A sweetly anthropomorphic Rhino family learns to appreciate their child’s unique interests through surprising support from an unexpected source. Bud Sweet-William is a mystery to his staid parents. They are “proper, sensible” and preternaturally neat. Bud has adored dirt since he was a toddler. While they prefer tidy silk flower arrangements and counsel Bud to color inside the lines, the ebullient Bud likes to “cut loose” when he paints. He is happiest digging, composting, and growing a backyard garden and reveling in the growing jungle of indoor plants that are rapidly over-running his room. Carefully cultivated family equilibrium is soon threatened by a visit from Bud’s paternal grandfather—a neatnick of the first order. How to keep Grandfather away from and unaware of Bud’s gardening? Upon arrival, Grandfather takes charge. He gives the house a thorough cleaning and reorganizing (even the canned goods in alphabetical order). A violent overnight thunderstorm wreaks havoc in Bud’s garden. When grandfather and grandson survey the remains the next morning, Bud learns that far from being dismayed, Grandfather is instead impressed with the garden and organizes its cleanup. Author-illustrator O’Malley’s (Leo Cockroach . . . Toy Tester, not reviewed, etc.) well-sized, sweet-natured, cartoony watercolors are full of the right kid pleasing details that add to the low-key fun. A delightful springboard for budding gardeners and an opportunity to share their enthusiasm with family and friends. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8027-8718-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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