Topsy-turvy offbeat fun.
A girl alters a simple phrase and changes the world.
Petronilla sits in the bathtub. “Wash on!” she says, and although her mother tries to correct her (“Not wash on, sweetheart….Wash off”), Petronilla’s phrase sticks and the physical world obeys. “Wash off,” natch, would have meant messes coming off; “wash on” means that colors begin to transfer everywhere. First they’re on Petronilla’s cheek and two washcloths; next they’re splotching around the bathroom and into other rooms until “the house looked like a kaleidoscope.” A flabbergasted doctor can’t help and only diagnoses “acute coloritis!” and the colors fly across the neighborhood and around the planet. Gauthier’s gorgeous mixed-media illustrations are quirky and angled, with an energetic combination of drawn lines, watery paint, cut paper, wood textures, and photo collage. The exact workings of the action “wash on”—the mechanism that makes colors move everywhere—is clear only textually and not visually, because along with errant color splotches, the illustrations use tilting lines, overlapping shapes, and abstract composition to create visual upheaval. The art isn’t easy to pull the story from, but it’s beautiful. As it becomes “hard to see the difference between the dog or the flower vase or the couch” and the dog disappears into the abstraction, Petronilla finally rethinks the acceptable scope of washing on. Petronilla and her family seem to be white.
Topsy-turvy offbeat fun. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77278-018-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series.
Another creature is on the loose.
The long-running series continues its successful formula with this Hallmark card of a book, which features bright illustrations and catchy rhymes. This time, the mythical creature the racially diverse children set out to catch is an absent mom who does it all (lists of descriptors include the words banker, caregiver, nurse, doctor, driver, chef, housekeeper, teacher, entertainer, playmate, laundry service, problem solver, handywoman, cleaner, and alarm clock) but doesn’t seem to have a job outside the home and is inexplicably a dinosaur. As the children prepare gifts and a meal for her, the text becomes an ode to the skills the Mamasaurus possesses (“Day or night she’s always there. / She meets every wish and need”) and values she instills (“Sometimes life can mean hard work,” “kindness matters,” and “what counts is doing your best”). This well-intentioned selection veers into cliche generously sprinkled with saccharine but manages to redeem itself with its appreciation for mothers and all that they may do. Endpapers include a “to” and “from” page framed in a heart, as well as a page where young gift givers or recipients can draw a picture of their Mamasaurus.
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781728274300
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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