More character study than story.
Gwendolyn Grace, an anthropomorphic alligator, is having a hard time adjusting to being a big sister.
From offstage, an adult voice tells Gwendolyn Grace to “[s]top making so much noise,” because the baby is sleeping. The frontmatter pages have already established her as a boisterous, noisy girl, and on subsequent spreads, she enacts repeated, noisy scenarios—ostensibly to clarify whether certain activities fall under the admonition to be quiet. Of course, all of her antics do cross the line into “so much noise,” and page turns consistently deliver the offstage parent’s disapproval. A baby’s cries are never apparent, though, and when the exasperated mama finally sighs and calls Gwendolyn Grace to her, there is no dramatic scolding or change. Instead, the big sister whispers and asks if they can play when the baby is done sleeping, and Mama says yes while the baby slumbers on. Not even Gwendolyn Grace’s exuberant “Yay!” rouses the baby, and after so much high-spirited, onomatopoeic text and art, the culmination of the story lacks satisfying resolution. Gwendolyn Grace simply goes on being noisy, and the baby keeps sleeping. Hannigan’s brightly colored artwork has a certain expressive vitality, but while the illustrations do provide support for characterization (Gwendolyn Grace is one spunky alligator girl in her pink skirt), they do little to enhance the sparse narrative.
More character study than story. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-234519-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Sweet.
A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.
With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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