A quietly joyful invitation to audiences of any age to stop taking the wonders and pleasures around them for granted.
What will a child put in her fine, new, porcelain box? “Things that are beautiful and colorful and bright.”
“Things that bring me joy,” she continues, and then enumerates: jumping in puddles, blowing bubbles with baby sister Lili, the giggles of friends, lazy Sundays with her family, paper boats, and more. Also, peace and quiet: “I float and listen. My breath goes in and out, blowing like the wind.” Between the sparkly star shining through a big, shaped hole in the front cover and the closing sky full of starry fireworks, the creators of Brave as Can Be: A Book of Courage (2015) and other sensitive explorations of feelings offer a catalog of sweet moments and memories suitable for storing up and savoring. The overall design adds a playful element. In each of Roussey’s simply drawn and very softly colored scenes, visual surprises like a glimpse of sun behind a rain cloud or cupcakes beneath a water lily are hidden beneath small die-cut flaps—most of which are themselves of unpredictable shape and hidden by being artfully positioned within lines or patterns. Human figures, plus many of the larger toys and living creatures, are the white of the uncolored backgrounds, with color highlights supplied by freckles or red cheeks. “What about you?” the child asks at last. “What is in your treasure chest?”
A quietly joyful invitation to audiences of any age to stop taking the wonders and pleasures around them for granted. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2204-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Quietly contemplative and thoroughly lovely.
A child finds adventure and a change of perspective on a dreary day.
Clouds cover everything in a palette of unending gray, creating a sense of ennui and gloom. A child stands alone, head down, feeling as gray as the day, and decides to ride through town on an old bike. Pops of color throughout the grayscale illustrations go unnoticed—there are yellow leaves scattered about, and the parking lot is filled with bright yellow buses, but this child, who has skin the grayish white of the page, sees only the empty playground, creaky swings, a sad merry-go-round, and lonely seesaws. But look—there’s a narrow winding path just beyond the fence, something to explore. There are things to be noticed, leaves to be crunched, and discoveries to be made. Imagination takes over, along with senses of wonderment and calm, as the child watches a large blue bird fly over the area. The ride home is quite different, joyful and filled with color previously ignored, reaffirming the change in the rider’s outlook. The descriptive, spare text filled with imagery and onomatopoeia is well aligned with well-rendered art highlighting all the colors that brighten the not-so-gray day and allowing readers to see what the protagonist struggles to understand, that “anything can happen…on a gray day.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Quietly contemplative and thoroughly lovely. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781797210896
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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