It’s almost too cute to get the message across that people should knit sweaters for toy animals—not for the real critters.
A cautionary tale for young readers about the aftermath of oil spills near penguin habitats.
Penguins frolic and feed in the ocean, showing off their black-and-white bodies and orange feet and beaks. They are busy doing what it is that penguins do: “huddling, cuddling, waddling” and “diving deep.” Then a tanker passes by and leaves “oil pools in inky puddles.” The penguins are in serious trouble until Big Boots with camera in hand appears. A campaign to knit sweaters for the penguins is the result until glove-clad hands show up to remove the sweaters and finally wash off the oil with toothbrushes. Tamura’s well-told tale of ecological disaster and proper penguin rescue is told in rhythmic but not rhyming couplets. Her author’s note references an actual event on Phillip Island, Australia (where visitors can view a penguin walk), and explains how knitted garments are actually harmful for penguins. Rieley’s digitized pencil, ink, and handmade textures are appealing. His palette of blues and whites for the ocean, sky, and ice provides a perfect setting, both aerial and eye-level, for the penguins. The knitted sweaters, with close-ups of needles in action, are colorful if inappropriate for the recipients. Note that one of them features the publisher’s penguin logo.
It’s almost too cute to get the message across that people should knit sweaters for toy animals—not for the real critters. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-99696-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one.
It's hard to believe that a pop-up wasn't the creators' original intention, so seamlessly do moveable parts dovetail into this modern classic's storyline.
In contrast to the tale's 1998 pop -up version, the figures here move on every page, and with an unusually graceful naturalism to boot. From pulling down Big Nutbrown Hare's ears on the opening spread to make sure he's listening to drowsily turning his head to accept a final good-night kiss in a multi-leveled pull-down tableau at the close, all of Little Nutbrown Hare's hops, stretches and small gestures serve the poetically spare text—as do Big Nutbrown's wider, higher responses to his charge's challenges. As readers turn a flap to read Big Nutbrown's "But I love you this much," his arms extend to demonstrate. The emotional connection between the two hares is clearer than ever in Jeram's peaceful, restrained outdoor scenes, which are slightly larger than those in the trade edition, and the closing scene is made even more intimate by hiding the closing line ("I love you right up to the moon—and back") until an inconspicuous flap is opened up.
The book is available in just about every format--but this is the perfect one. (Pop-up picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5378-1
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful.
Life buzzes in a community garden.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, this city garden gets plenty of human attention, but the book’s stars are the plants and insects. The opening spread shows a black child in a striped shirt sitting in a top-story window; the nearby trees and garden below reveal the beginnings of greenery that signal springtime. From that high-up view, the garden looks quiet—but it’s not. “Sleepy slugs / and garden snails / leave behind their silver trails. / Frantic teams of busy ants / scramble up the stems of plants”; and “In the earth / a single seed / sits beside a millipede. / Worms and termites / dig and toil / moving through the garden soil.” Sicuro zooms in too, showing a robin taller than a half-page; later, close-ups foreground flowers, leaves, and bugs while people (children and adults, a multiracial group) are crucial but secondary, sometimes visible only as feet. Watercolor illustrations with ink and charcoal highlights create a soft, warm, horticulturally damp environment. Scale and perspective are more stylized than literal. McCanna’s superb scansion never misses, incorporating lists of insects and plants (“Lacewings, gnats, / mosquitos, spiders, / dragonflies, and water striders / live among the cattail reeds, / lily pads, and waterweeds”) with description (“Sunlight warms the morning air. / Dewdrops shimmer / here and there”). Readers see more than gardeners do, such as rabbits stealing carrots and lettuce from garden boxes.
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1797-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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