A slightly more bitter than sweet—but still very funny—picture book for parents.
Leaven surveys daily parental frustrations in this comical adult take on children’s picture books.
“Why do I have to wear a coat, hat, shoes, or even pants?” asks an adorable little pastel girl. The parent’s exasperated response: “Wipe your snots. No more questions. Fu**’n said so.” Supplemented by Margarita’s soft but energetic illustrations, the text takes readers through a number of frustrating moments in which parents feel they simply can no longer answer a toddler’s incessant questions, such as, “Why can’t we play in the snow all day?” “Why can’t I hit mommy in the head with a tennis racket?” “Why can’t we keep swimming in the ocean?” “Why do I have to eat chicken nuggets?” “Why can’t I have the other toy I wanted?” (To which the author delivers one of the book’s funnier responses: “Well you better f***ing play with this piece of crap—and love it forever.”) Parents will certainly find numerous memorable lines that speak directly to their feelings of failure in the face of a fickle little one. Caregivers will also relate when Leaven writes of having been so mellow pre-child, only to now realize, “I’m just a dumpster fire of failed internet parenting tips.” The author displays deft comic skill at setting up jokes within this succinct format and offers several inventive variations (such as adding a “glub glub” as the mother feels like she’s drowning, literally and figuratively). The picture book strives to walk that narrow line between childlike sweetness and adult humor that the well-known book Go the F***k to Sleep (2011) pulled off so well. (This book clearly draws heavy inspiration from that work’s similar premise.) Thanks to Margarita’s warm illustrations, the book is largely successful in hitting that difficult tone, but the exasperation and frustration do at times overpower the warmth. (The chicken nugget rant toward the end, for example, feels more in line with the beginning of an angry stand-up set than a charming picture book.) Despite these minor imbalances, loving and exhausted caregivers will certainly chuckle when seeing themselves reflected in these colorful pages.
A slightly more bitter than sweet—but still very funny—picture book for parents.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2024
ISBN: 9798990471634
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Etienne Editions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.
A woman faces a health crisis and obsesses over a local accident in this wonderful follow-up to Sandwich (2024).
Newman begins her latest with a quote from Nora Ephron: “Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know—it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.” It sets an appropriate tone for a story that is just as full of death and dread as it is laughter. Two years after the events of Sandwich, Rocky is back home in Western Massachusetts and happily surrounded by family—her daughter, Willa, lives with her and her husband, Nick, while applying to Ph.D. programs; her widowed father, Mort, has moved into the in-law apartment behind their house. When a young man who graduated from high school with Rocky’s son, Jamie, is hit by a train, Rocky finds herself spiraling as she thinks about how close the tragedy came to her own family. She’s also freaking out about a mysterious rash her dermatologist can’t explain. Both instances are tailor-made for internet research and stalking. As Rocky obsessively googles her symptoms and finds only bad news (“Here’s what’s true about the Internet: very infrequently do people log on with their good news. Gosh, they don’t write, I had this weird rash on my forearm? And it turned out to be completely nothing!”), she also compulsively checks the Facebook page of the accident victim’s mother. Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines (one passage about the absurdity of collecting a stool sample and delivering it to the doctor stands out). As Rocky deals with the byzantine frustrations of the medical system, she also has to learn, once more, how to see her children, husband, father, and herself as fully flawed and lovable humans.
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063453913
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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