by Jane Whittingham ; illustrated by Noel Tuazon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2018
A sweet read-aloud featuring a fearless and athletic girl to share with funny little monkeys.
An exuberant little girl, the titular “wild one,” romps energetically all day before finally collapsing into a well-deserved slumber.
A series of similes compares the child, who has glossy, straight black hair and light brown skin, to various animals: “Wild one, through the grass, // bounding like a puppy. / Wild one, at the pool, // swimming like a guppy.” Most of the time she is pictured alone, except for a sprinkler scene in which she plays with one white and one black child, the section where she walks home with her mother, and one illustration in which her mother and father (who resemble her in physical appearance) gaze fondly at her as she sleeps alone in her own bedroom. The rhyming text flows smoothly and has a jaunty rhythm that lends itself well to reading aloud. The playful watercolors start off saturated with bright colors that become muted as the child’s day comes to a sleepy end.
A sweet read-aloud featuring a fearless and athletic girl to share with funny little monkeys. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77278-036-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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by Jane Whittingham ; illustrated by Cinyee Chiu
by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim ; illustrated by Eva Byrne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017
Skip it
This book wants to be feminist.
Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.
Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim illustrated by Eva Byrne
by Danica McKellar ; illustrated by Alicia Padrón ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2017
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon.
This bedtime book offers simple rhymes, celebrates the numbers one through 10, and encourages the counting of objects.
Each double-page spread shows a different toddler-and-caregiver pair, with careful attention to different skin tones, hair types, genders, and eye shapes. The pastel palette and soft, rounded contours of people and things add to the sleepy litany of the poems, beginning with “Goodnight, one fork. / Goodnight, one spoon. / Goodnight, one bowl. / I’ll see you soon.” With each number comes a different part in a toddler’s evening routine, including dinner, putting away toys, bathtime, and a bedtime story. The white backgrounds of the pages help to emphasize the bold representations of the numbers in both written and numerical forms. Each spread gives multiple opportunities to practice counting to its particular number; for example, the page for “four” includes four bottles of shampoo and four inlaid dots on a stool—beyond the four objects mentioned in the accompanying rhyme. Each home’s décor, and the array and types of toys and accoutrements within, shows a decidedly upscale, Western milieu. This seems compatible with the patronizing author’s note to adults, which accuses “the media” of indoctrinating children with fear of math “in our country.” Regardless, this sweet treatment of numbers and counting may be good prophylaxis against math phobia.
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93378-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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by Danica McKellar ; illustrated by Josée Masse
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by Danica McKellar ; illustrated by Josée Masse
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by Danica McKellar ; illustrated by Alicia Padrón
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