A winningly simple concept executed with precision—perfect for preschool lovers of silly wordplay.
In Himmelman’s clever exploration of how young minds categorize the world, two siblings engage in a hilarious battle of semantics as they name colors and objects.
The premise is elegantly simple. Pointing to a fruit, one child insists, “That YELLOW is a banana,” while the other corrects with, “This BANANA is yellow,” launching a color-naming comedy that spirals delightfully out of control. (“This RED is an apple.” “No, that apple is RED.”) Spare, clean lines and a deliberately limited palette allow each featured hue to pop against white backgrounds. The visual storytelling shines in the characterizations of the two siblings. The younger child’s unconventional color naming drives the older one to distraction; the elder kid’s mounting frustration is brilliantly conveyed through body language and hair, which transforms from a neat ponytail into an increasingly frazzled explosion of tangles. The bare-bones artistic approach mirrors the straightforward text, creating space for preschool humor to flourish. A funny concept book is rare; even rarer is a funny concept book that generates chortles from both adults reading it aloud and the children in the audience. Young readers will recognize the authentic sibling dynamic and giggle at the linguistic confusion, while adults will appreciate the subtle lesson about perspective and language development. The repetitive structure builds comedic momentum, culminating in a satisfying resolution when both children finally come to an agreement. The kids have skin the white of the page.
A winningly simple concept executed with precision—perfect for preschool lovers of silly wordplay. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781419776809
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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