Dappled illustrations and vivid text highlight growth in the natural world.
“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”
When young children and their parents and grandparents explore the woods, fields, and waterways, they ponder “what if.” What if you were an acorn, caterpillar, tadpole? Step by step, the answers explain the development of these offspring to maturity. “If you were an acorn, you’d swing from a stout twig, snug inside a hard brown shell, bristled cap on your head.” The acorn drops, cracks open, and grows until it becomes “an oak tree, reaching lobed leaves toward sunlight.” Strong word choices allow a caterpillar to “button [itself] to a leaf,” a turtle hatchling to shed “old scutes,” and a duckling to “forage in foliage [and] dabble upended.” The final “what if” describes the personal journey of a baby to adulthood and spotlights the book’s diverse families, which include an interracial same-sex couple, two grandparent-led families, and three headed by single parents. Each child’s journey has stretched from days “snug in a blanket” to “splash[ing] in the shallows like turtles and ducks” and “leav[ing] your dear footprints wherever you go.” Gentle illustrations feature green for growth and locate all the families in different parts of the same woodland. The final illustration brings the story full circle as the White child encountered first poses before an oak tree, arms stretched up toward sunlight. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 32.3% of actual size.)
Dappled illustrations and vivid text highlight growth in the natural world. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63592-308-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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