Laugh-out-loud nonsense poetry combine with cutting-edge paper collages for an irresistible picture book. Hort, familiar to readers as the author of the far more sober Reading Rainbow selection How Many Stars in the Sky? (1991) here reveals his wacky, endearing side. This book should come with a disclaimer: “Warning: Regular classroom read-alouds from this perky collection of 18 poems could cause a room full of second graders to dissolve into uncontrollable giggles.” And who could resist “When Groundhog Slides Down the Chimney,” which reminds readers that it’s time to “carve your eggs and paint your pumpkins” as “Columbus, it will soon be Christmas!” Beware—if you’re trying to soothe little ones before bed, do not read “Lullaby,” which urges kids to first “open your eyes” and then “close your eyes, it’s time to wake. . . . Come taste your breakfast rattlesnake.” Readers will enjoy the delicious “Broccoli Pie” and the “peppery cool / and lemony sweet” taste of “A Pair of Purple Oranges.” “I Drove Over Oceans,” with its pleasing echo of the old jump rope favorite “Johnny over the ocean, Johnny over the sea . . .” could sweep 21st-century playgrounds. Kids and teachers may be inspired to try their own hands at nonsense verse. But caution is recommended. Kids might find these poems too sidesplitting to settle down and write. Kroninger’s bright and wacky cut-paper collages vibrate with energy. Incorporating eye-popping magazine photo images, they fairly burst from the pages and never fail to ratchet up the hilarity. (Poetry. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-83195-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s always tomorrow.
A lyrical message of perseverance and optimism.
The text uses direct address, which the title- and final-page illustrations suggest comes from an adult voice, to offer inspiration and encouragement. The opening spreads reads, “Tonight as you sleep, a new day stirs. / Each kiss good night is a wish for tomorrow,” as the accompanying art depicts a child with black hair and light skin asleep in a bed that’s fantastically situated in a stylized landscape of buildings, overpasses, and roadways. The effect is dreamlike, in contrast with the next illustration, of a child of color walking through a field and blowing dandelion fluff at sunrise. Until the last spread, each child depicted in a range of settings is solitary. Some visual metaphors falter in terms of credibility, as in the case of a white-appearing child using a wheelchair in an Antarctic ice cave strewn with obstacles, as the text reads “you’ll explore the world, only feeling lost in your imagination.” Others are oblique in attempted connections between text and art. How does a picture of a pale-skinned, black-haired child on a bridge in the rain evoke “first moments that will dance with you”? But the image of a child with pink skin and brown hair scaling a wall as text reads “there will be injustice that will challenge you, and it will surprise you how brave you can be” is clearer.
There’s always tomorrow. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-99437-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
A lyrical coming-of-age story in picture-book form that begs to be shared.
Former Poet Laureate Herrera encourages his young readers to imagine all they might be in his new picture book.
Herrera’s free verse tells his own story, starting as a young boy who loves the plants and animals he finds outdoors in the California fields and is then thrust into the barren, concrete city. In the city he begins to learn to read and write, learning English and discovering a love for words and the way ink flows “like tiny rivers” across the page as he applies pen to paper. Words soon become sentences, poems, lyrics, and a means of escape. This love of the word ultimately leads him to make writing his vocation and to become the first Chicano Poet Laureate of the United States, an honor Herrera received in 2015. Through this story of hardship to success, expressed in a series of conditional statements that all begin “If I,” Herrera implores his readers to “imagine what you could do.” Castillo’s ink and foam monoprint illustrations are a tender accompaniment to Herrera’s verse, the black lines of her illustrations flowing across the page in rhythm with the author’s poetry. Together this makes for a charming read-aloud for groups or a child snuggled in a lap.
A lyrical coming-of-age story in picture-book form that begs to be shared. (Picture book/memoir. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9052-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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