All readers will find the handsome illustrations a wonder, while Tove Jansson enthusiasts will adore the homage.
In this tribute to the life of Moomin author Tove Jansson, a young girl pursues five naughty, troll-like creatures.
Tove arrives at her summer home, where Moomin-like drawings adorn the wall. She begins exploring the striking yet desolate island, a prominent setting in Jansson's life and work. Here, the semi-biographical elements diverge into a fantasy that, per Soloy’s author’s note, was “inspired by Tove’s life and the stories she wrote about her own childhood” (readers will need to consult the backmatter to make that connection). Tove visits a friend—a small, hairy brown creature—to care for his five wild daughters, all “tiny as shells.” A gust of wind blows the youngsters away, and Tove follows, picking up treasures and musing about the island’s mercurial nature before finally locating the wayward girls. She returns home, soaked but satisfied, to her mother’s warm sweater and “piping hot pancakes.” The narrative is pleasingly crisp yet contemplative; Soloy describes salvageas “a gift the sea gives you” and asks readers to “imagine never getting soaked to the bone and then getting dry again…How dreadful!” But it’s her rugged, elemental digital illustrations that steal the show. Thick black outlining and gorgeous, darkly atmospheric, Jansson-inspired backgrounds of stormy skies and sea contrast against slashes of light and warm, colorful domestic scenes.
All readers will find the handsome illustrations a wonder, while Tove Jansson enthusiasts will adore the homage. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781774883150
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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