A vibrant exploratory presentation that should be supplemented with other books.
A sophisticated color-concept book featuring a contemporary family introduces Islam to young Muslims and children who don’t practice this faith.
Here the basic colors, plus gold and silver, are used to explain aspects of Islamic life. A young girl with very large eyes narrates, using short, childlike and occasionally forced verses to match colors and objects: “Gold is the dome of the mosque, / big and grand. / Beside it two towering / minarets stand.” She describes a red prayer rug, her mom’s blue hijab (headscarf), white kufis (traditional men’s woven hats), black ink for a calligraphic design, brown dates for Ramadan, orange henna designs, an Eid gift of a doll with a purple dress, a yellow zakat (charity) box, a green Quran (green has special significance in Islam, not explained here), and a silver fanoos, “a shiny lantern.” The glossary is excellent, explaining unfamiliar terms succinctly. The stylized illustrations, richly detailed, often play with the sizes of the objects in a surrealistic way. It is difficult to tell whether the family lives in the Middle East, Britain (home of the artist) or North America. The secular architecture looks Western, but the mosque looks very grand and Middle Eastern. The clothing styles are difficult to associate with a particular country. This both maximizes accessibility and deprives the tale of specificity—clearly a conscious trade-off.
A vibrant exploratory presentation that should be supplemented with other books. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8118-7905-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
Cozier than a roaring fire and sweeter than milk and cookies, this earns its “Christmas classic” stripes with flying colors.
Even the man with the bag needs a little help getting into the Yuletide spirit.
Barnett returns with yet another Christmas title, following How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? (2023), illustrated by Jon Klassen. Prepare for some potential confusion, since the titular “first Christmas” isn’t about the first time Santa started delivering gifts, but rather the first Christmas Day he’s celebrated himself. Usually after working hard on Christmas Eve, Santa sleeps in an extra half hour and then gets right back to work. The elves and a concerned polar bear decide to take matters into their own hands, so this year they surprise Santa with breakfast in bed on Christmas morning, then plunge into other activities: trimming a Christmas tree, stringing the North Pole up with lights, baking cookies, reading stories aloud, giving Santa presents, and enjoying a feast so decadent that it would make a reformed Grinch blush. Barnett narrates with a pitch-perfect mixture of droll amusement and holiday charm: Santa initially appears to be humoring his elves, only to really get into the spirit himself. Smith’s signature illustrations rely on bright colors and shapes. This seeming simplicity is belied by each scene’s unique lighting and reflections, imbuing everything with a singular warmth. Santa is pink-skinned and rosy-cheeked; the elves vary in skin tone.
Cozier than a roaring fire and sweeter than milk and cookies, this earns its “Christmas classic” stripes with flying colors. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593524978
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
A warm embrace of a book.
“My family loves me, and I love them. But we don’t use words to say ‘I love you.’ ”
As a child narrates, readers see a smiling mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather bustle about a cheery, colorful home doing chores. The narrator explains how each family member expresses their love with actions: Mom “stirs her love into a pot of steaming xī fàn” (Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese Hokkien words are sprinkled throughout and defined in a glossary), Ah Gong walks the child to school in the morning, Ah Ma packs a lunch of noodles, and Dad cheers and encourages from the sidelines of a soccer game. The child also shows love, saying, “I do my best at school so they can feel proud.” Some readers may wonder: Is Chen implying that the family’s reticence when it comes to verbally expressing their love is rooted in their being Chinese? Or is this a Chinese family that happens to be less verbally demonstrative? That’s left up to readers to decide; regardless, it’s abundantly clear from the detailed spreads and expressiveness of the characters that they are full of love for one another, with or without words. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A warm embrace of a book. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-42839-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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