New color illustrations introduce an English classic about a small barn owl—unfortunately and inexplicably named “Plop”—who learns to love the dark. At his mother’s suggestion, Plop, who thinks the dark is scary, asks various people about it. Each (among them a boy, a scout, and an astronomer) gives him a personal reason for appreciating the night. At last, a black cat leads him away from his sleeping parents to the rooftops where, looking over the sleeping town, Plop realizes that the night really is beautiful, and that he really is a night bird. The full-page pastel illustrations are full of rich night hues of deep blue skies, light, and shadow, and smaller sketches on alternate pages show the little owl with his new acquaintances. Plop, though a fledged bird, appears smaller and softer than his owl parents and is a thoroughly endearing creature in these pictures, and the art carries the story over several weak spots. In one of Plop’s less convincing encounters, a grandmotherly woman tells him that she likes the dark because it is kind, and she can forget that she is old—an idea more sentimental than true. In another—less universal than the fear of the dark that the tale addresses—a girl tells him that the dark is necessary so that Santa can come and fill the stockings for Christmas Day. But the fireworks that the boy invites Plop to watch are reflected in the big dark eyes of the young barn owl and his parents—a nicely dramatic depiction of the awe that night can hold. Parents and children are likely to overlook some pedestrian moments in the story for the overall reassurance it may bring. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-1562-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
A quiet story of sharing with no strings attached.
A little girl in a town of white snow and soot-blackened chimneys opens a small box and discovers a never-ending gift of colorful yarn.
Annabelle knits herself a sweater, and with the leftover yarn, she knits one for her dog, and with the yarn left over from that, she knits one for a neighbor and for her classmates and for her teacher and for her family and for the birdhouse and for the buildings in town. All and everything are warm, cozy and colorful until a clotheshorse of an archduke arrives. Annabelle refuses his monetary offers, whereupon the box is stolen. The greedy archduke gets his just deserts when he opens the box to find it empty. It wends its way back to Annabelle, who ends up happily sitting in a knit-covered tree. Klassen, who worked on the film Coraline, uses inks, gouache and colorized scans of a sweater to create a stylized, linear design of dark geometric shapes against a white background. The stitches of the sweaters add a subdued rainbow. Barnett entertained middle-grade readers with his Brixton Brothers detective series. Here, he maintains a folkloric narrative that results in a traditional story arc complete with repetition, drama and a satisfying conclusion.
A quiet story of sharing with no strings attached. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-195338-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A culturally intricate slice of a lupine courier’s life.
Little Lobo and his dog, Bernabé, journey through a Mexican mercado delivering diverse goods to a variety of booths.
With the aid of red words splattered throughout the spreads as labels, Raúl the Third gives an introduction to Spanish vocabulary as Little Lobo, an anthropomorphic wolf, leaves his house, fills his cart with objects from his warehouse, and delivers them to the market’s vendors. The journey also serves as a crash course in Mexican culture, as the images are packed with intertextual details such as food, traditional games, and characters, including Cantinflas, Frida Khalo, and Juan Gabriel. Readers acquainted with Raúl the Third’s characters from his Lowriders series with author Cathy Camper will appreciate cameos from familiar characters. As he makes his rounds, Little Lobo also collects different artifacts that people offer in exchange for his deliveries of shoe polish, clothespins, wood, tissue paper, paintbrushes, and a pair of golden laces. Although Raúl the Third departs from the ball-pen illustrations that he is known for, his depiction of creatures and critters peppering the borderland where his stories are set remains in his trademark style. The softer hues in the illustrations (chosen by colorist Bay) keep the busy compositions friendly, and the halftone patterns filling the illustrations create foregrounds and backgrounds reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s pointillism.
A culturally intricate slice of a lupine courier’s life. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-55726-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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