A positive and calming guide for those who are looking inward.
Playfully serious thoughts about thinking for deep-thinking children.
“A happy thought the other day / went running through my mind. // It crashed into another thought— / the scared and worried kind! / Then an angry thought blazed in. / It wasn’t very nice. / But it got squashed by two sad thoughts / that made that thought think twice.” Flowing rhyme and illustrations as bold as the ideas make this abstract concept approachable. Thoughts constantly bouncing inside our heads are characterized as oddball, unkind, helpful, creative, and so on. “Where do they come from?” By making analogies to such familiar things as clouds drifting by, an “ocean, / deep and wide,” or “fuzzy sheep / that prance and wander, bound and leap,” the text suggests that thoughts help everyone explore their world. It also clearly states that “thinking thoughts / doesn’t make them true” and that “most thoughts can just be left alone— / no need to judge or fear.” Most illustrations have dark backgrounds but also include large blank spaces that allow readers’ thoughts to expand. A repeated motif of eyes and insight begins with a collection of eyes on the endpapers and continues on each spread. Cartoon characters include animated shapes, real and imagined animals, and a kid with brown skin and dark, curly hair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A positive and calming guide for those who are looking inward. (author’s note, meditation exercise) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61180-860-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bala Kids/Shambhala
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Vital information for young media consumers; it couldn’t be timelier.
Charismatic robots populate this primer for kids growing up in an era when facts are considered debatable and opinions are oft expressed loudly and without empathy.
Rex tackles a very serious topic infrequently addressed in kids’ books: how to tell the difference between provable facts and far-less-provable opinions. To do this, Rex employs a handful of colorful and chatty robot pals who run through enough examples to make the distinctions clear. For instance, it’s a fact that the blue robot has two arms while the gold robot has four. However, while they both like to dance, it’s less certain there’s a definitive answer to the question: “Which of them has the coolest moves?” When the green and yellow robots share their preferences for ice cream (yes, robots eat ice cream, just add oil or nuts and bolts), it turns into a fight that might have come off a Twitter thread (“We are getting chocolate!” “No way, buckethead!”). Via a series of reboots, the robots learn how to respect opinions and engage in compromise. It’s a welcome use of skill-building to counter an information landscape filled with calls of “Fake news!” and toxic online discourse. Rex never says that these ’bots sometimes act like social media bots when they disagree, but he doesn’t have to. Perhaps most importantly, Rex’s robots demonstrate that in the absence of enough information, it’s perfectly fine to wait before acting.
Vital information for young media consumers; it couldn’t be timelier. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-1626-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
PROFILES
A light treatment of a familiar tale.
The traditional Japanese folktale about a stonecutter who seeks ever greater prominence and power is retold in a modern, flippant version.
Stanley the frog works hard as a stonecutter. Though good at his job, he acknowledges the difficulties of his vocation. One day, on his way home from the quarry, Stanley observes a rabbit in a business suit “just sipping tea” and wishes he could be doing the same. Magically transformed with suit and tie, Stanley finds himself in the tea shop and declares, “Oh yeah! Now, this is more like it!” Soon a “commotion” around the king and his procession outside the tea shop prompts a new wish from Stanley: to be the king. Now the monarch, he proclaims “This rules!…I could get used to this kind of life!” As the sun beats down on Stanley, he grows tired of being the king and decides that being the sun would be better. Each new wish produces a limited amount of happiness or prestige with subsequent wishes to become a black cloud, a gusty wind, and finally the great stone. But Stanley’s satisfied only briefly, as the great stone must now contend with a new young stonecutter. Simple, bold, large cut-paper illustrations add to the absurdity, but overall this production with its implicit conclusion pales artistically when compared to Gerald McDermott’s stylized papercuts and Demi’s elegant paintings in their 1975 and 1995 versions, respectively.
A light treatment of a familiar tale. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 5-7)Pub Date: July 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-54846-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
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