An enchanting, dreamlike work.
A girl grieving her mother makes friends with shadows in DePalma’s picture book.
Young, unhappy Bethany Gale, a blond-haired girl with pale skin, moves with her father and dog, Sadie, to her grandmother’s house beside the woods. At night, she whispers to a photograph of a happier time with her mother (“…I love you…goodnight”) before going to sleep. One night, Bethany hears a scratching sound and goes downstairs, thinking it’s Sadie, who’s actually asleep; it’s Sadie’s shadow scratching at the door. Bethany follows it into the woods and discovers that all the town’s shadows escape to the woods to play, dance, and feast: “Well, I’m sure you would too / if you were stuck on like glue / to each person and creature in town.” Luu’s full-color cartoon illustrations of the deep-blue woods, illuminated by neon stars and musical notes, reveal shadows of people and animals celebrating their freedom. The effortless rhyme and vibrant colors meld in an expression of wonder and delight, depicting images that are easy to forget in the daylight, when reality’s easier to see. A great deal is implied in both the illustrations and text, particularly the sense that Bethany’s mother is deceased, and that her spirit is showing Bethany this world; rather than feeling haunting, the presence of the shadows and Bethany’s parent are deeply comforting.
An enchanting, dreamlike work.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781733405522
Page Count: 41
Publisher: Umbrelly Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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