A pleasure for the eye; the ear wants more.
A bored child takes his mother’s advice, and as he becomes more observant of his surroundings, the garden transforms into a dazzling jungle.
Opening scenes depict black silhouettes (with white details) against a lavender background; they channel the delicacy and whimsy of Arthur Rackham images. It is a bright coral butterfly that leads Tom into a series of seven, intricate, laser-cut pages that comprise the dense jungle. Each of these pages is decorated on both sides, and the sequence gradually transitions from midnight blue to mint green, the leafy layers and hanging vines of the card stock creating an illusion of depth and distance. Exotic birds, fragile flowers, and animals (including a cat that morphs into a leopard) punctuate the coolness with spots of coral. Tom remains a black silhouette as he climbs a tree and swims in a river. In contrast to this lush landscape is a pedestrian, singsong text told in aabb couplets (translated from the French): “Why not take a look at what’s outside your door? / You’ll find lots of things that you’ve not seen before,” reads the mother’s initial admonishment. Returning home, the protagonist is excited about his “journey” and anxious to revisit the jungle, suggesting that imagination is an antidote to boredom. Since the premise is not new and there is not much action, this title needed a more skillfully written narrative to rise above the rest.
A pleasure for the eye; the ear wants more. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-500-65224-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pedestrian.
Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.
Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up.
In Murray’s children’s debut, when a gingerbread man made by schoolchildren gets left behind at recess, he decides he has to find his class: “I’ll run and I’ll run, / As fast as I can. / I can catch them! I’m their / Gingerbread Man!”
And so begins his rollicking rhyming adventure as he runs, limps, slides and skips his way through the school, guided on his way by the friendly teachers he meets. Flattened by a volleyball near the gym, he gets his broken toe fixed by the kindly nurse and then slides down the railing into the art teacher’s lunch. Then it’s off to the principal’s office, where he takes a spin in her chair before she arrives. “The children you mentioned just left you to cool. / They’re hanging these posters of you through the school.” The principal takes him back to the classroom, where the children all welcome him back. The book’s comic-book layout suits the elementary-school tour that this is, while Lowery’s cartoon artwork fits the folktale theme. Created with pencil, screen printing and digital color, the simple illustrations give preschoolers a taste of what school will be like. While the Gingerbread Man is wonderfully expressive, though, the rather cookie-cutter teachers could use a little more life.
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25052-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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