A delightful animal tale of friendship, adaptability, and resilience.
A reluctant crocodile finds a surprising new home in this picture book.
After Fred discovers the riverbed where he lives has dried up, he leaves in search of a more hospitable place. But after passing “grasslands…mountains, and forests and deserts of sand,” the crocodile loses hope. Fred begins to “weep…blubber and cry” for five days. On the sixth day, Fred—who still feels “blubbery and blue”—is approached by a frog who asks if he’s all right. Fred answers: “I’m as sad as can be. I’ve lost my home” and am “stuck in this desert that’s drier than bone.” After the frog tells the crocodile to open his eyes, Fred sees “the grandest river he ever saw.” The frog, who understands the importance of embracing change, says: “This river you’ve cried should be called ‘Crocodile Tears.’ ” Fred grows to love his new environs, particularly the animals. He realizes that “home…is not just a place,” but “a feeling of warmth deep inside, of happiness and joy and friends by your side.” This sweet story emphasizes essential lessons about change and personal development. While Kaushik’s tale shows that moving and getting used to new things can be challenging, Fred’s experience highlights ways to make the adjustments brighter and more comfortable, particularly through cultivating new friendships. The author’s adorable, full-color illustrations offer fun outdoor habitats featuring greenery and mountain backdrops. The cute critters have appealing features like vibrant smiles and big eyes.
A delightful animal tale of friendship, adaptability, and resilience.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Meg & Company
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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