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
An outlandish and original tale by Paz (for adults, In Light of India, 1997, etc.) is cut and pressed into the picture-book format, for which Buehner provides wild images and, with Cowan, a humorous ending. A boy of about eight falls in love with the waves on his first trip to the seashore, and so takes one home. Fearing that the wave will be forbidden to board the train, he carries it aboard ``cup by small cup'' and hides ``her'' in the watercooler. At home, the wave rushes into the house, knocking over furniture, sending the cat screeching, and providing destructive merriment in the boy's room. ``If I caught and hugged her, she would rise up tall like a liquid tree, then burst into a shower and bathe me in her foam''—not a typical picture-book text, and adults may read more into those lines than Cowan intends. Like a sulky mistress, the wave begins to ignore the boy, and its amusing qualities wane. The family abandons the house with the wave inside; in winter it turns to ice and is easily returned to the ocean. The boy dreamily believes that he will have better luck with a cloud, but Buehner's last illustration—in which an anthropomorphic cloud emits lightning bolts—certainly does not bode well. Beyond the subtext, the story is full of drama; its fresh subject and boisterous improbabilities beckon. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-688-12660-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1997
A common belief of childhood—that the moon is following a child—is part of the narrator’s ponderings during a night ride home. The narrator and her mother have helped a grandmother move; on the journey home the child rehearses her familiar bedtime routines in her mind: finding her father asleep on the couch in front of the TV, brushing her teeth, putting on pajamas, closing the curtains, and getting tucked in. The car is shown in snapshots, crossing bridges, rounding bends, and turning off exits, until its headlights shine a heart-shaped beam on the girl’s own house. Opposite those scenes are full-color pictures of the bedtime rituals, rendered in clean, unbroken pen-and-ink lines and washed in warm colors. The unswerving text, set in dark gray against a light gray background, conveys a sense of hush in simple declarative sentences and quietly celebrates the safety and comfort of home and family. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16168-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
