The shoe-obsessed foursome of Shoe-la-la! (2011) is back, but this time millinery extravagance is the rage.
The irrepressible little girls storm a street-fair boutique—Chez Chapeaux. Beaumont’s simple, snappy rhymes tap-dance the girls from turbans to top hats with nary a stumble. Unlike the frazzled clerk in the girls’ first adventure, the boutique’s brown-skinned salesclerk joins in the revelry with joyful alacrity. Feathers, fruit, flowers—nothing is too glitzy for the four fashionistas-in-training. “Ribbons, buttons / beads, and bows. / Gems and jewels…we all like those.” After the friends finally decide on some rather plain head gear, they race home to their attic workshop. In the blink of an eye, Scotch tape, paint, and sparkly craft supplies provide the needed pizzazz for their haute couture masterpieces. Frou-Frou, a beribboned little terrier, delivers fancy invitations to the clueless moms, who have been shouting up to their daughters, “Emily, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Claire! / What is going on up there?” Stepping into the backyard, the surprised parents find they are the guests of honor at a très chic mother-daughter tea party. Pham’s digitally colored, Japanese brush pen illustrations expertly capture the quicksilver flashes of grins, eye-rolls, and haughty runway ennui. Dress-up magic sparkles all over this too-cute multiethnic quartet.
Beaumont and Pham have proven once again that childhood fun romps across all societal biases with aplomb. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-47423-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Monster lives in Cutesville, where he feels his googly eyes make him unlovable, especially compared to all the “cute, fluffy” kittens, puppies and bunnies. He goes off to find someone who will appreciate him just the way he is…with funny and heartwarming results.
A red, scraggly, pointy-eared, arm-dragging monster with a pronounced underbite clutches his monster doll to one side of his chest, exposing a purplish blue heart on the other. His oversized eyes express his loneliness. Bright could not have created a more sympathetic and adorable character. But she further impresses with the telling of this poor chap’s journey. Since Monster is not the “moping-around sort,” he strikes out on his own to find someone who will love him. “He look[s] high” from on top of a hill, and “he look[s] low” at the bottom of the same hill. The page turn reveals a rolling (and labeled) tumbleweed on a flat stretch. Here “he look[s] middle-ish.” Careful pacing combines with dramatic design and the deadpan text to make this sad search a very funny one. When it gets dark and scary, he decides to head back home. A bus’s headlights shine on his bent figure. All seems hopeless—until the next page surprises, with a smiling, orange monster with long eyelashes and a pink heart on her chest depicted at the wheel. And “in the blink of a googly eye / everything change[s].”
This seemingly simple tale packs a satisfying emotional punch. Scarily good! (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-374-34646-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL
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Whimsy, intelligence, and a subtle narrative thread make this rise to the top of a growing list of self-love titles.
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Employing a cast of diverse children reminiscent of that depicted in Another (2019), Robinson shows that every living entity has value.
After opening endpapers that depict an aerial view of a busy playground, the perspective shifts to a black child, ponytails tied with beaded elastics, peering into a microscope. So begins an exercise in perspective. From those bits of green life under the lens readers move to “Those who swim with the tide / and those who don’t.” They observe a “pest”—a mosquito biting a dinosaur, a “really gassy” planet, and a dog whose walker—a child in a pink hijab—has lost hold of the leash. Periodically, the examples are validated with the titular refrain. Textured paint strokes and collage elements contrast with uncluttered backgrounds that move from white to black to white. The black pages in the middle portion foreground scenes in space, including a black astronaut viewing Earth; the astronaut is holding an image of another black youngster who appears on the next spread flying a toy rocket and looking lonely. There are many such visual connections, creating emotional interest and invitations for conversation. The story’s conclusion spins full circle, repeating opening sentences with new scenarios. From the microscopic to the cosmic, word and image illuminate the message without a whiff of didacticism.
Whimsy, intelligence, and a subtle narrative thread make this rise to the top of a growing list of self-love titles. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2169-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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