A child in a wheelchair helps an injured bird and dreams of flying in this wordless picture book.
Darmonkow’s (The Epic of Gabriel and Jibreel, 2019, etc.) work begins with a few pages of realistic paintings of a glowing city at night. Sparkly Christmas decor dots the scenery. Next, a bespectacled white child using a wheelchair finds an injured bird on the sidewalk. The kid takes the white bird home, tends to its wounds, and provides food and water. With the bandaged bird nestled in bed, the child dreams of flying out the window, using a pair of crutches as wings. High in the sky over the shimmering metropolis, the kid discards the crutches and encounters Santa Claus in his sleigh. Then, the story abruptly ends. Although the author’s intent of showing the power of a child’s imagination is evident, the tale would have benefited from a clearer plot. But Darmonkow’s photograph-like illustrations are emotive. They offer vivid details that kids will recognize and enjoy, such as a Peter Pan painting hanging on the wall in the background of one image. Many elements here are open to interpretation, including the child’s backstory. Still, the overarching, worthy message celebrates the imagination, Christmas wishes, and the importance of treating all creatures with care and kindness.
An artistic, nicely illustrated Christmas tale that offers a valuable sentiment.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77537-879-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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With the same delightfully irreverent spirit that he brought to his retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" (1987), Marshall enlivens another favorite. Although completely retold with his usual pungent wit and contemporary touches ("I don't mind if I do," says Goldilocks, as she tries out porridge, chair, and bed), Marshall retains the stories well-loved pattern, including Goldilocks escaping through the window (whereupon Baby Bear inquires, "Who was that little girl?"). The illustrations are fraught with delicious humor and detail: books that are stacked everywhere around the rather cluttered house, including some used in lieu of a missing leg for Papa Bear's chair; comically exaggerated beds—much too high at the head and the foot; and Baby Bear's wonderfully messy room, which certainly brings the story into the 20th century. Like its predecessor, perfect for several uses, from picture-book hour to beginning reading.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988
ISBN: 0140563660
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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A testament to the power of an imaginative mind.
A compulsively creative, unnamed, brown-skinned little girl with purple hair wonders what she would do if the pencil she uses “to create…stories that come from my heart” disappeared. Turns out, it wouldn’t matter. Art can take many forms. She can fold paper (origami), carve wood, tear wallpaper to create texture designs, and draw in the dirt. She can even craft art with light and darkness or singing and dancing. At the story’s climax, her unencumbered imagination explodes beyond the page into a foldout spread, enabling readers both literally and figuratively to see into her fantasy life. While readers will find much to love in the exuberant rhyming verse, attending closely to the illustrations brings its own rewards given the fascinating combinations of mixed media Curato employs. For instance, an impressively colorful dragon is made up of different leaves that have been photographed in every color phase from green to deep red, including the dragon’s breath (made from the brilliant orange leaves of a Japanese maple) and its nose and scales (created by the fan-shaped, butter-colored leaves of a gingko). Sugar cubes, flower petals, sand, paper bags, marbles, sequins, and lots more add to and compose these brilliant, fantasy-sparking illustrations.
This extraordinary book will make it hard for any child reader to settle for the mundaneness of reality. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39096-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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