There’s lots of eye candy in individual scenes, but the storyline is sketchy at best, making the whole rather less than the...
Curiosity about the flowers and animals, cars and buildings far below prompts the lonely Cloud Princess to descend for a closer look.
Leading off with a lenticular cover that adds 3-D layers to the princess’s luxuriant flows of white curls, the illustrations outshine the cursory plotline. Depicted as a pink-cheeked human child with huge, dark, almost mangalike eyes and a sad rosebud mouth, the fascinated princess floats downward accompanied by a flock of magenta birds to examine leaves and butterflies and to touch a flower with delicate fingers. But her hair suddenly begins to melt into rain. Miss Sun’s warning sends her scurrying skyward again…but doesn’t stop her from continuing to come down regularly, bringing with her the spring rains. Le endows Miss Sun, Miss Moon, and even the teal stars with faces, and she intersperses views of the bare-armed princess with scenes of earthly schoolchildren drawn with shorter, darker hair but similar features. The art is subject to abrupt transitions from one side of the gutter to the other, but all the sweet expressions and softly variegated colors throughout create delicate visual harmonies.
There’s lots of eye candy in individual scenes, but the storyline is sketchy at best, making the whole rather less than the sum of its parts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60887-731-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Insight Editions
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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