An opening for parent-child pairs to use their own imaginations to see where love will take them.
A father’s lullaby to his young son imagines his affection in figurative language.
“If my love were an elephant, / it would stomp from tree to tree. / And if my love were a great blue whale, / it would splash across the sea.” From a rocket ship blasting off and a marching band whose drums “crash and boom” to a bucking bronco and a lion’s thundering roar, the text describes where and how this dad’s love for his son might manifest. The boldly colored mixed-media illustrations show the duo (both pale-skinned and black-haired) in each situation: knights in armor roasting marshmallows behind a shield that protects them from a dragon’s fiery breath or divers discovering a treasure chest on the ocean floor. Most of the rhymes scan well, though the text ends rather suddenly: “If my love were a firework, / it would blast long past this song. // And if my love were a big bear hug, / it would snuggle you all night long.” The visual here is much more satisfying than the words, as the two are fast asleep, smiles on their faces, child lying atop father, each with an arm around the other. Readers are likely to wish for the music to go with the verses.
An opening for parent-child pairs to use their own imaginations to see where love will take them. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93740-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Emphasizing daily commonalities, this is a useful book on urban Turkish culture.
Turkey’s political situation is often in the news, but this book focuses mostly on the everyday life of a young child in Istanbul.
The English text is in a clear, Roman typeface, with alternating Turkish paragraphs set in italics. The story is bookended by morning and evening calls to prayer, when Mehmet, about 6, remarks on how the light falls on the mosque minarets at each time of day. The family is not shown praying, however, and Mehmet attends a coed secular school. “Some of Mama’s friends wear headscarves. Mama doesn’t. She says there are many paths to Allah.” The day’s highlight is a fishing trip with his brother and father. Mehmet notices “a boy my size with his mother.” They are not speaking Turkish, and the child “looks sad and hungry.” A contemporary issue creeps into the text as Mehmet’s father explains “that there are many refugees here in Istanbul.” Mehmet generously gives the boy his fishing rod. Later, Mehmet goes roller-skating at the plaza surrounding a neighborhood mosque and watches a soccer game on TV. An afterword for older readers provides some historical facts and explanations about figures mentioned in the text such as Rumi and Atatürk. Adult readers not familiar with Turkish history may wish this had been integrated directly into the text. The collages place rather static human figures assembled from cut paper and with drawn-on details into photographic backgrounds that give a sense of depth and place.
Emphasizing daily commonalities, this is a useful book on urban Turkish culture. (afterword, glossary) (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-935874-34-8
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Satya House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unabashedly adorable.
An abandoned baby sea otter is rescued and sent to live out her life in an aquarium—where she learns the deepest meaning of “family,” in this tale inspired by a real-life rescued otter pup.
“When the moon slipped under the mist and the sun began to burn through, a tiny one opened her eyes.” These poetic words are on the recto of a double-page spread of a pale, watercolor seascape. At the left, an immediately appealing, dazed-looking brown sea otter sits draped in seaweed. Over the next two pages, there are four more depictions of the baby, in equally adorable positions, lessening the sting of her plaintive situation. She appears near death when, in driving rain, a young woman shows up and gently bundles her into a blanket, calling the otter Pup 681. The tale is told in third person, but most of it is through the supposed thoughts and even dreams of the otter, who at one point feels so lonely she sickens. Her unnamed, sweet-faced rescuer, a woman of color, again revives her, and a fascinating otter fact is cleverly revealed. The gentle humor of the artwork and the descriptive, sometimes-rhyming text combine with excellent layout to create a compelling tale. If the ending words were describing a human’s lesson learned, they would seem mawkishly sentimental; because the lesson applies to Pup 681’s “tiny otter heart,” they simply provide appropriate closure. An author’s note and a smattering of otter facts follow.
Unabashedly adorable. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-11450-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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