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WHEN THE WIND CAME

Name: WHEN THE WIND CAME
Author: Jan Andrews
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0339-5

by Jan Andrews ; illustrated by Dorothy Leung ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2022

Memory, fear, despair, and ultimately hope blow through this quiet story of courageous resilience.

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The story of a natural disaster as remembered by a child.

Sentences that start with “I remember…” demonstrate the power of memory. What this brown-skinned child is remembering is a seemingly ordinary day on the family farm. The narrator’s parents work while they try to read. “I remember my baby brother / whimpering, / whimpering, / whimpering. / Every day, / every day, / every day.” Suddenly the wind comes, “blowing / harder / and harder / and harder.” The child and their family run for the root cellar and sit in darkness. The protagonist’s matter-of-fact declaration—“Our home was gone / when we came out”—speaks to their shock and despair. A third shift in the narrative arc is signaled by a change in the illustrations, from dark, foreboding images of a vast untamed prairie to light, playful images of the bubbles the child blows while washing dishes. This deceptively uncomplicated book offers a hopeful perspective on loss: Joy and laughter are possible even in the face of disaster. Leung’s painterly vistas and expressive faces complement Andrews’ lean poetic phrasing. The land and nature’s might are silent characters in the story. The reader is left pondering the narrator’s final words: “Those laughs didn’t change anything. / They made no difference. // Those laughs changed everything. They made all the difference in the world.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Memory, fear, despair, and ultimately hope blow through this quiet story of courageous resilience. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: June 7, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5253-0339-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
TO SEE THE STARS
by Jan Andrews ; illustrated by Tara Tidwell Bryan

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN APPLES GREW NOSES AND WHITE HORSES FLEW
retold by Jan Andrews & illustrated by Dušan Petričić

- BOOK REVIEW
STORIES AT THE DOOR
by Jan Andrews & illustrated by Francis Blake

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LOVELY

by Jess Hong ; illustrated by Jess Hong ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2017

“Lovely is different, weird, and wonderful.” So reads the caption for a white girl with blonde hair and one blue and one...

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Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, and this book encourages readers to regard everyone as “lovely.”

In today’s world, with increasingly evident diversity in race, ethnicity, gender expression, sexuality, fashion, body shape, abilities, and choices about everything, the author/illustrator presents people of every description in the bold, brightly colored digital illustrations. Opposites are introduced: “black” for a white young woman clad in black and “white” for a young-looking, brown-skinned woman with flowing white hair. “Simple” appears on a tattooed white arm, along with a few designs, while “complex” is written on a brown arm, with what appear to be elaborate mehndi designs (henna designs applied before a South Asian wedding). A white baby is “soft,” and an older white woman with purple hair, a spiked denim jacket and choker, a nose ornament, and many ear decorations is “sharp.” A “tall” person with Asian features walks a small dog. A “short” smaller, light-brown–skinned male with green hair has a large dog. A gay interracial male couple face an adoring dark-brown–skinned child and mom. These pages read: “Lovely is you. / Lovely is me.” The last double-page spread includes young and old: a white woman in a wheelchair (there is one amputee with a modern prosthetic leg earlier in the book), a goateed man in a bustier, and others of various colors and sizes.

“Lovely is different, weird, and wonderful.” So reads the caption for a white girl with blonde hair and one blue and one brown eye! A simple book with lots of truth. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-939547-37-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Creston

Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
FROM MAYBE TO FOREVER
by M.L. Gold & N.V. Fong ; illustrated by Jess Hong

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I NEED A HUG

by Aaron Blabey ; illustrated by Aaron Blabey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 29, 2019

This is a tremendously moving story, but some people will be moved only on the second reading, after they’ve Googled “How to...

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A hug shouldn’t require an instruction manual—but some do.

A porcupine can frighten even the largest animal. In this picture book, a bear and a deer, along with a small rabbit, each run away when they hear eight simple words and their name: “I need a hug. Will you cuddle me,…?” As they flee, each utters a definitive refusal that rhymes with their name. The repetitive structure gives Blabey plenty of opportunities for humor, because every animal responds to the question with an outlandish, pop-eyed expression of panic. But the understated moments are even funnier. Each animal takes a moment to think over the request, and the drawings are nuanced enough that readers can see the creatures react with slowly building anxiety or, sometimes, a glassy stare. These silent reaction shots not only show exquisite comic timing, but they make the rhymes in the text feel pleasingly subtle by delaying the final line in each stanza. The story is a sort of fable about tolerance. It turns out that a porcupine can give a perfectly adequate hug when its quills are flat and relaxed, but no one stays around long enough to find out except for an animal that has its own experiences with intolerance: a snake. It’s an apt, touching moral, but the climax may confuse some readers as they try to figure out the precise mechanics of the embrace.

This is a tremendously moving story, but some people will be moved only on the second reading, after they’ve Googled “How to pet a porcupine.” (Picture book. 3-5)