by Janet Kennedy Kiefer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 2020
A sweet, conversational introduction to service dogs that’s hampered by repetitive graphics and awkward text design.
A grandmother explains the important role that her dog plays in her life in this illustrated children’s book.
Georgi, Violet, and Luella want to know more about their grandmother Nana Jan’s dog, Dominique. The older woman calls the canine a “service dog,” which she defines “a dog that is trained to help a person who has challenges.” She then shares the ways in which her Shih Tzu is a help not only to her, but to other people with whom they interact. As the grandkids ask additional questions, the story describes, in accessible vocabulary, the many roles of the dog. Nana Jan experiences pain and has trouble walking, and Dominique’s stroller works like a walker, allowing the grandmother to get around normally; the joy that Dominique brings Nana Jan helps her forget about her pain, and the dog’s cuddles help her rest. Dominique also works at a hospital, bringing comfort to sick children and pregnant women on bedrest. Dominique’s attendance at yoga classes at the YMCA brings happiness to Nana Jan’s classmates. As in Mud Pies (2015), Kiefer shows the comfortable relationship between a grandmother and her grandkids in this work. However, the book doesn’t address any special training that the dog has received, which is what differentiates service dogs from emotional-support animals. Nan Jan’s explanations of why she needs the dog, however, effectively normalize the experience of chronic pain for young readers. The uncredited illustrations don’t always match the text—the dog seems a bit more like a mutt than a Shih Tzu, and two illustrations appear to depict four grandchildren instead of the three named. The full-color cartoon images are full of joy, which fits the text’s mood. However, the book distractingly repeats some drawings on multiple pages; an image of a running dog on the title page, for example, appears four more times later on. The typefaces, in multiple sizes and colors, may be hard on young eyes, although Kiefer’s word choices and glossary are appropriate for beginning readers. Additional activities encourage children to conduct their own research about service dogs, with parental guidance.
A sweet, conversational introduction to service dogs that’s hampered by repetitive graphics and awkward text design.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5255-5399-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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