A bear gets sick—and the cure changes her.
PB, a bear with brown fur, and Jeli, a bear with white fur, are friends who play together in their exhibition space in the zoo. One day, Jeli gets sick. The zoo staff treats her and she quickly heals, but the medicine turns her white fur purple. Agitated, she tries to rub and scrub the purpleness off; then she tries to paint herself white. Nothing works. Jeli is permanently purple, and here Ragsdale implements the piece’s core point: attitude adjustment. Some animals bossily lecture Jeli (no sympathy in evidence). Jeli weeps—then accepts that although she can’t change her color, she could “change one thing….She could change her attitude. / So she did just that!” She declares herself “POSITIVELY PURPLE!” Jeli’s life is now excellent, and a crowd of zoogoers cheers her on. Lest readers fail to internalize the message, the text repeats it in second-person: “with a good attitude and some good friends, you can turn any day into an ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY PURPLE day!” Zoo visitors are racially diverse throughout. Visibly disabled zoogoers (one using a wheelchair, another using crutches) show up only for the positivity-cheering rally, which regrettably links disability with the text’s emotional edict. Brooks’ merrily dreamlike illustrations have curlicue spirals everywhere and a chameleon that, delightfully, turns plaid.
Belongs on a sampler—if that. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1467-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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