Broad spaces, small figures, precise architectural details and clean, straight lines gives Brannen’s art in this alphabetical gallery of housing an elegant simplicity that Shoulders’s matter-of-fact commentary struggles to emulate: “A is for apartment. All homes in an apartment building share the same roof. Families who live in apartments might have neighbors living beside them, below them and above them….” From Beach House and Cajun Cottage to Mobile Homes and Pueblos, from a Junk House built from recycled materials to the stately White House, the author draws them all together with the closing observation that, whatever a home’s nature, “what makes it special are the people you share it with.” The device works well for the most part, encompassing Kilbourne (a Sears, Roebuck kit), Quonset Hut and Xinfang (Chinese for “brand new home”), although Unique Home is a decidedly limp entry. Despite the uneven text, consider this as a low-key alternative to the likes of Ann Morris’s Houses and Homes (1992) or, going further back, Mary Ann Hoberman’s A House Is a House for Me (1978). (Informational picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-57091-565-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2008
Scotton makes a stylish debut with this tale of a sleepless sheep—depicted as a blocky, pop-eyed, very soft-looking woolly with a skinny striped nightcap of unusual length—trying everything, from stripping down to his spotted shorts to counting all six hundred million billion and ten stars, twice, in an effort to doze off. Not even counting sheep . . . well, actually, that does work, once he counts himself. Dawn finds him tucked beneath a rather-too-small quilt while the rest of his flock rises to bathe, brush and riffle through the Daily Bleat. Russell doesn’t have quite the big personality of Ian Falconer’s Olivia, but more sophisticated fans of the precocious piglet will find in this art the same sort of daffy urbanity. Quite a contrast to the usual run of ovine-driven snoozers, like Phyllis Root’s Ten Sleepy Sheep, illustrated by Susan Gaber (2004). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-059848-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
The creators of Punctuation Takes a Vacation (2003) sentence readers to a good time with this follow-up. Feeling left out after the children in Mr. Wright’s class thunder outside for a Field Day, the nouns and verbs left in the classroom decide to organize events of their own. But having chosen like parts of speech for partners—“Glue, Markers and Tape stuck together. Shout wanted to be with Cheer. So did Chew and Eat.”—it quickly becomes apparent that as opposing teams they can’t actually do anything. Depicting the Nouns as objects and the Verbs as hyperactive v-shaped figures, Rowe creates a set of high-energy scenes, climaxing in a Tug of Words and other contests once the participants figure out that they’ll work better mixed rather than matched. This playful introduction to words recalls Ruth Heller’s Kites Sail High (1998) and Merry-Go-Round (1990) for liveliness, and closes with several simple exercises and games to get children into the act. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 2006
ISBN: 0-8234-1982-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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