A lovely way for children to imagine what happens to a wish.
Who hasn’t wondered where a wish goes?
In this airy musing, a wish floats on the wind like a maple seed. The wish takes a breathtaking journey, sailing over water, drifting through canyons, gliding down streets and along roofs, weaving among raindrops. Then it tumbles to the ground and waits, very still. At just the right time, “it sends down a silent root / and pushes up a hopeful shoot.” The shoot, in turn, grows, reaches up and out until it “bravely / blooms.” The simple, gentle narrative concludes as it began: “A wish is a seed carried on the wind.” But how that wish has burgeoned! By the end, it’s thrived and become a symbol flush with hope and possibilities to be marveled at in wide-eyed wonder by a young black child and dad—the objects of the wish? Readers should appreciate not only the fanciful notion of what happens to a wish, but also the whimsical typesetting: Some words and phrases are set upside down, sideways, or curved, the text playfully emulating the wish’s acrobatics. The evocative, slightly surreal illustrations work beautifully with the lyrical story. Mostly dark-blue or dark-green backgrounds throw details of the city setting and natural world into relief. One delightful spread shows the “wish tree” in its bright red-orange blooming splendor.
A lovely way for children to imagine what happens to a wish. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-56846-338-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Sweet art, cloying storyline.
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music.
The inhabitants of a small village are happy with “simple pleasures” until they commercialize to attract tourists…whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano…and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that “if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again.” In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an “audience” of plants—a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781419763199
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Produced to celebrate the National Park Service’s upcoming centenary, a breezy invitation to prospective travelers to “get...
A family road trip through several national parks transforms young Jane’s feelings about missing out on a summer of online fun with her friends.
“There’s absolutely nothing to see here,” Jane emails fretfully as her family drives through the scenic Smoky Mountains and canoes past alligators and manatees in the Everglades. But once her dad gets her to put the tablet away and look through a telescope at the night skies over Big Bend National Park, her attitude transforms: “OH WOW!” Soon she’s tiptoeing over the Grand Canyon’s Skywalk like an acrobat, playing pirate on a raft down the Colorado River, scouting out “Mountain lions, buffalo, and bears. Oh my!” in Yellowstone—and, discovering that she’s misplaced her electronic device, sending written postcards to her friends from Yosemite. Furthermore, once back home, what better way to debrief than a backyard cookout under the stars? Giving blonde Jane and the rest of her white family broad, pleasant features, Rogers sends them smiling and singing their way through a succession of natural wonders, with bears and bald eagles, footnotes (adult supervision required on the Skywalk, for instance), and only a few fellow, occasionally diverse tourists in the background. Endpaper maps track the long itinerary, and a (select) list of other national parks and sites in each state offers more destinations.
Produced to celebrate the National Park Service’s upcoming centenary, a breezy invitation to prospective travelers to “get out there!” (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-246835-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
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