A (mostly) sweet story of friendship, letting go, and new beginnings.
When Button has to move away from her best friend, Bundle, she finds a way to stay connected from afar, if only in her mind.
Button, a white girl with long, reddish-blonde hair, and Bundle, a black girl with afro puffs, spend their days together, playing with their dolls, “weaving daisy chains, blowing wishes, and singing their song.” Both girls are distressed when Button moves away. “Button didn’t think they’d ever be happy again.” Three spreads are devoted to this sad time, and Button’s sadness is transferred onto her doll: “Petal wanted to stay in her bed.…It was a lonely, blue time for Button and Petal.” But one day, a yellow balloon “arrived with a song on the breeze,” and Button uses it to send Petal off to find Bundle and Rose (Bundle’s doll and Petal’s best friend). She happily imagines Bundle receiving Petal and singing their song. Then, one day, Button is looking for fairies when she stumbles upon another girl looking for fairies “and friends.” Leah, a girl with light brown skin and long, brown hair, gives Button a unicorn, and once again Button has a best friend, “singing a new song” without forgetting her old song and her old friend. The illustrations, soft and whimsical drawings done in watercolor and pastel with pencil, create a dreamlike quality for each stage of the story. Button’s friends feel almost imaginary, which is somewhat troubling as they are depicted as girls of color, but her emotions feel very real.
A (mostly) sweet story of friendship, letting go, and new beginnings. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6668-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the...
Using science and technology, third-grader Ada Lace kicks off her new series by solving a mystery even with her leg in a cast.
Temporarily housebound after a badly executed bungee jump, Ada uses binoculars to document the ecosystem of her new neighborhood in San Francisco. She records her observations in a field journal, a project that intrigues new friend Nina, who lives nearby. When they see that Ms. Reed’s dog, Marguerite, is missing, they leap to the conclusion that it has been stolen. Nina does the legwork and Ada provides the technology for their search for the dognapper. Story-crafting takes a back seat to scene-setting in this series kickoff that introduces the major players. As part of the series formula, science topics and gadgetry are integrated into the stories and further explained in a “Behind the Science” afterword. This installment incorporates drones, a wireless camera, gecko gloves, and the Turing test as well as the concept of an ecosystem. There are no ethnic indicators in the text, but the illustrations reveal that Ada, her family, and bratty neighbor Milton are white; Nina appears to be Southeast Asian; and Mr. Peebles, an inventor who lives nearby, is black.
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the chapter-book world. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8599-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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