An imaginative and playful escapade.
A boy named August can’t help but make a carefree mess.
His mom admonishes him with a smile, “August, don’t act so WILD!” The stripe-shirted boy reasons, “tigers are WILD, so [he] must be a TIGER.” Mom relocates the rambunctious August to the sandbox. Bemoaning his banishment, August wants to yell, but, instead, he lets loose a roar. Surprised, he realizes he has turned into an actual, child-sized tiger. He leaves his backyard and carouses in his new feline freedom, hunting prey (a butterfly; a zebra-striped crosswalk). August finds his friends at the park, but they run away in fear, not recognizing him. Sad and alone, he hears his mom calling. After running home, tiger and mom good-naturedly roughhouse until August, now back in human form, is ready for bed. August declares that he’s done being a tiger, but, since “tomorrow is another day,” he might be a dinosaur! The text, translated from Dutch, is fairly prosaic and not always fluid, but the illustrations serve the straightforward story well. Paintbrush effects keep visuals smooth, as when giving tiger fur its apropos softness, and even the urban elements seem arcadian. The tiny ears and tail that appear as August wishes to be a real tiger are well-placed hints at the change to come—some of the many elements for readers to laugh at and explore. Both August and his mom present white.
An imaginative and playful escapade. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62371-936-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
In a Central Indian village, Churki and Burki, two young sisters, help their parents and play near their house. The girls enjoy their traditional life. From the time they wake up in the morning until they fall asleep at night, the sisters make up rhymes to go with each activity, from playing on a homemade see-saw—“…Tadak-tadak / Kukurukoo / Tadak-tadak, / I want to play too!”—to thinking about all the food items in their dinner: fish, corn, beans, pumpkin and rice. Although the rhymes are not from traditional sources, the animal sounds and nonsense syllables may be from this area and will easily be picked up and repeated by North American children. Some of the rhymes don’t scan as well as others, but the prose and poetry work together to give an accessible description of village life. Bai uses her characteristic natural colors and intriguing Gond regional style, filling her pictures with cross-hatching and designs on creamy ecru paper, that she also employed in the wonderful The Old Animals’ Forest Band, by Sirish Rao (2008). An intriguing and refreshing look at a faraway place. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-93-80340-06-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tara Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
It won't set your hair on fire, but it's a story that exudes its own dry warmth. (Picture book. 3-7)
A modest tale of a Bigfoot.
Larf is one of those large, hairy, bipedal, apelike cryptids commonly known to humanoids as Sasquatch or Bigfoot. He is a retiring soul—as, evidently, are most Bigfeet. He lives deep in the northern forest with his pet rabbit, Eric, who is one of the more droll creatures—all deadpan, pop-eyed diminutiveness—to inhabit recent picture books. Larf thinks he is one-of-a-kind, but he reads that another Sasquatch is making an appearance in a nearby town. Fascinated, yet harboring the standard run of trepidations when about to meet a potential friend, he dons a minimalist disguise and shows up at the appointed time, only to learn that the Sasquatch is just a guy in costume ("It was all a BIG FAKE"). But someone else has appeared to meet that same Bigfoot, and, who knows, maybe there'll be a Littlefoot in a baby carriage. Spires hits squarely a number of nails here—not least that people wouldn't recognize a Bigfoot right under their collective noses—and her watercolor-and-ink artworks fairly captures the far-north woodlands and the enjoyably kooky characters of her tale.
It won't set your hair on fire, but it's a story that exudes its own dry warmth. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55453-701-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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