Subtly philosophical, quietly adventurous, and perfect for bedtime.
Two young children dream of real and fantastical places to call home.
“If you live in a tree house…you’ll need to be a good listener,” opens the text. A double-page spread shows a girl with medium brown skin and Afro puffs and a boy with light brown skin and straight hair using headphones to listen to a record player and listening through a tin-can telephone to the chatter of a squirrel. The text goes on to imagine the special things you can do, qualities you must cultivate, or unique experiences you might have in other types of homes, including a spaceship, a train, an animal burrow, a castle, a candy store, a farm, a dollhouse, a nest, and more. The illustrations show the two children transported to each of the different dwelling places (the children are always drawn to scale) and feature repeating abstract and geometric shapes. The artwork is also chock-full of interesting and often tiny details; for example, when the children reside in a submarine, a nearby jellyfish reads a book, and when they live on a spaceship, green aliens dressed in spacesuits float by in outer space. Sometimes the text is amusing, but there are poignant moments: “If you live on a train, you know that everything changes,” and “if you live in a nest, you need to be ready to leave when it’s time.” Although frequently whimsical, this book gently encourages young readers to develop curiosity about domestic experiences outside of idealized and conventional representations.
Subtly philosophical, quietly adventurous, and perfect for bedtime. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-286532-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An accessible entrance into the world of social-emotional skills.
What do you do when the world turns upside down?
Freckled redhead Tilda is a happy only child with a rollicking personality. With lots of books and toys and a multiracial group of friends, life is perfect as far as she’s concerned…until her world undergoes a troubling change (a subtle hint in the illustrations suggests that Tilda’s parents have divorced). Suddenly, nothing feels right, everything seems hard, and she doesn’t want to play with her friends. To reflect this emotional disorientation, the artwork shows Tilda in spatially distorted settings, complete with upside-down objects. It’s not until she sees an upturned ladybug struggle persistently before getting back on its feet (despite Tilda’s desire to help, the ladybug needs to help itself) that Tilda gains the courage to start taking baby steps in order to cope with her new reality. There are still challenges, and she needs to persevere, but eventually, she regains her zest for life and reconnects with her friends. Despite this, the ending avoids an easy happily-ever-after, which feels just right for the subject matter. Though a trifle didactic, the story sends an important message about the roles of self-efficacy and persistence when it comes to overcoming challenges and building resilience. Percival’s digital illustrations use transitions from grayscale to color to create symbolic meaning and have psychological depth, deftly capturing a child’s experience of trauma.
An accessible entrance into the world of social-emotional skills. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0822-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more.
In this droll tale, ostensibly straightforward instructions are a recipe for absurdity.
To obtain the two slices of bread that a jelly sandwich calls for, a brown-skinned youngster named Frankie instructs readers to head to the store. But NOT to the bakery aisle! Instead, buy “one orange [traffic] cone, scuba flippers, and a yellow inner tube.” Using those items to fashion a duck disguise, you’ll score the bread from a brown-skinned elder feeding wildfowl in the park. And if the ducks see through your pretense, you might have to practice your “quack-cent.” Similar maneuvers are required to open the jelly jar: You’ll need peanuts, a playground with a “whirly-go-round,” and an elephant with a strong trunk grip. (But if the jar is carelessly opened upside down, you’ll get a “jellyphant.”) To spread the jelly, you must first scrub a dog in your bathtub. (Dip the clean tail in the jelly, then pet and praise the dog until it happily wags its tail over the bread slices.) Putting the slices together requires a knightly tournament, but cutting the sandwich, “the least complicated step of all,” involves training a hamster to ride a unicycle. The final pages propose an alternative (but just as outrageous) method and invite readers to think up their own ridiculous techniques. Burach’s scenarios are inventive and hilarious, while his exaggerated cartoon illustrations reinforce the delicious jokiness each step of the way.
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781338877090
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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