A nicely illustrated volume with some lovely poems.
An author/illustrator reflects on popular topics such as animals, nature, and favorite childhood pastimes in this collection of poems and pictures.
This book features 17 poems, each including at least one accompanying illustration. The pieces’ structure and style are quite varied. Some poems are lengthier and span several pages; others are short and leave white space. The poems here are tender and relatable, such as “My Dog, Caesar,” which chronicles a child’s love for a sometimes-naughty pet, and “Cottontail Conundrum,” which contemplates why an animal who is “neither a hen nor a bird” delivers eggs during the Easter holiday. The poem “What Mice Do When It’s Raining” features fun, rhythmic phrasing (“Slippy splashy / Drippy droppy / Crashy flashy”), which children should enjoy sounding out. While the themes of the poems (including playgrounds, home, birthday wishes, picnics, and anthropomorphic wildlife) will likely appeal to young readers, the author frequently uses phrases and vocabulary that may require adult explanation. For example, the titular poem includes the lines “The hare intoned with unmitigated flair” and “I’ll zoom right away to your domicile.” The poem “Earth” asserts that “Earth is ellipsoidal.” Other pieces appear child-friendly yet end oddly. For example, in “Porcupine Quills,” the author ostensibly attempts to introduce counting concepts. The poem starts out with “0 is none / 1 is one / and 2 is double one” but culminates strangely: “Some thirty thousand quills it has! / It’s hard to comprehend a number so ginormous / The porcupine is uncommonly phe-nom-i-nous.” Still, Sutherland’s (Stories in Verses: For the Child You Love, 2016, etc.) soft, washed watercolor illustrations are quite delightful. The pictures here are integral to the poems, often mirroring the text. In “Earth,” the author skillfully fashions an interactive reading experience. The text references the images presented on subsequent pages, creatively engaging her audience: “See the tiger’s picture on the left / See the cheetah’s on the right / The boughs and leaves are up / The ground and grass are down, down.”
A nicely illustrated volume with some lovely poems.Pub Date: July 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-89294-7
Page Count: 58
Publisher: BoosterSeat Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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