A lively story with a worthy message about kindness hampered by a too-small font.
A button learns that looks aren’t everything in author/illustrator Olson’s picture book.
Norman, a red button, tells a bedtime story to a group of young buttons. He says that there was once a trio of shiny blue buttons on a lace dress who were unkind. Miss Bonnie was particularly mean, ridiculing the appearance of other buttons. One day, a dog plucks Bonnie off and chews her until she looks “a mess.” When Bonnie returns to the lace dress, the other shiny blue buttons reject her. She cries, “I will never be loved if I’m ugly and maimed.” When a red button teaches Bonnie that “love is earned by your goodness inside,” she apologizes to the buttons she mistreated. They forgive her and accept her offer of friendship, a subtle message about not judging by appearances. Olson tells the story through playful rhyming quatrains (“If you want to make friends, / then I’ll give you a tip. / If your words are not nice, / you should button your lip”) that add to the fun, though a too-small font and dark-mode format may make it less appealing to read aloud. Readers will enjoy Olson’s creative photography: Mixed-media artwork shows buttons with cartoon eyes against unique backdrops, such as a crafts table filled with tools and accessories.
A lively story with a worthy message about kindness hampered by a too-small font.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 21
Publisher: Bellie Button Books
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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