When a boy reads a book about birds, his imagination takes flight. Multicolored acrylic paintings on bright, spare backgrounds narrow the focus straight to the boy and his dreams of taking wing with some colorful feathered friends. When asked, the boy’s father explains that the boy can’t fly because he doesn’t have wings—he has arms and hands instead. More “why” questions follow, resulting in the boy being hugged, swung and tossed, until he soars through the air with the help of his father. The minimal, dialogue-only text works well, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the illustrations and perhaps add some description of their own. Sitting together in an armchair, the boy and his father then embark on a new reading selection about fish. Questions about fins seem sure to follow! An engaging and effective father-son story in which the main characters are black and race is not presented as an issue, this is a charming introduction to the worlds of books, birds and imagination, and an apt choice for parent-child reading. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-56145-430-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
Aims high but just doesn’t get there.
Beware the imagination that cannot be contained.
When Poppa Fox comes to pick his son up after school he finds Little Fox a complete grump. Happily, Poppa Fox knows just the way to perk up his kiddo. One minute they’re pretending to be race cars, the next they’re dinos on the bus, and then later they’re blasting off to outer space to grab some ice cream. Unfortunately, all that sugar before dinner means that Little Fox’s imagination is now primed to go haywire. Now he’s a robo squid destroying a broccoli forest (rather than eating his dinner), then a shark devouring his dad, who is driving a mail truck (that is, splashing way too much in the tub). Things calm down by bedtime, but when Poppa Fox tells his son he will pick him up again the next day, Little Fox already has big plans. As books built on the power of imagination go, this story starts out strong but loses steam about the time Little Fox loses his focus. Santat’s art does more than its fair share of the heavy lifting, particularly when Little Fox’s imagination is supposed to go off the rails. Madcap adventure never looked this fun. Yet the book can’t quite nail the landing, shifting tone from one page turn to the next, leaving readers ultimately unsatisfied. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 33.8% of actual size.)
Aims high but just doesn’t get there. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21250-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A gentle model for living while missing a loved one.
In this Argentine import, laundry day leads to comforting conversations about loss.
The story opens upon a mother and child sitting at a table, plates empty. The somber mood is supported with the white, cream, gray, and black palette. As the youngster describes a special passageway that sometimes appears in their yard, the mother hangs two tomato-red sheets on the clothesline. On the other side of the sheets, viewers see the child diving into the grass to “swim” toward the man (presumably a close relative) who’s mirroring the child’s actions on the other side of the gutter. In this fantasy world, “there’s no danger. / And nothing, nothing at all, can happen to you.” The man’s absence is not explained, but the probability that it is permanent is suggested when his porkpie hat appears on the protagonist’s head at the conclusion. In Schimel’s translation, Wernicke’s words are few but well chosen and expertly paced, the sentences split among the pages allowing for unhurried absorption of meaning. Her curved figures are solid, with cream-colored skin; straight, black hair; and short lines for eyes. No mouths are visible, a decision that adds to the contemplative aura. Subtle patterns add interest, and red—ultimately applied to the mother—signals warmth and love. Joining the quest for the passageway, she notes: “Although we may not always see it, / we can always go looking for it.”
A gentle model for living while missing a loved one. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2251-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Amazon Crossing Kids
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
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