A helpful lesson about using breathing to direct emotions.
A costumed child talks about the superpower of breath in this picture book.
Ash, a caped crusader, has a friend, Breath, that can help calm uncomfortable emotions. Ash describes how sad feelings cause Breath to stutter, angry emotions make Breath blow out through the nostrils, and scared feelings can result in Breath being held. But each emotion has a different breathing pattern to use as a superpower, and they all are accompanied by a mantra: “When I change the way I’m breathing, I change the way I’m feeling.” Gillespie and Corey introduce each new type of breath with a mispronunciation, employing “zad flutterbye” to encourage readers to guess “sad butterfly,” among others. Illustrator Bardy changes Ash’s costume for each emotion, giving the garment a separate and distinct color to emphasize the feelings that Ash and the other featured children experience. Each emotion recommends a specific breathing pattern. But rather than the authors explaining the patterns in the text, they are described in the end pages, making the book more useful in repeated readings. The emphasis on accepting emotions—but allowing them to move on by changing breathing patterns—is a positive one, told in simple language so that lap readers can repeat phrases along with the adults and practice the breathing techniques. While Bardy’s images show a diverse group of older children, the tone and practice seem best designed for younger readers—though some older kids would benefit from the method as well.
A helpful lesson about using breathing to direct emotions.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7782149-0-5
Page Count: 29
Publisher: Kookaburra Well-Being Ventures
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Cute and brave—gee, Rot’s spud-tacular!
A “scaredy-spud” puts on his brave face.
All “mutant potatoes” love mud. Mud is good for playing games, eating, and even sleeping. But few taters have more tender feelings toward muck than Rot. À la Pete the Cat, Rot celebrates mud in song: “Mud between my toes! / Mud in my nose! / Mud is GREAT / wherever it GOES!” When Rot’s big brother, Snot, tells Rot about the Squirm that lives “deep down in the mushy muck,” his love quickly turns to fear. But he doesn’t give up! Instead, Rot imagines himself in various disguises to work up courage. There’s “Super Spud” (a superhero), “Sir Super Rot, the Brave and Bold” (a superhero-knight), and even “Sir Super Rot the Pigtato” (a, um, superhero-knight-pig-potato). The disguises are one thing, but, deep down, is Rot really brave enough to face the Squirm? Readers wooed by Rot’s charm in Rot: The Cutest in the World (2017) will laugh out loud at this well-paced encore—and it’s not just because of the butt cracks. Clanton creates a winning dynamic, balancing Rot’s earnestness, witty dialogue, and an omniscient, slightly melodramatic narrator. The cartoon illustrations were created using watercolors, colored pencils, digital collage, and—brilliantly—potato stamps. Clanton’s reliance on earth tones makes for some clever, surprising page turns when the palette is broken.
Cute and brave—gee, Rot’s spud-tacular! (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6764-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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