Well-illustrated poetry which may be too challenging for some younger readers.
This latest addition to the Neighbors poetry series offers engaging poetry for young children.
Held and Kim (The Yard Critters Too, 2013, etc.) continue their partnership with a new set of 13 poems that combine wordplay and factual information about animals from aquatic biomes. The marine critters include a dolphin, a seal, a manatee, bivalves, a polar bear, a sea otter, a sea horse, a shark, and a whale; the freshwater animals include a beaver, a snapping turtle, a tiger salamander, and a minnow. As in the authors’ earlier volumes, each spread features at least one easy-to-interpret digital collage or illustrated image. The addition of higher-level cultural references—Uniqlo and Prius, for example—and a poem that doesn’t provide contextual clues to the meanings of challenging words (“Tiger Salamander”) suggest that the book may not be appropriate for very young readers. The authors continue to use a wide variety of ear-pleasing rhymes—including homophones (see/sea), weak rhymes (Uniqlo/also), alliteration (so placid/so pleasant), assonance (brine/time), and broken rhymes (jaws/awesome). However, some moments may stop some readers in their tracks. There are some personifications that don’t quite click (Heron and Tern are called “stern,” with no apparent rationale other than forcing the rhyme); and a passage about blue whales inexplicably switches to humpbacks. “Bivalves” begins with an obscure double entendre—“So common they’re part of our tongue / which is happy to order and taste them”—which requires readers to understand the word “tongue” to mean a language as well as an organ in the mouth used to speak. The illustrations, however, continue to delight with their combination of different art styles, and their surprising patterns, which invite second looks.
Well-illustrated poetry which may be too challenging for some younger readers.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0916754310
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Filsinger & Co.
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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