There is a measure of charm, but it’s light fare—not enough to make a streamside picnic.
Friendship and foolery on the river.
Most days on the water get off to a promising start, and so does MacIver’s. Yak and Gnu head out for some good time in their crafts. “Yak in a kayak, blackberry black, / Gnu in a blueberry-blue canoe, / sing a sea song that’s sung by two: / ... / No one else / but you and me / can float a boat / or sail the sea.” Chapman’s ink-and-watercolor artwork has a spring-fresh quality, as if she were capturing the scene while lying along a riverbank with her sketch pad in the early-season sun. Cumulatively—though the counting is a give-or-take proposition here—other river rats join in, working their way into an armada, all kinds of crazy crafts that end in an oceangoing liner filled with...yaks and gnus. Good, goofy fun, that. But some of the action is not just cockamamie, it’s off its rocker: “A snazzy snail setting sail...” except snazzy snail is in a motorboat. “A snail! A calf! Jumpin’ jive!” Jive what? Nobody jivin’ here. It does, however, rhyme with five. And though some of the couplets take wing—“a stout pig afloat / on an outrigger boat, / and a rat and her clan / on a catamaran!”—others just don’t fit into their surroundings, like that “laughing calf / aboard a raft.”
There is a measure of charm, but it’s light fare—not enough to make a streamside picnic. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7561-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Light on story but delivers an uplifting message all the same.
In FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer champion Wambach’s latest, children are urged to be themselves.
Wambach turned her popular 2018 commencement address at Barnard College into a New York Times bestselling book for adults—Wolfpack (2019), an inspirational treatise that encouraged readers to be themselves and dream big. A second adaptation was published for a middle-grade audience, and now comes the picture book, which breaks down Wambach’s message into a series of simple, declarative statements about taking on adventures, facing fears, and being true to oneself, because “you are a Wolf—and that’s the Wolfpack way.” The eight-point Wolfpack way, which is strung throughout the book and organized as a list at the end, is all good Chicken Soup for the Soul–esque advice, from “create your own path” to “let kindness lead the way.” A rallying cry, “we can do hard things,” appears on a hat worn by one of the children in Rahmalia’s boldly colored illustrations, which provide the basic storyline: A racially diverse ensemble of kids (including one who uses a wheelchair) traverse their neighborhood, board a school bus, spend the day at school doing a variety of activities (including playing soccer), board the bus again for home and dinner, then perform in a musical together. Although the text is somewhat didactic, the presentation of a group of children respecting and supporting one another is a welcome contrast to the U.S.’s divided, conflicted society.
Light on story but delivers an uplifting message all the same. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781250766854
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Doesn’t quite hit the spot
A cautionary tale about making experiences last.
The riotous utensil community Rosenthal and Magoon introduced in Spoon (2009) and continued in Chopsticks (2012) returns for a series conclusion starring a blue-and-white–striped bendable straw who “has a great thirst for being first.” Straw slurps up everything in sight, from the water in a flower bowl to a cup of tea, while friends look on in dismay. Since nobody else seems to be competing with Straw, both his fervor and their unhappiness feel ungrounded. But when Straw tries to speed through an icy drink, he’s laid low by brain freeze and “his heart sank,” an awfully dramatic response. Straw’s friend, a novelty straw with loop-de-loop eyes, helps him appreciate the pleasures of taking in life slowly, and Straw is forever changed, suddenly appreciating the colors, textures, and experiences in the world. At bedtime, a parent kisses him and explains that “what you’re feeling is called awe, Straw.” By the end, “sometimes he still wants to be first. But most of the time, Straw wants to make the good things last.” Magoon’s energetic cartoon illustrations are fun to look at, but the lengthy story drives its point into the ground, and neither the problem nor the resolution is interesting enough to convince hasty children to slow down their central nervous systems.
Doesn’t quite hit the spot . (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-148474955-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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