The jacket drawing of a little girl clinging to her grandfather's shoulders conveys a joyous, adventuresome sharing—but leaves in doubt just what sort of vehicle (a horse-drawn cart, perhaps) they're breezing along in. And the contents—a different shared experience at each opening—are more ambiguous still: deliberately oblique, and inferential. Mostly the pit an adult's matter-of-factness against a child's imaginings. The two are in a greenhouse, where we are supposed to gather from the pictures that Granpa is transplanting seedlings from flats into pots. In Roman type (implicitly, Granpa): "There will not be room for all the little seeds to grow." In italics (implicitly, the little girl): "Do worms go to heaven?" To an adult ear, that may sound a cute non sequitur; most children are apt to take it as simple woolly-headedness. Another scene, one of the simpler to explain, has the pair looking out of the house in a rainstorm: "Noah knew the ark was not far from land when he saw the dove carrying the olive branch," says Granpa; "Could we float away in this house, Granpa?" says the little girl. Then, overleaf, he's saying—with no connection whatever: "That was not a nice thinS to say to Granpa." And at the last we have a mini-sequence, totally unforeshadowed, in which Granpa sits in his chair, sick; takes the little girl on his lap; and vanishes, presumed dead (!), as we see her silently gazing at his empty chair. There are ways to make scattered moments, and tenuous feelings, add up—but only in the pictures does the relationship register here.
Pub Date: March 1, 1985
ISBN: 0099434083
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1985
This gooey sentiment almost gets out of hand with the pink, sparkly cover, but the friendly art makes it worth a look-see.
Round and friendly cartoon animal parents demonstrate how they take care of and show affection for their babies.
A bear, dog, elephant and more hug, tickle and bathe, respectively, a cub, puppy and calf. The loving critters are drawn with bold, brown lines, and muted swaths of blue, brown, aqua and cream fill them out. Many of the details on the animals, such as the interiors of the cats’ ears and the seals’ and whales’ tails, are heart-shaped. Hearts also appear in the background patterns that subtly emulate the creatures’ environs, such as heart-shaped leaves that appear behind the koala duo. The disjointed text, written in a variety of bubbly fonts, is made up of short, two- to five-word phrases on each spread describing the action: “I love to HUG you / tickle you / sing to you softly / carry you / bathe you / kiss you always / Baby, I LOVE you!”
This gooey sentiment almost gets out of hand with the pink, sparkly cover, but the friendly art makes it worth a look-see. (Board book. 3 mos.-1)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-54045-2
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Politely contrarian and utterly charming.
A nonconformist polar bear navigates classroom dynamics on his own terms.
“Everyone says NO sometimes. Bartleby says, ‘I prefer not to.’ He says it a lot.” Dressed nattily in his red bowler hat, tie, and overalls, Bartleby sets himself apart from his peers, distancing himself physically and opting out of group activities. “For free play, everyone chooses a toy. ‘I prefer not to,’” says Bartleby, sitting alone. Circle time, music class, recess? He’d prefer not to. I prefer not to is quite different than saying no, and Bartleby’s refrain of passive resistance has a particular effect on his perplexed-looking classmates. When their teacher, Ms. Melville (natch), invites the students to create self-portraits at art time, bystander Bartleby finds a creative way to participate on his own terms, in his own time. Secondary characters—all anthropomorphic animals—and scenery in gently expressive ink brush lines with muted watercolor tones starkly contrast with knobby-eared Bartleby’s eccentric scarlet attire and crisp white fur, further emphasizing the youngster’s singularity. In this ever-so-slightly philosophical addition to the canon of you-do-you picture books, the pragmatic text and diminutive trim size further bolster a civilly dissenting message. Brace yourselves, grown-ups: Bartleby’s refrain, taken straight from Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” seems destined to enter vernacular among young readers, whether you’d prefer that or not.
Politely contrarian and utterly charming. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780374393557
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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