Lola, an unscheduled addition to a student production, triumphs.
A frisky feline makes her stage debut.
Little Lola, a cat with limitless energy, starts her day with yoga-style warm-up stretches, jumps and runs through the park as if in the Olympics, and then dashes into a theater. Human children in colorful costumes (and with varying skin and hair colors and hair textures) are readying themselves to put on a show, and Lola energetically tries on different Broadway fashions until she finds the perfect fit. Forsaking flamenco, jazz, hip-hop, and step-dancing, she joyfully dons a bee ensemble. She then flits across the stage in an assortment of perfectly executed ballet steps. Or are they? Lola, alas, is not alone on the stage, and her solo antics create a messy mayhem. Lola is a team player, though, and proceeds to clean up all the upended scenery and mussed-up costumes, energetically of course. There is a red carpet for Lola at the end, which she rolls out in another solo turn. Sleep finally comes next to her pavement star. Lola may be a stage manager’s nightmare, but she is always a cheerful dynamo. Saab and Gothard, a husband-and-wife duo, introduced Lola in Little Lola (2014), and in this second outing she continues her irrepressible ways. The spot and full-bleed watercolors once again convey a spirit of lighthearted fun.
Lola, an unscheduled addition to a student production, triumphs. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-227453-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited.
Dancing is one of the most universal elements of cultures the world over.
In onomatopoeic, rhyming text, Bolling encourages readers to dance in styles including folk dance, classical ballet, breakdancing, and line dancing. Read aloud, the zippy text will engage young children: “Tappity Tap / Fingers Snap,” reads the rhyme on the double-page spread for flamenco; “Jiggity-Jig / Zig-zag-zig” describes Irish step dancing. The ballet pages stereotypically include only children in dresses or tutus, but one of these dancers wears hijab. Overall, children included are racially diverse and vary in gender presentation. Diaz’s illustrations show her background in animated films; her active child dancers generally have the large-eyed sameness of cartoon characters. The endpapers, with shoes and musical instruments, could become a matching game with pages in the book. The dances depicted are described at the end, including kathak from India and kuku from Guinea, West Africa. Unfortunately, these explanations are quite rudimentary. Kathak dancers use their facial expressions extensively in addition to the “movements of their hands and their jingling feet,” as described in the book. Although today kuku is danced at all types of celebrations in several countries, it was once done after fishing, an activity acknowledged in the illustrations but not mentioned in the explanatory text.
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-142-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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