An honest and raw text that should help children dealing with the loss of a parent.
An elementary school student struggles to cope with his father’s death in this debut picture book.
“I miss the way my daddy tickled me right before bedtime,” a boy recalls. On the page is a picture showing a very happy Caucasian family; the love in the illustration is palpable. The boy continues to remember building sandcastles with his father on the beach and curling up in his lap to watch TV, feeling protected. Now, the boy wears one of his father’s old T-shirts to sleep in, holding on to that safe feeling. When a new child moves in across the street, the boy lies and says his father travels for work. At school, he retaliates physically against a friend for a small offense, throws his lunch money and swears, and eventually gets sent to the principal’s office. In his narration, the boy shows an awareness that he knows his behavior is inappropriate, but he doesn’t seem to be able to stop himself, which rings true as a way that children—and adults—sometimes process grief. The boy knows his mother is unhappy, too; he hears her crying at night. When the boy’s mother takes him out for ice cream, they have a heart-to-heart talk: “It’s normal to feel sad and angry that Daddy is not here, but he would not want us to stay that way forever,” she says. Together, the boy and his mother create a memory book, and the youngster starts discovering ways to handle his sorrow with the help of his school counselor and a support group of kids whose dads are gone. Pike captures a voice that feels natural for a boy suddenly missing a very important figure in his life, and she crafts the relationship between the kid and his mother in a strong, sympathetic way. There is no easy dismissal of grief or instant soothing, but the book ends with the ways the boy has learned to reach out to his father and his memory and with the hope that healing will come. Though Driver’s realistic watercolor images are beautiful, they feature an exclusively Caucasian cast, which might limit the appeal for diverse communities.
An honest and raw text that should help children dealing with the loss of a parent.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4834-5757-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lulu.com
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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