Gracie’s a sweet little bunny; here’s hoping her next visit has a bit more internal logic.
A bespectacled bunny loses her glasses in this Japanese import, the first of a series about the character to be translated into English.
Gracie is a white bunny who needs glasses. Even though her friends tease her, she’s proud of them. One day, however, while playing on the mountain, she loses them—which she doesn’t realize until bedtime. She makes her way up the darkened path to retrieve them, mistaking the glowing eyes of an owl for the lenses and the curly tail of the mouse for an earpiece before going on. When a ghost (depicted as a very un-scary, large, white teardrop shape) tries to scare her, she doesn’t recognize him as a ghost. Hoping he’ll scare her with her glasses on, he searches all night for them for her, only to disappear as soon as he finds them, as the sun comes up right then; Gracie is never the wiser. Readers with eyes like Gracie’s will be mystified that she did not notice when her glasses fell off and that she thinks she can possibly find them on her own in the dark. Her indelible good cheer, however, is appealing, and her Mr. Magoo–like mistakes are gently amusing. Sena’s textured collage illustrations employ torn paper to evoke Gracie’s fur; the simplicity of the compositions gears the book to younger readers.
Gracie’s a sweet little bunny; here’s hoping her next visit has a bit more internal logic. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-940842-13-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Museyon
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
Instills a sense of well-being in youngsters while encouraging them to explore the natural world.
This reassuring picture book exemplifies how parents throughout the animal kingdom make homes for their offspring.
The narrative is written from the point of view of a parent talking to their child: “If you were a beaver, I would gnaw on trees with my teeth to build a cozy lodge for us to sleep in during the day.” Text appears in big, easy-to-read type, with the name of the creature in boldface. Additional facts about the animal appear in a smaller font, such as: “Beavers have transparent eyelids to help them see under water.” The gathering of land, air, and water animals includes a raven, a flying squirrel, and a sea lion. “Home” might be a nest, a den, or a burrow. One example, of a blue whale who has homes in the north and south (ocean is implied), will help children stretch the concept into feeling at home in the larger world. Illustrations of the habitats have an inviting luminosity. Mature and baby animals are realistically depicted, although facial features appear to have been somewhat softened, perhaps to appeal to young readers. The book ends with the comforting scene of a human parent and child silhouetted in the welcoming lights of the house they approach: “Wherever you may be, you will always have a home with me.”
Instills a sense of well-being in youngsters while encouraging them to explore the natural world. (Informational picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63217-224-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug.
What to do when you’re a prickly animal hankering for a hug? Why, find another misfit animal also searching for an embrace!
Sweet but “tricky to hug” little Hedgehog is down in the dumps. Wandering the forest, Hedgehog begs different animals for hugs, but each rejects them. Readers will giggle at their panicked excuses—an evasive squirrel must suddenly count its three measly acorns; a magpie begins a drawn-out song—but will also be indignant on poor hedgehog’s behalf. Hedgehog has the appealingly pink-cheeked softness typical of Dunbar’s art, and the gentle watercolors are nonthreatening, though she also captures the animals’ genuine concern about being poked. A wise owl counsels the dejected hedgehog that while the prickles may frighten some, “there’s someone for everyone.” That’s when Hedgehog spots a similarly lonely tortoise, rejected due to its “very hard” shell but perfectly matched for a spiky new friend. They race toward each other until the glorious meeting, marked with swoony peach swirls and overjoyed grins. At this point, readers flip the book to hear the same gloomy tale from the tortoise’s perspective until it again culminates in that joyous hug, a book turn that’s made a pleasure with thick creamy paper and solid binding.
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-571-34875-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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