Skip this one.
A father who’s a spy tries to give it all up to spend time with his daughter.
This Finnish import is a mix of a spy thriller and a family drama, and if that sounds rather like the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, it isn’t. At all. From the start, the man’s two roles as father and spy intermix: While dangling from a helicopter he takes a call from his daughter, who’s wheedling for a hamster. After he listens to his daughter’s wish to have more time with her parents and resigns, the adventure they have together is fueled more by some nefarious operatives who are chasing them than by any interests the duo share. Indeed, mothers everywhere may shiver at the danger this dad exposes his daughter to, although all of it may go over readers’ heads. Only careful observation of the retro-colored, digital-looking illustrations (and knowledge of spy tropes) reveals all that is going on, as the dad is careful to keep Olivia in the dark. Problematically, this may mean that readers won’t get the tale at all, the pair seemingly changing their minds at random, or worse, they will get only the violent bits: The car blows up after lunch. And a couple of references to not working, not having money to spend, and being poor are likely to fall flat. All the characters present white; the dad perpetually wears either a Lone Ranger mask or glasses that look exactly like one.
Skip this one. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62371-993-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space.
The light-skinned, redheaded narrator journeys alone as flight attendants supply snacks to diverse, interspecies passengers. The kid muses, “Sometimes they ask me, ‘Why are you always going to the farthest planet?’ ”The response comes after the traveler hurtles through the solar system, lands, and levitates up to the platform where a welcoming grandmother waits: “Because it’s worth it / to cross one universe / to explore another.” Indeed, child and grandmother enter an egg-shaped, clear-domed orb and fly over a teeming savanna and a towering waterfall before disembarking, donning headlamps, and entering a cave. Inside, the pair marvel at a human handprint and ancient paintings of animals including horses, bison, and horned rhinoceroses. Yockteng’s skilled, vigorously shaded pictures suggest references to images found in Lascaux and Chauvet Cave in France. As the holiday winds down, grandmother gives the protagonist some colored pencils that had belonged to grandfather generations back. (She appears to chuckle over a nude portrait of her younger self.) The pencils “were good for making marks on paper. She gave me that too.” The child draws during the return trip, documenting the visit and sights along the journey home. “Because what I could see was infinity.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 85% of actual size.)
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77306-172-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lovely vision for small, sensitive existentialists.
Under the desert night sky, Dad helps his child find cosmic comfort.
The vast universe has made a child feel too small despite their close family. Until, the young narrator tells us, they and their father pack their old pickup, driving through the “rubber and french fries” smell of the city and the “sweet and smoky” mountain scent to camp off-road in a remote arroyo. Together they see tiny beetle prints, jump in sand dunes, name birds, build a fire, watch the sunset, and stretch out in the truck bed. A thoughtful, small human, the child admits to being scared of “how big the universe is and how it goes on and on forever.” But equally thoughtful Dad explains that stars, beetles, birds, and even people are made of energy. Angst is not easily tamed, but snuggling and giving the constellations idiosyncratic names help, as does Mom’s back-at-home surprise: glowing stars covering the narrator’s room. In this bed under the stars, this budding philosopher finally feels “at home here in the universe.” It’s a quiet, contemplative tale that might not strike a chord with all readers but will reassure those who share the protagonist’s worries. Delicate, realistic art plays warm orange and brown hues against blues from pale to indigo, balancing (living) warmth and (interstellar) distance. The child and family are light-skinned and redheaded. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lovely vision for small, sensitive existentialists. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1239-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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