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WITH YOUR PAW IN MINE

Name: WITH YOUR PAW IN MINE
Author: Jane Chapman
ISBN: 978-1-68010-084-6

by Jane Chapman ; illustrated by Jane Chapman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2018

Immersive, fluffy, and tailor-made for one-on-one storytime with caregivers and friends.

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Paw in paw, two otter pups keep each other safe from a dangerous ocean storm.

When Mama goes hunting, she leaves her pup, Miki, alone to float safely on her back in a bed of seaweed. Waiting, Miki spots another “furry bundle” and paddles over to meet Amak, a pup who is also waiting for his mother. Recognizing that “waiting is lonely,” Miki offers to hold Amak’s paws until their grown-ups return. From that day forward, the two are inseparable—and the two mothers and two pups even snuggle up together at night. When a storm comes, the pups are again separated from their mothers, but, paw in paw, they keep each other safe. Whether taken literally or metaphorically, the book’s message resonates: “We all need someone’s paw to hold when the big waves come.” Though the story of friendship and community is timeless and endearing, Chapman’s signature acrylic artwork truly stands out as something special. The artist’s cool palette and spare, maritime scenery focus the art tightly on the characters and their small piece of the ocean. The lack of white space echoes the expansiveness of the sea.

Immersive, fluffy, and tailor-made for one-on-one storytime with caregivers and friends. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68010-084-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
BEAR FEELS SAD
by Karma Wilson ; illustrated by Jane Chapman

- BOOK REVIEW
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Clement C. Moore ; illustrated by Jane Chapman

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LITTLEST CHRISTMAS TREE
by Jane Chapman ; illustrated by Jane Chapman

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)