A didactic mix of a folk tale and measurement.
Berkes combines the familiar fable with a look at measurement.
The two don’t always mix well. Henry Hare’s a braggart who’s always putting down Tess Tortoise, boasting that he can make it to the top of a hill before Tess can even reach the bottom. And just how far is that? “1,760 yards,” pedant Oliver Owl says. Freddy Frog restates it for everybody’s benefit: “That’s a whole mile!” “Or 5,280 feet. Tess could never do it!” gloats Henry. As the race gets underway, Henry is distracted by some butterflies at the one-eighth mark, lunch at the half-mile post, and a nap at the three-quarter point. Readers all know how the story ends: “Henry admitted in disgrace that slow and steady won the race!” Morrison’s Henry looks bedraggled and sad at the finish line, ears drooping, eyes shifting to gaze at the winner. Her artwork is stiff but realistic, save for occasional anthropomorphized items (a whistle, binoculars, a GPS) and the fact that animals that are usually predator and prey are friendly here. The "For Creative Minds" section in the backmatter provides readers with units of measurement and gives them an opportunity to tell what units they would use to measure 15 distances, practice comparisons, and put the animals from the story in order from largest to smallest.
A didactic mix of a folk tale and measurement. (Math picture book/folk tale. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62855-635-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history.
A sonorous, soporific invitation to join woodland creatures in bedding down for the night.
As in her Moon Babies, illustrated by Amy Hevron (2019), Jameson displays a rare gift for harmonious language and rhyme. She leads off with a bear: “Come home, Big Paws. / Berry picker / Honey trickster / Shadows deepen in the glen. / Lumber back inside your den.” Continuing in the same pattern, she urges a moose (“Velvet Nose”), a deer (“Tiny Hooves”), and a succession of ever smaller creatures to find their nooks and nests as twilight deepens in Boutavant’s woodsy, autumnal scenes and snow begins to drift down. Through each of those scenes quietly walks an alert White child (accompanied by an unusually self-controlled pooch), peering through branches or over rocks at the animals in the foregrounds and sketching them in a notebook. The observer’s turn comes round at last, as a bearded parent beckons: “This way, Small Boots. / Brave trailblazer / Bright stargazer / Cabin’s toasty. Blanket’s soft. / Snuggle deep in sleeping loft.” The animals go unnamed, leaving it to younger listeners to identify each one from the pictures…if they can do so before the verses’ murmurous tempo closes their eyes.
Sweet fare for bed- or naptimes, with a light frosting of natural history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7063-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Sweet art, cloying storyline.
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music.
The inhabitants of a small village are happy with “simple pleasures” until they commercialize to attract tourists…whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano…and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that “if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again.” In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an “audience” of plants—a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781419763199
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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