In his note to the reader, Fancher (The Range Eternal, p. 1222, etc.) writes, “I’ve shortened the text to allow more room for the artwork,” as an explanation for this abbreviated version of the beloved classic. Shortened indeed: Williams’s poetic passage introducing the Skin Horse has been reduced to: “The Skin Horse was old and wise, and he knew all about being Real.” The rest is pared down to match, leaving a tale that does still—faintly—echo the original’s lyricism, but is less likely to lose the attention of, as Fancher puts it, “a wiggly two-year-old” being forced to listen to it. The art is, as promised, all full-paged and space-filling: quiet compositions in which the Velveteen Rabbit, the Boy, and other figures are large, soft-surfaced forms, viewed close-up, and from a child’s-eye level to enhance the feeling of intimacy. The tale’s more philosophical aspects will still elude most of the nursery school set, but sharing this summary may make some listeners more receptive to the Real story, when they’re old enough to appreciate it. On the other hand, perhaps they’ll think they’ve read it already. Why not just wait? (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84134-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
A sweet bee idyll
A little girl befriends a lost bumblebee in this wordless picture book.
The scene opens on a bustling and ever-so-slightly surreal urban landscape; muted taupes and peaches give it a friendly if sterile look. A little white girl sits in a high-rise apartment reading a book on flowers when a large bee flies in her open window. In an eight-panel sequence, she fetches a fly swatter, causing the bee to back up against a windowsill, four whisper-thin legs held up in surrender, its two wide eyes visually echoing its dismayed O of a mouth. After consulting a book called Bee Culture, she prepares it a solution of sugar water, which the bee sips delicately from a spoon. She lets it go, but it returns, comically bedraggled, on a rainy day, and the friendship is cemented. The bee grows and grows until it’s big enough for her to ride, its human facial features and fuzzy, brown-and-yellow–striped body anything but threatening. (A stinger is conspicuously absent.) Together they fly to the countryside, harvest seeds, and sprinkle them in the city so that the next spring, it’s all abloom. Jay’s oil paintings are soft and delicate, offering delight in the details. Even as the girl bonds with the bee, she also befriends a little brown-skinned boy in the apartment above. A page of bee facts concludes the book, with a focus on pollinator-friendly plants for readers to plant to encourage bees in their own environments.
A sweet bee idyll . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9010-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Jarrett's first book shows great understanding of children as she treats the arrival of a new sibling in a positive way. When Catherine awakes, an enormous, genial lion is filling her doorway, with golden light filtering through his immense mane. She accepts this imaginary friend and, with endearing independence and self-assurance, includes him in all her activities: dressing herself, preparing her own cereal, remembering to take back a library book. She takes the lion to class, where he curls up with the children when they go to the mats for naps. At day's end, the girl says good-night to a baby sister, who is otherwise offstage; with that scene, the reason for the lion's appearance that morning begins to make sense. The girl's mother reads her a story and tucks her in—a fine finish to a day in the life of a new older sister. In skilled sketches done in loose line, Jarrett's illustrations have the friendly texture of crayons in scenes that fully convey a warm and secure world, where all routine events are subtly enlivened by the benevolent lion presence. The change in the household—and the child's adaptation to that change—is expertly handled. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Jan. 2, 1997
ISBN: 1-57505-035-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1996
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