De la Peña wonderfully expresses the impact of music on the soul, and Ramírez’s bright, expressive watercolor illustrations...
Miguel loves music and wants to be a musician more than anything, but his family prohibits him from pursuing his greatest love.
La Música, who narrates in the first person, appears at the strum of a guitar, in wedding bells, in a static-y radio, in the strains of a single violin, whirling through town, joining musicians through the plaza, rising and rising, until Miguel’s abuelita storms out of a shop and demands the musicians stop. “You’ll upset Mamá Coco!” They fumble and stumble away. La Música notices a young boy staring at the guitars in the hands of the musicians, longing for music just as she disappears. Each time she appears again, she looks for the boy and finds him, secretly watching musicians on a hidden TV in his play area, “playing” his broom, but just as she’s about to whisper her name in his ear, his family pulls him away. La Música arranges a careful series of events to help Miguel indulge in music, and the surprise ending lingers in the air like an overheard harmony. Readers don’t learn exactly why Miguel’s family has forbidden music, and though this would be puzzling in a stand-alone book, this book is a side story about the characters in Disney Pixar’s Coco. The tenderness and emotional intelligence of this story serves as a great incentive to learn more about Miguel.
De la Peña wonderfully expresses the impact of music on the soul, and Ramírez’s bright, expressive watercolor illustrations underscore the poetic prose style perfectly. ¡Que viva La Música! (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-8149-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
An awesome-tastic invitation to have or share thoughts about bad and better choices.
Actor Tatum’s effervescent heroine steals a friend’s toy and then lies about it.
Thrilled about an upcoming play date with new classmate Wyatt, Sparkella considers her own sparkly stuffies, games, and accessories and silently decides that he’d be more interested in her friend Tam’s remote-controlled minicar. While she and Tam are playing together, Sparkella takes the car when Tam isn’t looking. Tam melts down at school the next day, and Sparkella, seeing her “bestest friend” losing her sparkle, feels “icky, oogy, and blech.” And when Wyatt comes over, he turns out to be far more entranced by glittery goods than some old car. When Sparkella yells at him—“WYATT, YOU HAVE TO PLAY WITH THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!”—her dad overhears and asks where the toy came from…and along with being a thief, Sparkella turns out to be the worst. Liar. Ever. She eventually confesses (her dad forgives her), apologizes (ditto Wyatt and even Tam), and goes on to take part in a three-way play date/sparklefest. Her absolution may come with unlikely ease, but it’s comfortingly reassuring, and her model single dad does lay down a solid parental foundation by allowing that everyone makes mistakes and stressing that she is “never going to be punished for telling the truth in this house.” He and Sparkella present White, a previous entry cued brown-skinned Tam as Asian, and Wyatt has brown skin in Barnes’ candy-hued pictures. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An awesome-tastic invitation to have or share thoughts about bad and better choices. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781250750778
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful adventure about embracing both sides of one’s heritage.
A parent spins a bedtime story that takes a biracial child on a cross-cultural journey.
Donning a cloak and sturdy boots, the protagonist enters a lush autumn forest, venturing past “mischievous hobgoblins” and “glowing will-o’-the-wisps.” The pages are richly detailed, framed with decorative borders in a palette that is reminiscent of European fairy-tale illustrations with a touch of art nouveau. In a small thatched-roof cottage, the child encounters a White-presenting wise woman who describes dragons as “fearsome and fiery creatures” that hoard treasure and defeat knights. After learning this, the young adventurer slips into another forest, one with sumptuous, flowing ink illustrations in the style of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Guided by the footprints of nine-tailed foxes and the advice of a white rabbit who lives on the moon, the child reaches the palace of a Chinese-presenting wise woman. In this realm, dragons are described as “majestic creatures of air and fire” who “rule in the skies and rivers” and control the rain. The Chinese-presenting parent ends the tale by noting that both worlds, though distinctly different, exist within the child and are open to be explored—and that “two wise grandmothers await / to share with you / their truth about dragons.” The book feels a little message-heavy, but it’s nevertheless a much-needed celebration of intergenerational storytelling and biracial identity. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A beautiful adventure about embracing both sides of one’s heritage. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781250820587
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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