Cue applause for this picture book about a Sikh girl who loves music.
Sangeet loves music, both composing and playing all kinds of instruments, including the tablay, which are traditional Indian drums.
One day, on the school playground, Sangeet notices the amazing sounds that are all around her. She hears the squeak of the swings, the creak of the teeter-totter, and the voices of her fellow students. All of the sounds come together in her mind to form a brand new beat. After school, she races home to try the beat out on her tablay. But when she plays it, she realizes that the beat isn’t quite complete: Something is definitely missing. What could it be? Sangeet practices and practices, even dreaming about the beat, but she still can’t quite figure out what she needs to finish the rhythm. When her beloved grandmother comes to visit, she hopes that she’ll find the answer. Dadiji is a talented musician who has performed all over the world. In the end, Dadiji’s advice—though unexpected—is exactly what Sangeet needs to finish her brand new beat. The book’s joyful storyline is complemented by vibrant, cartoonlike illustrations that have a homespun feel. The prose is uneven at times, but the underlying messages are clearly and cleverly communicated. Although Sangeet’s heritage is never explicitly mentioned, names and visual details (such as Sangeet’s uncut hair and her father’s and grandmother’s turbans) suggest that she and her family are Sikh; they live in a racially diverse North American community.
Cue applause for this picture book about a Sikh girl who loves music. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-989996-05-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Rebel Mountain Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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