The cover, embossed and sparkly, may attract infants and toddlers, but the illustrations and the text do not make a...
Author/illustrator Wan (You Are My Pumpkin, 2016, etc.) employs her characteristic digital illustrations inspired by Japanese pop art to introduce objects associated with bedtime in this board book.
Each object (star, moon, teddy bear, mobile, book, pillow) is drawn with a thick, black outline, personified with a pink-cheeked, smiling face, and introduced one at a time on a double-page spread. The rhyming text is in a large, clear type, with the object mentioned in a larger display type: “You are my wish upon a STAR / My bright, shining MOON from afar.” However, not all the objects match the words in the text. “My LULLABY so soft and lovely” shows a smiling cloud mobile, from which smiling birds, hearts, and other objects hang, and “My quiet, comfy, sleepy NOOK” features a smiling pillow on a curtained window seat. All the objects come together in the nursery on the last page, with their eyes shut, encouraging readers to go to sleep. “Wishing you sweet dreams on moonbeams! / Goodnight, Sweetie.” It’s all a fairly limp affair, and readers should instead grab Helen Oxenbury’s Say Goodnight (1999) or Cedric Ramdier and Vincent Bourgeau’s Shhh! This Book is Sleeping (2016) to lull their tots to sleep.
The cover, embossed and sparkly, may attract infants and toddlers, but the illustrations and the text do not make a connection that demands repeated readings. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-04534-5
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
A road trip to remember.
Using the Negro Travelers’ Green Book and her hidden past as a road map, a grandma takes her grandson on a cross country journey.
When G’ma pulls up to William “Scoob” Lamar’s house in a brand-new Winnebago and invites him on an adventure, Scoob leaves a note for his dad and jumps in. Despite not knowing where they are going, or why G’ma has traded in her Mini Cooper and house for the RV, Scoob is a willing wingman because he wants to save spring break and escape his strict single dad for a few days. Readers will appreciate the bond between Scoob and G’ma; Stone balances fun with emotion for a compelling read. After they cross from Georgia to Alabama and G’ma keeps avoiding Dad’s calls, Scoob begins to get suspicious. When G’ma lets him see the contents of her once off-limits treasure box, which includes a 1963 edition of the Travelers’ Green Book, Scoob understands this trip means much more than even he imagined. The complex role race plays in their family and on this trip—Scoob is mixed-race and presents black, and G’ma is white—is explored in a meaningful way that provides details about a period in time as well as present-day realities. Rich in history, Stone’s middle-grade debut entertains and informs young readers. The subdued ending may frustrate, but the journey, punctuated by Anyabwile’s grayscale cartoons, is well worth it.
A road trip to remember. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9297-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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