Still, even on a very crowded metafictive shelf, this effort is good fun.
“I am the author, and that means I get to write all of the words. I am also the illustrator, so I get to make all of the pictures, too,” lectures a sadly deluded, bespectacled white man.
As soon as he draws Percy the Perfectly Polite Panda, his control crumbles. “I prefer to be called Spike,” informs the panda, who goes on to wreak havoc. Pett poses his characters on blank, white space, the author/illustrator looking out at readers and Spike mostly turned back to as he uses crayons to “add some color to these boring white pages.” Spike draws some new characters, and together they begin some serious engineering. They build in a flap. “I don’t want any flaps in my book!” complains the author/illustrator. Then they make a pull-tab, which, hilariously, animates the author/illustrator jumping up and down as he screams, “I DON’T WANT PULL TABS!” An unwanted pop-up is even funnier. Finally the author/illustrator listens when Spike explains that “it’s not just your book. It’s ours too,” and, crucially, “it’s their book, too,” gesturing out at readers. Spike’s invitation to readers to “help us” is clearly limited to the minibook included at the end, however, never really getting to the creative synergy among creator, book, and readers that is at the heart of reading.
Still, even on a very crowded metafictive shelf, this effort is good fun. (Novelty picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93790-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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