Memorable and visually rich.
A deep connection between friends blossoms after winter.
Adin and Dina live on a fruit farm, blonde, white Dina “at the top of the hill” and black-haired, brown-skinned Adin, whose mother works picking fruit, “at the bottom.” So close that each “knew what the other one was thinking,” they share a love of cherries, climbing into the trees to eat the fruit and saving the pits to plant around the village. Te Loo’s gouache-and-pen illustrations are gentle, filled with greens and yellows that are echoed in the village and, later, more subtly, in the city Adin and his mother move to. Each double-page spread shows a world that is wide yet comfortably familiar. When Adin and his mother leave, the sense of loss is conveyed simply. Dina presents Adin with a farewell bag of cherry pits, “self-picked and self-spat out.” When she visits him in the city Dina is momentarily without words seeing Adin, hair combed, in “smart new clothes.” But Adin has been tossing cherry pits from his apartment balcony and shows Dina how he’s found a way to send the seeds even farther via paper plane. When spring arrives the cherry trees seem to light a path between the two friends. Aerts’ story, translated from the Dutch, resonates honestly and clearly with reassurance that friendship can weather changes and bridge distances.
Memorable and visually rich. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-178250-561-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Instills a sense of well-being in youngsters while encouraging them to explore the natural world.
This reassuring picture book exemplifies how parents throughout the animal kingdom make homes for their offspring.
The narrative is written from the point of view of a parent talking to their child: “If you were a beaver, I would gnaw on trees with my teeth to build a cozy lodge for us to sleep in during the day.” Text appears in big, easy-to-read type, with the name of the creature in boldface. Additional facts about the animal appear in a smaller font, such as: “Beavers have transparent eyelids to help them see under water.” The gathering of land, air, and water animals includes a raven, a flying squirrel, and a sea lion. “Home” might be a nest, a den, or a burrow. One example, of a blue whale who has homes in the north and south (ocean is implied), will help children stretch the concept into feeling at home in the larger world. Illustrations of the habitats have an inviting luminosity. Mature and baby animals are realistically depicted, although facial features appear to have been somewhat softened, perhaps to appeal to young readers. The book ends with the comforting scene of a human parent and child silhouetted in the welcoming lights of the house they approach: “Wherever you may be, you will always have a home with me.”
Instills a sense of well-being in youngsters while encouraging them to explore the natural world. (Informational picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63217-224-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
This magical wisp of a story has an imaginative message for both planners and improvisers.
Julia decides to pack up and move her House for Lost Creatures, creating a host of problems with unexpected results.
Julia has taken in a cacophony of lost creatures: dwarves, trolls, and goblins, a singular rarity of a mermaid, and a patchwork cat, among others. But now, the house feels ready for a move. As the ghost starts to fade and the mermaid languishes, Julia puts her plan into action—packing books and stacking boxes. The move quickly turns into a series of catastrophes. Trying to retain the facade of control, Julia is dismayed to see her plans making things worse. Knowledge of the previous title, Julia’s House for Lost Creatures (2014), is a helpful introduction, as Hatke turns the solution of the first book into the problem for this one. With skillful pacing, the story has messages for both planners and creatives. The problems seem beyond resolution, keeping readers in gleeful suspended tension. While the first book introduced readers to the gnomish folletti, a hedgehoglike ghillie comes to a dramatic rescue here. There are two disparate messages in one story: Kindness will be returned, and it is OK to not have a plan. Connecting them together are lush illustrations that stretch the mind and add details to mythic beasts. Julia presents white. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.5-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 25% of actual size.)
This magical wisp of a story has an imaginative message for both planners and improvisers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19137-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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