A fine celebration of freedom, creativity, and self-expression.
A girl learns to appreciate paintings that come from her own brush in this children’s picture book.
Scarlet, a freckle-faced, redheaded white girl, once found a magic paintbrush, and ever since, she’s been able to make any image appear perfectly on her canvases. But one day, the brush can’t be found. Her parents give her new paintbrushes, but Scarlet finds her efforts disappointing because the images aren’t “perfect”—or often, even recognizable. She tries painting with her left hand or using a stick-and–cotton-ball implement, but perfection still eludes her. Nevertheless, she does like her new, strong lines and bold shapes. When she rediscovers the lost brush, there’s a problem: The “perfect” paintings aren’t exactly what Scarlet wants. With a regular brush, though, she can create the shapes and hues she now likes—with her own magic. Perfectionism can start young, so Stoller (Return to Coney Island, 2017, etc.) provides a useful change of perspective in this book. Although it might seem desirable to have a brush that can create faultless images, Scarlet is shown to discover a greater power in making art herself. Sonke’s (The Little i Who Lost His Dot, 2018) kinetic, detailed illustrations do a great job of conveying Scarlet’s artistic journey from the conventional to freely swirling shapes and bright colors.
A fine celebration of freedom, creativity, and self-expression.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-946101-67-9
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Spork
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Momo longed to carry the blue umbrella and wear the bright red rubber boots she had been given on her third birthday. But day after day Indian summer continued. Momo tried to tell mother she needed to carry the umbrella to nursery school because the sunshine bothered her eyes. But Mother didn't let her use the umbrella then or when she said the wind bothered her. At last, though, rain fell on the city pavements and Momo carried her umbrella and wore her red boots to school. One feels the urgency of Momo's wish. The pictures are full of the city's moods and the child's joy in a rainy day.
Pub Date: March 1, 1958
ISBN: 978-0-14-050240-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1958
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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