Humor and heartfelt lyricism create a clear but nonpedantic morality tale for young and young-at-heart.
Will Snowboy and his Ice Troopers save the planet by reining in the greedy shortsightedness of Greenbackboy?
Whimsical artwork and lyrical, folkloric prose present a motif both familiar and new. Snowboy and Greenbackboy are light-skinned waifs: Snowboy has a pointy, elfin hood atop his Cloak of Many Uses; Greenbackboy sports a brown hat with bearlike ears. The moppets’ characterizations are expressive—as are those of Snowboy’s loyal Ice Troopers: two pigs and a polar bear. Greenbackboy easily persuades Snowboy to chop down trees and overfish the ocean to get lots of “KA-CHING,” represented by piles of glowing, yellow coins. Well—Snowboy is almost persuaded; in each instance, at the last minute, he remembers the importance of keeping at least one tree and two fish from extinction, and he acts accordingly. The text is both poetic and apocalyptic, as when a storm blows through: “As there were no trees to snag its wings, it swept all before it, tossing the mountains of canned fish into the empty oceans, where they sank and rusted and were lost.” The text moves beyond the expected rescue of planetary resources to reconciliation between the boys; a sweet, bedtime-story ending; and a sly reminder about constant vigilance needed against “the fantasy of KA-CHING.”
Humor and heartfelt lyricism create a clear but nonpedantic morality tale for young and young-at-heart. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9572-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors.
In this collaboration from mother/daughter duo Corrigan and Corrigan Lichty, a youngster longs to quit the soccer team so she can continue dreaming up more inventions.
Marianne, a snazzily dressed young maker with tan skin, polka-dot glasses, and reddish-brown hair in two buns, feels out of place on the pitch. Her soccer-loving dad signed her up for the team, but she’d much rather be home tinkering and creating. One day she feigns illness to get out of practice (relying on a trick she learned from the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and uses her newfound time to create a flying machine made from bath towels, umbrellas, cans, and more. Eventually, her dad catches wind of her deception, and she tells him she prefers inventing to playing soccer. Immediately supportive, he plops a pot on his head and becomes Marianne’s tinkering apprentice. Told in lilting rhymes, the story resolves its conflicts rather speedily (Marianne confesses to hating soccer in one swift line). Though the text is wordy at times, it’s quite jaunty, and adults (and retro-loving kids) will chuckle at the ’80s references, from the Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing movie posters in Marianne’s room to the name of her dog, Patrick Swayze. True to Marianne’s creative nature, Sweetland surrounds her with lots of clutter and scraps, as well as plenty of bits and bobs. One never knows where inspiration will strike next.
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593206096
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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