A diverse family conveys a noteworthy message about food waste and the value of home gardening.
A mother and child harvest fruits and veggies—some of them in funny shapes—from their backyard garden.
Jay narrates this spring-to-fall overview as the two sow, water, and pick their crops. Their cucumbers grow “in all kinds of twirly-whirly shapes!” When Jay wonders why supermarket cukes are so comparatively straight, Mom explains that nonconforming produce is discarded. Mom and Jay dig carrots, including a “two-legged” one. Jay takes bites of two-legged and ordinary carrots, pronouncing both “crunchy and delicious.” The pair harvests apples—some smooth, some bumpy. Including bumpy fruit yields an extra pie for their neighbor. Returning to the supermarket in October, Jay surveys the uniform produce displays, asking the grocer, “Don’t you have any twirly-whirly, lumpy, bumpy fruits and vegetables?” They’re led to an array of reduced-price, less-than-perfect produce—three-legged carrots and more. Assaly’s narrative drives home the point: Fresh produce needn’t be cosmetically perfect to be nourishing and tasty. Her concluding note attests that vast amounts of usable produce are trashed while many people live food-insecure. Filipinx Canadian illustrator dela Noche Milne depicts Jay and Mom with light brown skin and dark hair. Interiors and townscapes brim with charming detail.
A diverse family conveys a noteworthy message about food waste and the value of home gardening. (author’s note, gardening tips) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-55455-408-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
This multigenerational snuggle will encourage the sharing of old memories and the creation of new ones.
Hill and Bobbiesi send a humungous hug from grandmothers to their granddaughters everywhere.
Delicate cartoon art adds details to the rhyming text showing multigenerational commonalities. “You and I are alike in such wonderful ways. / You will see more and more as you grow” (as grandmother and granddaughter enjoy the backyard together); “I wobbled uncertainly just as you did / whenever I tried something new” (as a toddler takes first steps); “And if a bad dream woke me up in the night, / I snuggled up with my lovey too” (grandmother kisses granddaughter, who clutches a plush narwhal). Grandmother-granddaughter pairs share everyday joys like eating ice cream, dancing “in the rain,” and making “up silly games.” Although some activities skew stereotypically feminine (baking, yoga), a grandmother helps with a quintessential volcano experiment (this pair presents black, adding valuable STEM representation), another cheers on a young wheelchair athlete (both present Asian), and a third, wearing a hijab, accompanies her brown-skinned granddaughter on a peace march, as it is “important to speak out for what you believe.” The message of unconditional love is clear throughout: “When you need me, I’ll be there to listen and care. / There is nothing that keeps us apart.” The finished book will include “stationery…for a special letter from Grandma to you!”
This multigenerational snuggle will encourage the sharing of old memories and the creation of new ones. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0623-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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