An extraordinary piece to be shared with utmost care.
An examination of trauma-borne bravery.
Two rabbits—mother and child—look out onto an abstract, red-tinged landscape as they engage in weighty bedtime conversation. The pair have been displaced by war, and though they’re now safe from immediate danger, young Bunny struggles to make sense of the horrors they’ve both witnessed while grappling with a conflict at school that evokes similar unease. Illustrations render gun-toting soldiers and schoolyard bullies—all members of the animal kingdom—as they enact cruelties; these successive brutalities prompt Bunny to contend with consequential questions. Is one iniquity really so different from another, the child wonders? And how much is the “right amount” of responsive courage? But Mama’s message is clear—fear isn’t proof of weakness, nor is it an experience unique to those who have seen bloodshed. Rather, fear is a tool that can be used bravely and by anyone, a force for restoring goodness when bolstered by courageous action. A sweeping treatise on atrocity and resilience, Sénéchal’s text, translated from French, is dialogic and profound; Rea’s art, with its innovative composition and gorgeous jewel-toned colorwork, is similarly intense. Backgrounds largely done in shades of crimson set a nightmarish tone, and several scenes clearly depict the pain and suffering explicitly referenced in the narrative. The result is undeniably striking and especially timely in its release, but adults should weigh reader sensitivities before selecting this story.
An extraordinary piece to be shared with utmost care. (Picture book. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781990252372
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Milky Way Picture Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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