Who ever remembers to bring all that is needed for a day at the beach? No one. However, this family is particularly inept. Set to Ashman’s rhymes, they hit the road early, only to realize they forgot the dog. Home again. Back in the car, driving off, they discover they forgot the ball and net. Home. Away. What about the ducky pail? Home. Away. The beach umbrella? Home. Away. The cooler, tote, boat, kite, fishing gear? To and fro, until at last, thoroughly laden, on the road again, a thunderstorm squashes all ideas of sand and surf. Cruelly, even the traffic home is bad. What kid, or parent, won’t identify with this tale of woe? Westcott’s art ably captures the gathering frenzy, the unraveling of every nerve fiber. But Ashman’s verse is so light of foot, readers will laugh rather than wince. The moral of the story: Live by a beach. Wouldn’t it be nice? (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-15-216490-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and subtle book on sharing.
Rudy’s pink sweater is missing. Readers are invited to follow him as he searches for the sweater.
Rudy is a blue creature with a piggy snout, bunny ears, a thin, tufted tail, and a distraught look on his face. His beloved pink sweater is gone. “It was a bit too small and showed his belly button. But it was his favorite.” Where could it be? In a search that doubles as a countdown from 10 to one, Rudy makes his way through the different rooms of the house—top to bottom, inside and outside. As readers open the wardrobe door, “TEN tumbling cats” provide the first hint as to the sweater’s whereabouts. Following the pink yarn that runs across the pages, readers encounter some surprising creatures in each location—including a crocodile sitting in an outhouse busily knitting—as well as flaps to open and die cuts to peek through. Just as he’s about to give up hope—someone must’ve taken it, but “who would love wearing it as much as he did?”—the answer is revealed: “Trudy! His number ONE sister. The sweater fit her perfectly.” And, as is the nature of stories with a happy ending, Rudy gets a new sweater that fits him, from the knitting crocodile, of course. Plot, interactivity, vocabulary, and counting all contribute in making this an engaging book for the upper edge of the board-book range.
A sweet and subtle book on sharing. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3679-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster.
In singer Amerie’s picture-book debut, a biracial child goes on a magical adventure, with ancestors rooting them on.
Full-bleed spreads depict a dark-skinned infant being nurtured by a Black- and Korean-coded family and growing into an energetic youngster with light brown locs and a high fade. As the family sits down to a meal, the protagonist wanders off, their eye caught by an old photograph of a smiling, Black ancestor in overalls. When the child reaches out toward the picture, they fly through the frame and emerge in a jewel-toned forest. The woods are full of glowing, dancing Black and Asian ancestors. Accompanied by rhyming, inspirational text, the narrative winds along with the jubilant kid as they dance through the trees, chase an otherworldly white creature, ride a fiery bird (perhaps inspired by the Samjok-o from Korean mythology), and meet a person in a Korean hanbok before returning home. Younger readers may enjoy the singsong words alongside illustrator Figueroa’s colorful, dreamlike art, but overall, the narrative feels somewhat unstructured and unsatisfying. Platitudes like “You will do big things / That just might change the world. // And you will do small things / That may help one boy or girl” are too timeworn to stand out, and the youngster’s hop from one supernatural montage to the next is more dizzying than enchanting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81702-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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