A fanciful tale that captures the joyful energy of budding youth.
It’s not just the flowers that bloom in spring.
Originally published in China, this tale greets readers with grassy meadows, bushy trees, and budding flowers. Cheng’s thin black lines give texture to the warm pastel color palette, resulting in an unaffected charm. Two unnamed children, both with brown hair and light skin, are observed exploring the landscapes while spare text punctuates each page. The narrative is deceptively simple. Initially the children wish to feel the wonder of spring as their floral counterparts do. “I want to s t r e t c h my hand / to the tip of the tree branch // And grow with the flower buds, showering in sunbeams.” The lyrical narrative gradually gives way to whimsy, describing fantastical desires “to cruise down the river in a lily-pad boat. / And adventure into the sea.” Here one child is shown rowing an oversized lily pad, directed by a striped frog as colorful fish greet them. Eventually the journey of the children parallels the rebirth of the season as the narrative ends with the declaration that “I want to be a flower, ready to bloom.” The only outlier in this springtime meditation is an expressed wish to go sledding on “miles of snow” surrounded by snowmen. This may seem confusing for some, depending on their geography, but it is a small price to pay. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.375-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 79.7% of actual size.)
A fanciful tale that captures the joyful energy of budding youth. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4788-7039-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Reycraft Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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