A strong story about how small acts can affect others in a big way.
A scarf given as a gift offers a far greater sense of caring and connection than the giver ever imagined in Clarkson’s debut picture book.
In Florida, a knitter named Jo finishes a long red scarf. Even though she labors on it with love, she feels that it’s a humble gift. Preparing her offering, she tosses chocolate kisses in along with the scarf, wraps the box beautifully, and places a bright golden bow on top. After a month of travel, Jo’s box, along with a number of other gifts she’s collected, arrives in Romania. A young girl named Rodica receives Jo’s package. She’s excited to have something beautiful; with her family, she places the bow on a shelf of the house and carefully unwraps the present. The scarf, which Jo had found so humble, becomes an object of great significance for the family. The children wrap it around their hands when they sleep in a shared bed; they swaddle a sick baby in it as he recovers. The scarf acts as a flag, saving Rodica’s father’s life when a mine collapses, and as a banner to scare away birds from the collective fields. Finally, it becomes Rodica’s pillow, always reminding her of the love someone shared from across the world. (“To this very day, when Rodica lays her head upon the red scarf she thanks God for the someone, somewhere, who made the scarf that showed they cared.”) The story memorably demonstrates how valuable a small-seeming thing might be to the person who receives it. Young readers are likely to have questions about Rodica’s impoverished living conditions, and the book’s opening note offers some context about the communist regime of Romania in the 1980s. By using mainly black-and-white ink, with only a few colors as accents, Leander’s illustrations emphasize the importance of the shiny bow and the red scarf as bright spots in an otherwise bleak landscape. Some images are repeated with only small details changed, demarcating shifts in the story and the scarf’s importance very effectively. The tale celebrates an attitude of gratitude that children might do well to emulate.
A strong story about how small acts can affect others in a big way.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 38
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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