Full of layers to peel back, consider, and discuss.
A mysterious creature befriends a young girl and leads her to a magical realm in this curious but comforting first-person tale.
On her way home through a pleasant Japanese neighborhood, a bob-haired Japanese girl’s curiosity is piqued by a silent, black, kodamalike creature which only she can see. First, she spots the creature patiently awaiting the bus, then she spies it sitting among the bonsai of a sidewalk plant stall. So, she follows it down an alley, under a fence, through a Japanese-style garden and into a traditional Japanese minka house, where the two drink tea. Beckoned further, the child enters a dark closet and is led through an attic door to an enchanted forest. Together, girl and creature romp across wordless spreads, their fun wrapped in quietude, until they fall asleep cozily on an enormous fluffy forest creature. After waking and parting ways with her newfound companion, the girl sees her daddy, and they walk home hand in hand. It is unclear if the adventure is a dream or a supernatural event, but the escapade appears to satisfy the child’s longing for her mother, who is hinted as absent. Clarity on this point may have been lost in translation from the original Japanese text, or perhaps Tanaka purposefully left the story open to interpretation. Black-and-white copperplate etchings skillfully juxtapose the ordinary world with the shadowy wonderland, where luminescent fireflies and flowers glow. Unfortunately, the specter of a stranger leading a child into a dark closet gives serious pause in an otherwise poignant and engrossing narrative.
Full of layers to peel back, consider, and discuss. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59270-358-6
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
A humorous rhyming romp in which the usual fairy-tale villains are friends. (Picture book. 3-6)
Alice, the princess in the palace, loves her blankie, but it’s missing, so the search is on.
Her brother, Jack, used it as a curtain until a giant stole it to use as a hankie, until a witch flew off with it and made a cloak from it, until it was taken by…a cranky-looking dragon who happens to be snoring on it when Alice finds them. Alice is cranky herself but halts a brief blankie tug of war for a better solution: finding the dragon his own bedtime snuggly. It’s not easy. The dragon grows increasingly weepy, but he won’t snuggle with the witch’s “far too scratchy” cat, the giant’s feather pillow (it makes him sneeze), or Jack’s stinky socks. What can Alice do? A thorough search of the palace finally yields the dragon’s perfect snuggly and earns Alice a lifelong friend and protector. Muted mixed-media cartoon illustrations create rich backstories for each character combined with a sophisticated, smoothly reading rhyme scheme to produce a fast-moving friendship story that problem-solving young children will appreciate. Princess Alice, Prince Jack, and the giant present as dark-haired white characters.
A humorous rhyming romp in which the usual fairy-tale villains are friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0819-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deterministic message detracts from the math.
For 10 flower friends, the grass is always greener…in the sky.
Ten Fantasia-like flowers with adorable faces and leaf arms/hands love being together and basking in the sun, but they also can’t help wanting to break free of their roots and fly when they see the fairies flitting about in the moonlight. One night, “Said the tiny blue one, / ‘Fairy up in the sky, / you see, I’m a flower, / but I want to fly.’ ” While the fairy is puzzled at the flower’s discontent, she grants its wish and transforms it into a butterfly. One by one the others join their mate in the sky as butterflies, each one’s color reflecting its flower origin. At daybreak, though, the new butterflies regret the transformation, and the understanding fairy changes them back again: “But big and tall, / or short and small, / being ourselves / is best of all!” Really? There isn’t even one flower that would really rather fly all the time? Throughout, McKellar emphasizes that there are always 10 in all, though some may be flowers and some butterflies at any given point. The endpapers reinforce ways to make 10 by showing 11 combinations, all in two rows of five, which may confuse children, rather than always keeping butterflies separate from flowers and allowing one row to be longer than the other. The bright colors, butterflies, flowers, and the fairy, who is a dark-skinned pixie with long black hair, seem calibrated to attract girly audiences.
A deterministic message detracts from the math. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-93382-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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