This book’s straightforward rhythm and appealing illustrations will likely make it a favorite of parents and young children.
A children’s picture book that presents a story within a story about the enduring nature of love.
West (Jake, Dad and the Worm, 2013) uses soft, realistic artwork and simple language to tell a reassuring tale. The book opens and closes with stark, black-and-white silhouette illustrations of a young girl and a baby reading a book together (“I’ll turn the pages and you can look at the pictures,” the girl says). This frames the central, rhyming text, told from a plural first-person point of view, about the many ways that a person can be loved: “We love you when you’re roaring, or as quiet as a mouse.” This main section features bright, colorful images of pleasing landscapes, animals, and a young boy in what appears to be a somewhat digitized watercolor style. The text is simple, but it has a classic feel, and it avoids flashiness and humorous touches in favor of a serious but positive tone. It also isn’t overly wordy; most pages contain just a single sentence, and this brevity will make the book work well as a read-aloud for younger children. (In this context, the young girl’s phrase, “You were a good listener!,” will ring true.) The soothing images and calm, reassuring language make it an ideal bedtime book, as well. Even if the pacing isn’t always perfect, the rhyming text throughout gives the story a pleasing rhythm, as in lines such as, “More than all the grains of sand, which we could never count. And if we add them all…we’ll love you more than that amount.” The illustrations are often beautiful, but the printing quality diminishes them, making them look a bit fuzzy and distorted. It’s not something that’s likely to bother children, but it’s still unfortunate that some of the images’ sharpness has been lost.
This book’s straightforward rhythm and appealing illustrations will likely make it a favorite of parents and young children.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988678422
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Park Place Press
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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