by John Churchman & Jennifer Churchman ; illustrated by John Churchman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 10, 2018
There’s nourishment to be found here, but it doesn’t add up to a fully rounded meal.
Through the seasons, Poppy the alpaca and her mates explore the fields and gardens of Moonrise Farm, introduced in earlier volumes of the series Sweet Pea & Friends.
Other farm animals and an occasional human (the white family of the co-creators) appear, but the visual emphasis is on the alpacas, unusual enough to invite curiosity despite the lack of a strong storyline. In every double-page, full-bleed spread, Poppy finds fresh, healthy new foods to eat as the seasons change, encouraging children to do the same. Names of fruits, vegetables, and herbs are sprinkled through the text, but young readers may not be able to easily match names with specific items in the photos. One cold evening, Poppy’s mother shows her the harvest moon and the Canada geese migrating south. She says: “Soon, everything on the farm will rest until spring.” After eating freely through spring and summer, Poppy worries that there will be nothing left, but her mother shows her the barn. The more experienced alpaca tells her: “Farmer John and Farmer Jennifer have stored food from the gardens for us.” The photo montages, ethereal and out of focus at times, are so full of flora and fauna to look at that children will want to return to the pictures, but the overlong, static text fails to enchant.
There’s nourishment to be found here, but it doesn’t add up to a fully rounded meal. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-41160-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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by Jennifer Churchman ; illustrated by John Churchman
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by Beth Ferry ; illustrated by The Fan Brothers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019
A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history.
Ferry and the Fans portray a popular seasonal character’s unlikely friendship.
Initially, the protagonist is shown in his solitary world: “Scarecrow stands alone and scares / the fox and deer, / the mice and crows. / It’s all he does. It’s all he knows.” His presence is effective; the animals stay outside the fenced-in fields, but the omniscient narrator laments the character’s lack of friends or places to go. Everything changes when a baby crow falls nearby. Breaking his pole so he can bend, the scarecrow picks it up, placing the creature in the bib of his overalls while singing a lullaby. Both abandon natural tendencies until the crow learns to fly—and thus departs. The aabb rhyme scheme flows reasonably well, propelling the narrative through fall, winter, and spring, when the mature crow returns with a mate to build a nest in the overalls bib that once was his home. The Fan brothers capture the emotional tenor of the seasons and the main character in their panoramic pencil, ballpoint, and digital compositions. Particularly poignant is the close-up of the scarecrow’s burlap face, his stitched mouth and leaf-rimmed head conveying such sadness after his companion goes. Some adults may wonder why the scarecrow seems to have only partial agency, but children will be tuned into the problem, gratified by the resolution.
A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-247576-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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by Beth Ferry ; illustrated by Brendan Wenzel
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by Beth Ferry ; illustrated by A.N. Kang
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by Lindsay Ward ; illustrated by Lindsay Ward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2019
Low grade.
A gray character tries to write an all-gray book.
The six primary and secondary colors are building a rainbow, each contributing the hue of their own body, and Gray feels forlorn and left out because rainbows contain no gray. So Gray—who, like the other characters, has a solid, triangular body, a doodle-style face, and stick limbs—sets off alone to create “the GRAYest book ever.” His book inside a book shows a peaceful gray cliff house near a gray sea with gentle whitecaps; his three gray characters—hippo, wolf, kitten—wait for their arc to begin. But then the primaries arrive and call the gray scene “dismal, bleak, and gloomy.” The secondaries show up too, and soon everyone’s overrunning Gray’s creation. When Gray refuses to let White and Black participate, astute readers will note the flaw: White and black (the colors) had already been included in the early all-gray spreads. Ironically, Gray’s book within a book displays calm, passable art while the metabook’s unsubtle illustrations and sloppy design make for cramped and crowded pages that are too busy to hold visual focus. The speech-bubble dialogue’s snappy enough (Blue calls people “dude,” and there are puns). A convoluted moral muddles the core artistic question—whether a whole book can be gray—and instead highlights a trite message about working together.
Low grade. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4340-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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by Lindsay Ward ; illustrated by Brizida Magro
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by Lindsay Ward ; illustrated by Lindsay Ward
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