Overall, though, cat fans will enjoy this sleeping and waking tale that starts and finishes on the end papers. (Picture...
A city cat and a country cat prowl beneath the same dusky moon.
“One moon. / Two cats / are not asleep. / Cats yawn, / cats stretch, / cats look, / cats LEAP!” City cat watches trucks on the streets below its window. Country cat wends its way past sleepy pigs and ducks. Both groom and explore their separate landscapes until they see a mouse! They chase their mice across their very different territories. Just as each is about to pounce, lightning flashes—and it begins to rain. Both kitties return home in the rain, curl up and snooze into morning under the same sun. Godwin’s spare, rhymed verse lends itself to the hushed tones of a bedtime read. Tanaka’s muted, ochre-cast acrylics are a good match for the text, but, oddly she gives the cats humanlike eyes, which distorts the otherwise realistically depicted kitties. Even during the mouse chase, their eyes remain half-lidded, suggesting near-total exhaustion or, perhaps, an unseen romp in the catnip patch.
Overall, though, cat fans will enjoy this sleeping and waking tale that starts and finishes on the end papers. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4424-1202-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not really high or low, this effort takes the middle road. (Picture book. 2-5)
The theme of unconditional love, in both good and bad times, is offered in rhyme alongside pictures of loving pairs of animals.
In the canon of “I love you so much” titles, the shelves are full of devotion to parenting. Prasadam-Halls offers another title that illustrates a wide range of emotions. Love, naughtiness, fear, excitement, sadness, and even questioning all take a turn through this rotation of parent watchfulness. The rhyming verse, with its repetitive cadence, is a bit lumpy, but it is bolstered by comforting full-spread artwork by Brown. Rendered in acrylic paint and colored pencil, each youngster-and-parent depiction exudes connection and protection. Rabbits gingerly cross a river on steppingstones, a joey bounces with abandon, and a baby owl sleeps while the parent stands guard. “When you are sad and troubled with fears, / I hold you close and dry all your tears.” Whether the pairs are koalas or crocodiles, all the animals are androgynous, making the images work for single moms and dads. Though the book cycles through many moods, the feeling of constant presence is clear. The last lines, echoing the premise of the whole book, will be reassuring to most. “For when you are high and when you are low, / I’ll be holding you tight… // …and I'll never let go.” Sweet though it is, though, there’s nothing fresh about it.
Not really high or low, this effort takes the middle road. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61963-922-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Walsh’s latest finds her trademark mice exploring the mathematical concept of balance. With a stick and a rock, two mice make a teeter-totter and enjoy balancing…until a salamander wants to play and makes the weights uneven. Luckily, another joins him, and the teeter-totter is even again, a mouse and a salamander on each end. This pattern repeats with a pair of frogs. But then a single, large bird arrives, sending a few of the balancers catapulting into the air. The seven are able to achieve a tentative balance once again by stacking all the animals on one side and the bird on the other. But the precarious stack can’t last, and everyone hops, crawls or flies away to do something else…all but the mice, who balance once again. Fans will certainly recognize old friends in the mice, salamanders and frogs from previous outings. A white background makes the textures and bright colors in the author's cut-paper illustrations pop off the pages as well as making it easy for young readers to focus on the mathematical concept. Tips the scales in a subject area surprisingly lacking. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0757-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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