Welcome to the spring bookshelf, Bear. So glad you like berries! (Picture book. 3-6)
After waking up from hibernation, Bear is starved. Breakfast is in order, but the perplexed ursine cannot put a paw on exactly what it should be; it starts with the letter B….
It can’t be friend Bunny, who informs Bear, “I am too skinny to taste good” but will help with the search. The pair set off and meet up with Bumblebee. Before Bear can get any ideas, Bumblebee stings it on the nose, and Bear quickly decides to keep looking, now with the insect’s help as well. Now there are three on the breakfast search. Bit by bit the search party grows as they encounter Boa (who offers some bark), a bat (who is too bony for bears), and Bluebird (who needs to take care of her beautiful babies). Eventually, in a nail-biting sequence over three double-page spreads, they spot a brown-skinned child. Could it possibly be that this is the “B!” Bear is looking for? Children are clearly meant to see a boy here and supply the story's punch line, but the word "Boy" is never printed on the page. Readers will be relieved to find it’s the “Berries!!!” the child has been gathering. The story ends with everyone, child included, taking a nap after a bountiful breakfast of berries. Helquist’s charming acrylic-and-oil illustrations are very expressive, anthropomorphizing the animals just enough to engage but making sure Bear’s canines are evident at all times. The spread in which the animals wonder anxiously if they have finally found Bear’s “B!” is priceless.
Welcome to the spring bookshelf, Bear. So glad you like berries! (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-226455-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
The runaway cookie in this Mexican bakery is a soft, brown, stubby-tailed piglet as impertinently bold and smug in his continual escape as his Gingerbread Boy cousin. “Chase me! Chase me down the street. But this is one piggy you won’t get to eat! / ¡Córrele, córrele! ¡Y Córrele más! ¡Soy el cochinito que jamás comerás!” This bouncy dual refrain extends the familiar cumulative text, rendered in both English and Spanish, as piggy manages to elude Marta the baker, Lorenzo the mechanic, Mamá Nita the beautician, Joaquín the telephone repairman and a host of other neighborhood adults—until he is outsmarted by Rosa, a little girl on her way to school, who foxily “helps him” cross the street. Safely tucked into her backpack, piggy is both a welcome surprise and an excuse for Rosa’s lateness to class. Deep opaque acrylic paintings of a colorful barrio and its residents in pursuit add the right amount of cultural flavor to this vivid Latino retelling. Recipe appended. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55885-586-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
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