Weary of the mundane creatures inhabiting her yard, a young girl embarks upon a walkabout in search of a crocodile, which she has never seen. In her journey she encounters many unusual creatures, and asks each if it is a crocodile. The giraffe, unnamed by the text, answers, “No. A crocodile is not nearly as tall as I am, and it does not have such a pretty pattern.” “Then I am sorry to have troubled you,” says the narrator. A chance encounter with an emergent hatchling leads to a surprise for the young explorer. “The brand new creature laughed its brand new laugh, and said in its brand new voice, ‘No, I do not know [what a crocodile looks like]. I am a brand new creature and I know nothing at all.’ Then I began to laugh as well.” The brief descriptions of the animals in the narrative and the illustrations will leave no doubt in children’s minds as to the identities of the animals, but just in case, all creatures appear, labeled, on the endpapers. Warm earth tones prevail in the illustrations, successfully conveying a hazy aridness to a fanciful setting. Textured backgrounds and the feathered watercolors combine with delicate hues to create diaphanous images in an imaginative safari to friendship. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1998
ISBN: 1-899607-66-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1998
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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