Sentiment, text, and illustrations all cry out for a reissue in a larger format.
Using a board-book format, McCourt brings a message of unconditional parental love and support to the youngest story listeners.
As in earlier, standard-format books in the series, an inquisitive child imagines increasingly preposterous scenarios, asking Mama to imagine whether the child might be successful in each. The story starts with the child's plausible desire to draw the “most exciting picture ever.” Mama's encouraging response is accompanied by an homage to Van Gogh's Starry Night created by this obviously gifted child. The situations become increasingly unlikely, but Mama patiently, reassuringly, and consistently voices her confidence in her child's ability to overcome obstacles, conquer fear, and triumph over adversity: “You can do it, Stinky Face!” The blond child clad in striped leggings and a plain, purple top is satisfyingly androgynous, allowing both girls and boys to put themselves in that place. With far more words and plot than in most board books, this offering really exceeds the board-book audience. Given the small (5 inches by 6 inches) format, it is challenging to appreciate the details in the bright, colorful illustrations, which compete with the extensive text for attention. The small format makes it suitable only for one-to-one sharing, though the message would be ideal for parent education programs.
Sentiment, text, and illustrations all cry out for a reissue in a larger format. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-80648-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
A self-consciously didactic story that deals blandly with its theme.
Wince-inducing platitudes lace this saccharine story of loving and being loved.
Tulip loves to dance. All the time. Her parents think she’s wonderful, and everyone smiles vacuously. All the time. Tulip’s smiling parents bring her to the park, where she befriends a large, unaccompanied dog with a note on his rope collar that says his name is Rex and that he is “not quite like other dogs.” After ordering him to fetch, sit and catch, none of which he does, she tells him that she doesn’t “mind a bit. We all have something we love to do. We just have to discover what it is.” It appears he loves romping with Tulip. When it’s time to go home, Tulip cavorts some more and discovers that on the back of Rex’s note is a plea: “Will you take me home?” Tulip’s doting parents allow this. By the end of the book, Tulip proclaims that “there’s nothing quite like sharing love….” Tulip may resolutely dip, twirl, gallop and pirouette through each earnest, well-meaning page, but the story itself putters flatly along until, with a tired sigh, it ends. The illustrations, while colorful, add no other layers, simply mirroring what the text relates.
A self-consciously didactic story that deals blandly with its theme. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-209413-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though it initially treads some familiar territory, this European import sensitively takes readers into an emotional...
A little bear seeks reassurance from his mother that she will always love him.
At first, the question-and-answer session follows a familiar pattern. Little Bear has torn his jacket; will Mom still love him? What if he tore all his clothes? If he got bad marks at school? If he made a mess at home? With each query, Mom reassures him. To this point, there’s little remarkable about this book, but then it takes an unexpected turn: “There is something that still worries Little Bear very much, but he doesn’t dare ask….‘What if you died?’ ” Mom takes her time to answer, then tells him that of course she will, and he will feel it “deep inside.” Will she ever love someone else more? he asks, looking “at her round tummy.” The conversation plays itself out as Mom mends the torn jacket, Tharlet’s shaggy ursines posed against vast expanses of white space, the occasional window or chair indicating a domestic interior. The end is abrupt, and readers accustomed to resolution will feel that the loving dialogue has been cut off with a couple page turns yet to go. It honors the attention span of genuine preschoolers, though, realistically capturing their mercurial shifts in mood from existential wonder to absorption in immediate action.
Though it initially treads some familiar territory, this European import sensitively takes readers into an emotional frontier rarely explored. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-988-8240-51-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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