An inventive if not wholly successful look at the nighttime world of nature.
An imaginative pug with insomnia explores the night world of sleeping animals with a dreamlike narrative in rhyming text.
Conrad the pug just isn’t interested in sleep when his family heads off to bed. He slips out into the night alone and sees all sorts of familiar animals sleeping near his home. As Conrad ventures further into the heart of darkness (his name is Conrad, after all), his observations veer into the fantastical. He can see under water and into distant environments, spotting such unusual animals as elephants, monkeys, a panda and a tiger. At first Conrad is an observer, but he becomes a participant, swimming with the “creatures of the deep” and sleeping on his back tucked into a group of walruses. He returns home to find the little girl of his family still awake, and Conrad falls asleep in her bed. Readers will find the girl in an irritated state of wakefulness on the final page. This jarring attempt at a humorous ending doesn’t complement the magical, ethereal tone of Conrad’s journey. Intriguing illustrations in ink, watercolor and gouache capture the mysterious tone of the world at night, with a wide variety of perspectives and creatively integrated strings of ZZZs coming from the sleeping creatures.
An inventive if not wholly successful look at the nighttime world of nature. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25793-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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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