Keep rowing: there are islands aplenty with more to offer.
A rhymed warning about the hazards of holding on to a snit.
Lamb, a pop songwriter, describes the titular island in stilted verse: “The Island of Grump / is a far away place // Where no one is happy / Not one smile per face.” He warns that it’s hard to get off (because “the sea will scowl / and the sky will pout”), fun and friends are just memories at best, and lingering will result in being crowned a king “on a stump,” ruling all alone. But partway through he reveals that he really has anger rather than grouchiness in mind, which Buckner inscrutably betokens with two toys, one broken, in the accompanying picture. In the digitally slick and unsubtle illustrations, a scowling lad with light skin rows his way to an island populated by frowning figures that resemble crosses between robots and tiki gods. There, he visualizes friends (one with very dark skin and hair) searching for him in vain and ends up clad in robe and crown, staring out to sea. A crabby-looking crab can also be spotted on most pages. The lack of emotional resolution (not to mention the writing) leaves this cautionary opus looking superficial next to the more therapeutic likes of Where the Wild Things Are or Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura’s Angry Arthur (1982).
Keep rowing: there are islands aplenty with more to offer. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-943978-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Persnickety Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Inspiration, shrink wrapped.
From an artist, poet, and Instagram celebrity, a pep talk for all who question where a new road might lead.
Opening by asking readers, “Have you ever wanted to go in a different direction,” the unnamed narrator describes having such a feeling and then witnessing the appearance of a new road “almost as if it were magic.” “Where do you lead?” the narrator asks. The Road’s twice-iterated response—“Be a leader and find out”—bookends a dialogue in which a traveler’s anxieties are answered by platitudes. “What if I fall?” worries the narrator in a stylized, faux hand-lettered type Wade’s Instagram followers will recognize. The Road’s dialogue and the narration are set in a chunky, sans-serif type with no quotation marks, so the one flows into the other confusingly. “Everyone falls at some point, said the Road. / But I will always be there when you land.” Narrator: “What if the world around us is filled with hate?” Road: “Lead it to love.” Narrator: “What if I feel stuck?” Road: “Keep going.” De Moyencourt illustrates this colloquy with luminous scenes of a small, brown-skinned child, face turned away from viewers so all they see is a mop of blond curls. The child steps into an urban mural, walks along a winding country road through broad rural landscapes and scary woods, climbs a rugged metaphorical mountain, then comes to stand at last, Little Prince–like, on a tiny blue and green planet. Wade’s closing claim that her message isn’t meant just for children is likely superfluous…in fact, forget the just.
Inspiration, shrink wrapped. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26949-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
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