Little Olivia Wendell is without neighbors, so she has learned to play alone. In her imagination, she populates the empty house next door with an inviting family and lots of lively farm animals. At story's end, a moving van appears in front of the vacant house and a girl just Olivia's age arrives at the gate between the two yards. The universal preschooler's wish for a friend is happily granted in Hough's very simple first book, although slightly older children will wonder why Olivia doesn't go to school and why no parents or siblings appear—she sleeps in a blanket in a chair at night. Kvasnosky (Mr. Chips, 1996) graces the book with her distinctive illustrations, in which boldly drawn forms are not quite filled with strong, flat color, so that every shape is enlivened by a white ``halo'' inside its outline. In the pictures, Olivia plays with a toy farm (from which her fantasies take shape) and owns a copy of an earlier book Kvasnosky illustrated, Florence Page Jaques's There Once Was a Puffin (1995). (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: June 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-45497-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1997
Newcomer Nyeu’s wordless fantasy begins with a girl and boy sowing seeds—she, for watermelons, he, for a hat (or so his planted sign would indicate). The pair sleeps in a people-bed beside their garden bed, awakening next morn to sprouting melon seeds and an eye-poppingly huge flowering plant. Its largest bud yields a magic hat and a white bear—who parlays the day into something wondrous, indeed. From his hat, Wonder Bear produces monkeys, giant bubbles resembling lions and flora that morphs into sea-creature escorts. After careering exhilaratingly through night sky and sea, the little band heads back in time for Bear to tuck the children in beside their fabulous garden, now rife with full-size watermelons. Borrowing from Seuss, Gag, Thurber and Japanese textiles, Nyeu’s lush silk-screened pictures pulse with stylized yet organic forms, teetering perspectives and a mysterious, apt conclusion. The design elements are noteworthy, too: The generous trim size, creamy, opaque, matte paper and lovely boards and endpapers combine artfully. An intriguing, nuanced debut from an artist to watch. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3328-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
In a pop-up album that provides a strong argument for attaching parental-advisory labels, happy monsters rear up over a hill, spring from closet and cellar and burst out from under the bed to assure a pair of timorous, pajama-clad children that they’re not really scary. Like fun they’re not: Along with startling, in-your-face entrances, the shaggy tree and closet monsters flash tusks and claws, the cellar monster’s head is topped with writhing vacuum-cleaner hoses and the gesticulating bed monster sports a gaping, froglike face. Though the text is less melodramatic—“The monster laughed, and his big green belly shook. ‘I am a big fellow,’ he said. ‘But my friend the Closet Monster is smaller. You won’t be afraid of him. Come on. I’ll introduce you’ ”—and on the final spread children and creatures dance off in a yellow-brick-roadish line, this is likely to give unwary preschoolers heebie-jeebies—at least on the first run-through. Stick with Sesame Street’s more lovable critters. (Pop-up picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7358-2206-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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