Joyful and poetic, a tale that will delight all year long.
Follow a trio of children through the seasons as they ask the Wind, “How will you blow today?”
In spring, the brown-skinned youngsters’ dark hair dances animatedly in the breeze as “Wind answers with a puff of the petals, making them flutter and fall.” The lightly personified Wind is playful, even mercurial. In summer, it might respond favorably to their pleas for “one big whoooshhh” to lift their kite. Other times, Wind—who likes “to be WILD!”—might cause a tumultuous storm. The narration is conversational, even breezy at times. Short, frequent pops of alliteration and compelling turns of phrase feel wonderfully lyrical, such as a young skater thanking the wintry Wind “for the extra-looooong glide.” Brilliant acrylic ink and intricate collage illustrations are as exuberant as the Wind. The pages are briskly busy, from an autumnal spread showing seed pods soaring as a child watches in awe to a serene, almost quiltlike image of youngsters lying languidly near a pond on a hot summer’s day, begging Wind for a cool gust. The full-bleed spreads are dynamic, featuring gloriously luminous, deeply saturated colors and breathtaking changes of perspective, such as wide eyes peeking out a window onto blurred streaks of “swirling snow.” Upon reaching the satisfying last page, in which the Wind says, “Sometimes my work takes my breath away!’” readers will agree: “It takes away ours, too.”
Joyful and poetic, a tale that will delight all year long. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616550
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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