With bedtime-story shelves bursting, this is one that can be set aside.
Those monkeys just don’t want to sleep!
Snuggled in bed with his three stuffed monkeys, Sam asks his mother if he would have to go to sleep if he were a monkey. In answer, she tucks him in after reading him his favorite book—but once she leaves, his stuffed monkeys come to life and want to jump around. “They smash and bash and crash-crash-crash until all balls have been bounced and all trains have been trounced.” Mama warns him to get back in bed, and he does, but his mind teems with questions: “Do fish go to bed in their bathing suits?” Mama says she’ll answer his questions in the morning. He tries his breathing exercises, but the monkeys turn it into a “ping-pong song” and “the French ding-dong song.” Mind and monkeys still working overtime, Sam tricks the lively stuffed animals into listening to his book, and they all drift off. Choldenko’s tale of bedtime bounciness reads like something a parent might make up on the spur of the moment to quiet a restless child. Imaginative, restless tots might recognize themselves in Sam, but their imaginations are probably a bit more original and outlandish than his. Even Davis’ frenetic and funny watercolors can’t mitigate the story’s extemporaneous feel.
With bedtime-story shelves bursting, this is one that can be set aside. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-24623-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Design flaws aside, the book’s timely message of universality among diversity is a highly relevant one.
No matter how different our lives are, some things are the same.
A child’s world is full of color—and, if they look closely, full of wonder. Most double-page spreads of this picture book feature rhyming verse set on the left-hand page that describes in developmentally appropriate language how a child narrator sees a color. Gold, for example, is “warm” and “full of sparkle,” whereas blue is “deep, wide, and open.” Each stanza ends with versions of the same question, which concludes across the gutter or after a page turn: “Is your gold… / …like my gold?” creating a repetitive pattern that will delight young readers. The text is accompanied by rich illustrations of diverse children from all around the world, including South Asia, Latin America, East Asia, and Western settings. The final page features a black child and a white child sitting arm and arm on a hilltop, looking at the same star, driving home the message that our similarities bring us together and our differences make us more beautiful. The best feature of the book is the highly textured, collage-style illustrations, many of which contain soft strokes of color that give the images a pleasantly dreamlike quality. Unfortunately, the print is small, and the single lines that begin with “…like my” often get swallowed up in the pictures and are difficult to find.
Design flaws aside, the book’s timely message of universality among diversity is a highly relevant one. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4549-3013-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This endearing fairy-tale retelling will bring joy to literary-themed storytimes.
Rather than walking through the forest with delicious pastries for grandma, this Little Red is a poet with endless rhymes.
In this fractured retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood,” a little girl with light-brown skin and long, black hair is bullied for speaking exclusively in rhyme: “Want to ride the swings with me? / Race our bikes or climb a tree?” The other children find this strange, especially Big Brad Wolf, a light-skinned, chinless boy with blue eyes and a shock of brown hair who takes to teasing the girl known as Little Red Rhyming Hood. She puts on a brave face with lines like: “You don’t bother me, Big Brad / Nasty words won’t make me sad.” In reality, she is affected by his bullying. When Big Brad scares the rhyme right out of Little Red and into him, the two must find a way to work together to write a poem for Little Red’s poetry contest. In Bouloubasis’ bold and bright illustrations, the stylized characters come to life, especially Little Red with her charming personality and tough exterior. This refreshing take on a classic fairy tale touches lightly on the subject of bullying; even though Brad’s quick reformation into a poet seems too good to be true, this is an enjoyable picture book nonetheless.
This endearing fairy-tale retelling will bring joy to literary-themed storytimes. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4597-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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