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A STORYTELLING OF RAVENS

Name: A STORYTELLING OF RAVENS
Author: Kyle Lukoff
ISBN: 978-1-55498-912-6

by Kyle Lukoff ; illustrated by Natalie Nelson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018

Offbeat nonsense humor of the highest order: not to be missed.

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A menagerie of common creatures portrayed in uncommon ways.

This book riffing on animals’ collective nouns has the declarative force of a George R.R. Martin title and the head-tilting creativity of Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. Debut author Lukoff’s pithy statements are so bold and unexpected that each of the dozen or so situations described is presented in a double-page spread and given wide—though richly colored—illustrative berth. The volume opens on a cryptic note: “The nuisance of cats blamed it on the dog,” immediately driving readers to Nelson’s vivid mixed-media illustration, on the hunt for what “it” might be. While Nelson’s witty depiction rewards (a group of bemused cats sits loosely lassoed together by a few loops of yarn with a lone strand leading back to the mouth of a sleeping dog), one must still infer both what “it” is (cats tied up, a skein of yarn used for ulterior purposes?) and who’s really being considered the “nuisance”—the cat posse or the dog? Each of Lukoff’s seemingly arbitrary declarations operates similarly, employing sophisticated vocabulary and some behavioral characteristics of the animals described—monkeys, giraffes, sheep, frogs, the eponymous ravens—to paint a scene, perhaps the most hilarious and poetic of which involves hippos: “The bloat of hippopotamuses raced up the river. Five words: explosion at the cupcake factory.”

Offbeat nonsense humor of the highest order: not to be missed. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-55498-912-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Groundwood

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS VEGETABLES
by Kyle Lukoff ; illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi

- BOOK REVIEW
AWAKE, ASLEEP
by Kyle Lukoff ; illustrated by Nadia Alam

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SEA MONSTER
by Kyle Lukoff ; illustrated by Kat Uno

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)