Adult explication may be needed for the textual rubric; the visually told story is enthralling all on its own.
Uplifting in more ways than one, this prizewinning import suggests that little things can change lives—and perhaps even the world.
Placing small, uncomplicated shapes against large fields of uniform color to create an aptly simple look, Albertine provides a visual plot for Zullo’s meditative abstractions. Some days “have something a little more,” which is “not made to be noticed” but “there to be discovered.” A man pulls up to a cliff in a truck and opens the back to release a flight of birds. Spotting one small, shy bird remaining, he companionably sits with it, then persuades it to take wing by flapping his arms and falling comically to the ground. Later, though, it returns—leading all the other birds—to carry the man up into the sky so that he can take flight on his own. Drawn with delicate precision, the characters express fear, friendship, yearning and delight through glances, posture and other cues that are not too subtle for observant children to pick up. More than half of the spreads are wordless, and for younger audiences at least, the rest could just as well be too.
Adult explication may be needed for the textual rubric; the visually told story is enthralling all on its own. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59270-118-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
This preachy, pedestrian cautionary tale isn’t going to convince many children to change their ways. Simia, a young monkey, wants everything. But the flower she grabs on a tree branch turns out to be attached to a thorny cactus, a beautiful orange object is a snarling jaguar, a zigzag shape is a snake that “uncoiled itself and shot into the air” (say what?), a “coconut” turns out to be a wasp’s nest, and so on. Later, Simia picks a flower that wilts, snatches a pretty stone from playmates and throws it into the lake, then almost falls out of a tree reaching for the moon. Mother monkey hammers the lesson home: “ ‘Some things are for yourself, some things are for others, and some things . . . are for everyone to share. You don’t have to own things to enjoy them.’ ” Instantly, Simia is satisfied. Right. Walters (Are You There, Baby Bear?, 1999) sets her little monkey into a series of lush, if static, forest scenes. An also-ran next to such similarly themed books as Marcia Brown’s How, Hippo (1969) and Kate Banks’s Baboon (1997). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56656-376-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
A lubberly addition to the fleet, kept afloat by its pictures.
Light scrapings of pirate lore are delivered by two children dressed to the hilt for their roles and leading a ragged but distinctly nonfearsome crew.
Billy and Belle are playing pirates at the beach. Transformed into swashbuckling buccaneers by the flip of a half-page, they proceed to offer ingenuous disquisitions on the nature and history of piracy (“Did you know many pirates steal from other people because they are very poor?”). They also cover piratical dress, behavior, shipboard tasks and lingo, followed by a spot of smoky but nonviolent plundering. Then it’s time to go ashore for a quick chantey, a matching game that encourages drawing lines between pirate heads and hats, and a set of review questions (“What’s the leader of a pirate ship called?”). The text isn’t much more than inconsequential ballast (“It is considered bad luck for girls to be on board a pirate ship. That’s why girl pirates dress up as boys”). Nevertheless, the cleanly drawn, brightly hued cartoon illustrations—climaxed by a double-gatefold cutaway view of a capacious ship crewed by cheery idlers—sail along airily enough to keep budding buccaneers entertained.
A lubberly addition to the fleet, kept afloat by its pictures. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60537-135-1
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
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