Like Hughes, Bryan, at 91, can also boast, “I’m still pulling.” (Picture book/poetry. 5-12)
Hughes’ pen is paired to Bryan’s sculpting scissors, making a rich, poetic picture book indeed.
“Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I’m still pulling.” Thus ends Langston Hughes’ autobiography, The Big Sea (1945), and here begins the subject of Bryan’s compilation. He chooses both familiar poems, such as “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and less-well-known ones, such as “Sailor,” to explore all things aquatic, both domestic and international. Reflecting Hughes’ adventures seeing the world via its waterways, the poems feature mermaids, waves, bridges, meeting merchants from all over, and more. Bryan’s intricate and colorful cut-paper collage illustrations breathe new life into the poems. The artist also pays homage to his mother, including photographs of her sewing and embroidering scissors on the endpapers—the same scissors he used to cut the images for these illustrations. Readers don’t have to have ever heard Bryan’s unforgettable, theatrical recitation of “My People” or other Hughes poems to understand the depth of the artist’s appreciation of and admiration for Hughes and his poetry: he opens the poems up visually here in the same way that he opens them auditorily when he performs them live.
Like Hughes, Bryan, at 91, can also boast, “I’m still pulling.” (Picture book/poetry. 5-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3085-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Strong heartwood.
The titular exhortation is explained and expounded upon in spare free verse that teaches both well-established facts about trees and new revelations about their interlinked, supportive communities.
Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees (2016) has claimed yet another enthusiast among picture-book creators. This book has the advantage of lyrical, accessible poetry and vibrant watercolors from an ever changing palette. The book consists almost entirely of double-page spreads, and each page turn but one yields images of trees or parts of trees—and many show gloriously diverse children and adults enjoying their time with, under, and among equally varied kinds of trees. The initial spread repeats the book’s title on the verso as it adds on the recto: “Stand tall. / Stretch your branches to the sun.” The baobab trees that span the book’s gutter shade a small child of color, happily reaching out to the sky. The text continues to advise its readers to be trees as its metaphors become increasingly complex. One imaginative spread shows an abstraction of a tree’s pith, contrasted with a simple, representational illustration of the human circulatory system. After basic anatomy has been covered, spreads on the wonders of the sustaining “wood wide web” and the urgency of biodiversity segue cleverly into the necessity of humans gathering in community. The ending exhortation would seem sappy under less professional handling, but instead it is a proper conclusion to an argument grounded in facts and heartfelt artwork. The backmatter, including tips on saving trees and engaging in community, is excellent, too. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.3-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 55.3% of actual size.)
Strong heartwood. (author’s note, anatomy of a tree, resources) (Informational picture book. 7-12)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4422-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Sweet—and savory.
When a girl visits her grandmother, a writer and “grand friend,” she is seeking something special to share at show and tell on the first day of school.
Before Brook can explain, Mimi expresses concern that certain words describing the natural world will disappear if someone doesn’t care for and use them. (An author’s note explains the author’s motivation: She had read of the removal of 100 words about outdoor phenomena from the Oxford Junior Dictionary.) The duo sets out to search for and experience the 19 words on Mimi’s list, from “acorn” and “buttercup” to “violet” and “willow.” Kloepper’s soft illustrations feature green and brown earth tones that frame the white, matte pages; bursts of red, purple, and other spot colors enliven the scenes. Both Mimi and Brook are depicted as white. The expedition is described in vivid language, organized as free verse in single sentences or short paragraphs. Key words are printed in color in a larger display type and capital letters. Sensory details allow the protagonist to hear, see, smell, taste, and hold the wild: “ ‘Quick! Make a wish!’ said Mimi, / holding out a DANDELION, / fairy dust sitting on a stem. / ‘Blow on it and the seeds will fly. / Your tiny wishes in the air.’ ” It’s a day of wonder, with a touch of danger and a solution to Brook’s quest. The last page forms an envelope for readers’ own vocabulary collections.
Sweet—and savory. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7073-2
Page Count: 62
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
