A luminous picture book that exudes joy as it celebrates the freedom to be the one and only you.
A kaleidoscopic tribute to fashionistas of all colors, shapes, sizes, and ages.
Clarke creates a runway of fashion-loving folks of various skin tones who rock their styles with verve and vitality alongside verse that rolls off the tongue and delights the ear. The characters’ lack of facial features invites readers to imagine who might be wearing each outfit (and how they feel) and suggests that anyone of any background can embrace their bodies as a canvas on which to write their own artistic story. When the narrator chimes: “Be your / BOLD-BIG-SELF, / brave in bright brilliant blue hair: deliciously different, dramatic and daring,” a brown-faced individual with textured, electric blue hair appears in silhouette. Some of the images clearly represent children, like a skirt made of flowers above a pair of brown legs with feet shod in frilly socks and ruby sequined Mary Janes. Others portray more seasoned individuals, like the two elderly, dark-skinned people using canes and wearing neckties, dress shirts, and fedoras with colors that echo the patterns in their clothes. Although the bold-colored backgrounds change from page to page, their singular color makes Clarke’s amazing, unique mixed-media collage illustrations of people—“CHIC-A-BOOM! CHIC-A-BAM!”—pop and announce their presence. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A luminous picture book that exudes joy as it celebrates the freedom to be the one and only you. (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2377-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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