Jeffers returns to illustrating Brown (Baby Animals, 1989) as she sets four previously unpublished poems to bright, crisply detailed outdoor scenes featuring an animated teddy bear investigating an idyllic natural world. In the first, a sort of companion piece to Runaway Bunny, Bear toddles off into a field of tall May flowers, but sings to a left-behind parent that though distances may separate them, "It's a long time that I'll love you, / Never, never go away." The bear/child then bends down to examine a world in which "little things creep / In their green grass forests deep . . . ." Next he experiences as much as hears "The Song of Wind and Rain," and finally finishes with an excursion along a river bank to watch little boats go "Slow slow / In the soft fall of the snow." Though Jeffers confesses that she isn't sure whether Brown considered these rough drafts or finished pieces, they read smoothly enough, and the lovely pictures make them into small stories that capture their sense as well as their depth of feeling perfectly. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0509-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
Wormell (An Alphabet of Animals, 1990, etc.) proves that occasionally, the grass is greener elsewhere, at least for three friends who switch homes, and a fourth, who leaves town. Blue Rabbit is discontented with his cave in a forest (which, to children, will be recognizable as a dark area behind some blocks and toys); in his search for better digs, he encounters Bear, sitting in what appears to be an upside-down, water-filled Frisbee. Bear is also unhappy in his habitat; so is Goose, living in a doghouse that smells of old bones, and Dog, whose home seems to be a daisy-covered bedspread. Blue Rabbit successfully relocates his new friends, but finds that he needs the open road and adventure. Those who need a comforting predictability in their stories will be satisfied, but so, too, will be those seeking surprise. The author’s bold linoleum block prints complement the several planes of the plot, all of which are amply appealing. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8037-2499-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
family’s lucky / that I didn’t want a cow!" (Picture book. 3-6)
A moderately silly counting book, with slick, cartoony, computer-influenced illustrations opposite each page of short rhymed
text. A girl in overalls buys a chick at the General Store, the kind of shop with ribbons and paint, a barrel of pickles and hams hung from the ceiling. Her older sister, charmed by the black chicks, buys two more, and her father, taken by the striped ones, buys three, and so on through her family, until over 50 baby chickens come home to roost. "There were chickens in the kitchen . . . / . . . There were chickens in my bed!" The pigtailed heroine who started it all ends by noting, puckishly, "I guess my
family’s lucky / that I didn’t want a cow!" (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-56397-800-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
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