Colorful, amusing, and well-told with text and illustrations working perfectly together.
A rambunctious 3-year-old Asian girl whose artwork gains acclaim gets a big head—literally—in this children’s picture book.
Pepper Zhang is enjoying the day of her third birthday so much that she just doesn’t want to go to bed, so she throws a giant tantrum. But then she catches sight of the one birthday gift she hasn’t played with yet: a paint box and easel. Pepper paints angry, broad-stroked red swirls that reflect her big emotions in a work she titles “Red Dino Destroys Bedtime!” (A nice touch is illustrator Hautéa’s “artist’s interpretation” of Pepper’s abstract swirls.) As time goes on, Pepper paints more pictures and has fewer tantrums. Her bedroom becomes a private art gallery that becomes famous, Pepper’s fans proclaiming her to be an “Artist Extraordinaire!” But as Pepper’s fame grows, so does her head, until it’s so large that it interferes with her painting. Pepper decides to close her gallery, take a break from being famous, and focus on being a normal 3-year-old. Be reassured, though: “We have a feeling she’ll be making a comeback!” It’s hard to find picture books featuring contemporary Asian children in the United States, so with the delightful Pepper, debut author Zhang helps fill a gap. Pepper’s parents respect her outsized emotions and personality while gently helping her grow up—a good balance. Hautéa’s illustrations are well-suited for the subject with their bright colors, playful style, and well-observed details.
Colorful, amusing, and well-told with text and illustrations working perfectly together.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little Ning Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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