorn Bo has friends but longs for a “bestie.” Luckily, a new unicorn pops into existence (literally: Unicorns appear on especially starry nights) and joins Bo at the Sparklegrove School for Unicorns, where they study things like unicorn magic. Each unicorn has a special power; Bo’s is granting wishes. Not knowing what his own might be distresses new unicorn Sunny. When the week’s assignment is to earn a patch by using their unicorn powers to help someone, Bo hopes Sunny will wish to know Bo's power (enabling both unicorns to complete the task, and besides, Bo enjoys Sunny’s company and wants to help him). But when the words come out wrong, Sunny thinks Bo was feigning friendship to get to grant a wish and earn a patch, setting up a fairly sophisticated conflict. Bo makes things up to Sunny, and then—with the unicorns friends again and no longer trying to force their powers—arising circumstances enable them to earn their patches. The cheerful illustrations feature a sherbet palette, using patterns for texture; on busy pages with background colors similar to the characters’ color schemes, this combines with the absence of outlines to make discerning some individual characters a challenge. The format, familiar to readers of Elliott’s Owl Diaries series, uses large print and speech bubbles to keep pages to a manageable amount of text.
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32332-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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