A warm, heartfelt paean to a leafy refuge for beautiful birds and happy children.
In Pearl’s picture book, a beloved tree and a centuries-old castle share a storied pastoral history.
A majestic tree stands in a field miles away from the bustling city of London, England. Local children climb its branches, sit high among its leaves, and rest beneath its shaded canopy. As darkness approaches, colorful peahens and peacocks perch upon its limbs for shelter while the children and their families fall sleep in their homes. It is during this quiet time that the tree shares memories of times past with the castle (Woodcroft Castle, a real-life edifice that dates back to the 13th century) upon whose grounds it was planted. They recount how the castle came to be and reminisce about simpler times. (“Together, they remember when there were no trains or cars or planes. When there was only sun and night and wrong and right.”) As day breaks, the children rush to feed the peacocks and peahens and return to their favorite tree. Pearl’s soft pastel illustrations, which have a grainy texture, suit the story’s pastoral setting, and pages incorporating black-and-white shadow play effectively represent the historic battles waged at Woodcroft Castle. The text is written in brief poetic stanzas. Alluding to Woodcroft’s fractious history, the author sets the stage for the message she hopes to impart to her readers: Care should be taken with humans, animals, trees…and all living things.
A warm, heartfelt paean to a leafy refuge for beautiful birds and happy children.Pub Date: June 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781838757663
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Nightingale Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more.
A flurry of mail addressed to Duncan’s crayons ushers in the Christmas season in this novelty spinoff of the bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) and The Day the Crayons Came Home (2015).
Actual cards and letters are tucked into envelopelike pouches pasted to the pages; these are joined in some cases by other ephemera for a package that is likely to invite sudden, intense play followed by loss and/or damage that will render the book a disappointment to reread. That’s probably OK, as in contrast to the clever story that kicked this small series off, this outing has a hastily composed feel that lacks cohesion. The first letter is addressed to Peach from Mom and includes a paper doll of the “naked” (de-wrappered) crayon along with a selection of tabbed changes of clothing that includes a top hat and tails and a bikini top and bottom. Peach’s implied gender fluidity does not mitigate the unfortunate association of peach with skin color established in the first book. The sense of narrative improvisation is cemented with an early page turn that takes the crayons from outdoors snow play to “Feeling…suddenly very Christmas-y, the crayons headed inside.” Readers can unpack a box of punch-out decorations; a recipe for gluten-free Christmas cookies that begins “go to store and buy gluten-free cookies”; a punch-out dreidel (turns out Grey is Jewish); a board game (“six-sided die” not included); and a map of Esteban (aka Pea Green) and Neon Red’s travels with Santa.
Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more. (Novelty. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51574-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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