A young girl explores how she feels when she is with her father.
Roussey’s illustrations stand out, the ink-drawn girl tiny next to her father’s gigantic hands, emphasizing just how outsized his influence on her and her emotions is. When she gives her dad a hug, she feels “like / a little bird in a warm, comfy nest. / When I am with my dad, I feel safe.” The picture may be difficult for literal thinkers to puzzle out: The girl rests in a house-shaped space superimposed on a tree that resembles a green lollipop. Her dad’s giant left hand waters the tree; his right lays a blanket on the girl. Dad also makes her feel “brave,” “daring,” “confident” in her abilities (she rides a two-wheeler across the back of his hand), “adventurous” (at the pool), “playful,” “calm,” “excited,” “angry,” and “peaceful and happy again.” But “No matter what I am feeling / …. / I love my dad, / and my dad loves me.” Dad’s extremities are the only parts of him visible, and both he and his daughter are paper-white, she with bobbed dark hair tied with a red bow. As with other titles in the Growing Hearts series, this one has thick board pages, but oddly, unlike the others, this one lacks the die cuts and flaps that make thick pages a necessity.
Familiar emotions writ large. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2822-8
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This Is Us actor Metz and her partner, songwriter Collins, present a rhyming children’s book about prayer and parental love.
“When I talk to God, guess what I do? / It’s really quite simple: I talk about you.” Fields’ pencil and digital illustrations show different parent-child animal pairs throughout, from bears to otters to skunks, ducks, deer, and more. But from this auspicious beginning, the authors’ point of view and direct address to “you,” the child, makes the majority of the pages seem like affirmations of what they love about their child and not what the parent actually prays for. Adults reading this aloud may see this as a prayer of thanksgiving for their child’s gifts and qualities, but little listeners will not make that connection. In the final pages, the parent tells the child that they can talk to God, too, and that God is always by their side. The last spread states, “You’re my sweetest prayer.” While the individual parts are sweet and affirming of a parent’s love and pride in their child, the sum of those parts isn’t what’s advertised in the title and repetitive refrain “When I talk to God, / I talk about you.” The gentle artwork in soft colors anthropomorphizes the animals’ facial expressions to make their loving relationships clear. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Stick to separate books about parental love and prayer instead. (Religious picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-52524-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION
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