A delightful addition to the "are you my" category.
In the tradition of P.D. Eastman's classic Are You My Mother? debut picture-book author Kelley and illustrator Werner (Olive the Little Wooly Bugger, 2009) bring to life a lovable baby penguin who is certain her father is missing (rather than the other way around).
When an emperor penguin egg rolls away from her father's feet and hatches, she exclaims "My dad is lost!" and hurries off to find him. Kelley uses direction words for how the penguin chick both looks (left, right, behind, in front) and travels (down, over, along) as the chick encounters a variety of Antarctic creatures. An albatross gives her the clue that her dad is a flightless bird; an orca explains that her dad lives on land; and a wonderfully funny-looking elephant seal, in Werner's best illustration, tells her that her father isn't his size. After the chick mistakes a human scuba diver and photographer for her dad, he turns on her with a clicking camera, and she panics. Hurrying back to the beginning of her journey, she climbs the hill to find her father. Perfect for patient lap readers learning to emphasize location words like above, under, around, and through, this penguin and the animals—all accurately portrayed in their proper habitats, which is frequently done poorly in penguin books—will charm youngsters. Werner's soft lines balance cartoon approachability with animal accuracy perfectly for the age group, and Kelley's gentle telling is sure to require rereads.
A delightful addition to the "are you my" category.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4575-5885-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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