A bon voyage of a book.
A quirky, true story about a modern-day adventurer and his fine, feathered friend.
Frenchman Soudée and his hen, Monique (pictured on the jacket), spent 3 ½ years traveling by yacht. Their journey made him, at age 24, the youngest navigator to negotiate the Northwest Passage alone, and this picture book illustrated with photographs from their voyage will delight readers with its humor and sense of wonder. Some photos taken with a drone camera provide breathtaking aerial views of the yacht in Arctic surroundings. Others will provoke laughter at the unlikely sight of a hen standing in snow while wearing a makeshift sweater Soudée fashioned for her out of gloves or strutting across a vast sheet of ice. Throughout, handsome book design employs creative framing to make each spread delight the eye. The most dramatic moment comes when the ice traps the boat, compelling the pair to overwinter in the Arctic for four months. Monique survives on seeds and dried insects stored on the yacht, and her eggs keep Soudée well-fed until the ice breaks and they continue their journey. An engaging, helpful backmatter map of the journey with additional photos and facts might have better served readers as frontmatter, but this quibble is only true for the first trips through a distinctive book that will likely inspire many rereadings. Soudée presents white.
A bon voyage of a book. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-44884-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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