An accessible animal story that helps kids understand their difficult feelings.
In this illustrated kids’ book, a dark storm disrupts the garden animals’ idyllic lives, leaving an injured butterfly wondering how to go on.
A group of animals—a yellow butterfly, a bluebird family, a pair of squirrels, two wasps, and other fauna—enjoy their peaceful lives in a beautiful, sunny garden. Then a storm arrives and wreaks havoc on their world. Cyclones, torrential rain, and dark clouds roll through, damaging the waterfall, breaking branches on the apple tree, and dotting the garden with trash from area homes. The animals are scared and sad as they survey the damage, but they’re all most upset when they realize that the yellow butterfly’s two wings were injured during the storm. As they show concern for him, he says, “This is a ‘why me?’ day.” Each subsequent page and colorful illustration tracks the butterfly as he has similar thoughts: when the animals begin to clean the garden, it’s a “cleanup day”; when the butterfly worries he won’t ever fly again, he’s having a “challenging day.” But after the butterfly thinks of making a kaleidoscope with his garden friends, he eventually summons the strength to fly again, with the book ending on a positive note. Diaz explores themes of loss and coping through her garden metaphor, which makes these themes more accessible to young readers. Indeed, the second section of the book helps explain what happened in the text and offers questions that parents or teachers can ask children about the story to help them understand their own feelings of fear, sadness, anger, and hope: “What do you think the butterflies, animals, and insects felt before the storm? During the storm? After the storm?” She also describes metaphors in the text, such as the garbage scattered around the garden, which “provides a symbolic representation of things or thoughts that a child may want or need help recycling, reframing, or getting rid of to allow him or her to move from trauma to recovery.” Overall, the relatable butterfly gives an important life lesson by turning tragedy into beauty—something readers young and old should appreciate.
An accessible animal story that helps kids understand their difficult feelings.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615761398
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Linda\Diaz-Murphy
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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