A cozy Christmas re(a)d.
A pourquoi tale for Christmastime.
Fearnley’s story stops just short of explicitly stating that its aim is to explain how the robin got its red breast, but readers are invited to draw this conclusion. On the cover, a white and brown bird is clad in a red knitted vest and glides across the ice. The half-title page shows the same bird flying, but then on the title page the bird is vest-free, its feathered, white breast showing. The first spread in the book proper shows Little Robin admiring his reflection in a mirror while wearing a knitted white vest decorated with a holly pattern. Six vests of other colors appear on hangers around his tree-hollow home, but none is the red one from the frontmatter. Subsequent spreads show the bighearted Little Robin wearing and then giving away each of these vests when he encounters others animal out in the cold. White, green, pink, yellow, blue, purple, and orange vests are gifted to a frog, hedgehog, mole, squirrel, rabbit (who cleverly wears the vest as a hat in the illustrations, its ears poking through the arm holes), mother and baby otter, and mouse, respectively, until poor Little Robin is left shivering in the cold, vest-less. So who saves the day and provides Little Robin with a red vest for his breast? Santa, of course (here depicted as a white human).
A cozy Christmas re(a)d. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0825-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster.
In singer Amerie’s picture-book debut, a biracial child goes on a magical adventure, with ancestors rooting them on.
Full-bleed spreads depict a dark-skinned infant being nurtured by a Black- and Korean-coded family and growing into an energetic youngster with light brown locs and a high fade. As the family sits down to a meal, the protagonist wanders off, their eye caught by an old photograph of a smiling, Black ancestor in overalls. When the child reaches out toward the picture, they fly through the frame and emerge in a jewel-toned forest. The woods are full of glowing, dancing Black and Asian ancestors. Accompanied by rhyming, inspirational text, the narrative winds along with the jubilant kid as they dance through the trees, chase an otherworldly white creature, ride a fiery bird (perhaps inspired by the Samjok-o from Korean mythology), and meet a person in a Korean hanbok before returning home. Younger readers may enjoy the singsong words alongside illustrator Figueroa’s colorful, dreamlike art, but overall, the narrative feels somewhat unstructured and unsatisfying. Platitudes like “You will do big things / That just might change the world. // And you will do small things / That may help one boy or girl” are too timeworn to stand out, and the youngster’s hop from one supernatural montage to the next is more dizzying than enchanting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81702-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Readers who have ever wondered what it’s like to be a twin need look no further.
All children have “firsts,” but twins have their own special ones.
Two rosy-cheeked 5-year-old “look-alike” twin sisters share everything, but their most prized possession is a bright, striped blanket that stands out from the white background and the girls’ soft colors. Now that the blanket has become too small, who should keep it? On double-page spreads each girl gives her version of the dilemma. A truce is reached when their mother decides that they’ll sleep in twin beds and that she’ll make them each a new blanket. The sisters’ individual personalities begin to shine, as does the vibrant fabric that each picks out, and fun ensues when they help their mother wash and dry the fabric in the backyard. Even with their new blankets—with trim formed from their old blanket—the girls have trouble falling asleep in separate beds until they both reach out their hands to comfort one another in the dark. From newborns sleeping in similar poses to slumbering youngsters sprawled out in opposite positions to the selection of differently colored and designed fabrics, Yum’s deceptively quiet text and poignant illustrations, created from prints, colored pencil, watercolor and other media, convey the girls’ growing independence. Despite this divide—which is both physical and emotional—the twins recognize their inseparable bond.
Readers who have ever wondered what it’s like to be a twin need look no further. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-37972-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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