A comforting support of the right to make love-related decisions; softness in a slightly sad world.
A genuine conversation about love and expressing it.
In a diverse animal classroom—worm to giraffe, kangaroo to ladybug—an assignment is posted on the whiteboard: “Show your Love.” Lion, looking vulnerable rather than angry, “roar[s]”: “For whom? For what? And WHY?!” The task seems “impossible…undoable…unimaginable.” Luckily, Lion’s friend Mouse understands that glittery craft supplies and pink paper hearts aren’t Lion’s cup of tea. Patiently, he talks Lion through the process of identifying what he doesn’t love (hugs, kisses, dessert—he prefers broccoli!) and what he does: badminton with a pine cone as shuttlecock; growling, roaring, running, chasing, and catching; and his friendship with Mouse. Liwska’s art blankets everything with her trademark softness, which serves to mute words like roar and growling and Lion’s description as “fearsome.” From gentle browns and warm grays to the animals’ downy fur and cottony edges, nothing is aesthetically threatening. This artistic softness, in turn, leaves room for visual content with edge: the subtlest reference to Lion’s natural role as a predator of, perhaps, mice; a school lesson featuring a (textually unremarked) film about pollution, smokestacks, and soot; a single illustration, clearly a memory, in which Lion wears a mask and holds a stiff tape measure between himself and Mouse, nodding oh so quietly to the pandemic, presumably in this book’s past. (Mouse’s mask hangs off his ear because he’s eating.)
A comforting support of the right to make love-related decisions; softness in a slightly sad world. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68119-124-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts.
Ohtani, pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, teams up with Blank and Liem to tell the story of how his dog, Decoy, threw out a ceremonial first pitch.
It’s a big day! Decoy leaps “off the bed. Then back onto the bed. Then off the bed.” The enthusiastic pup heads outside to practice with his lucky baseball but is quickly distracted by squirrels (“we’ll play later!”), airplanes (“flyin’ high!”), and flowers (“smell ya soon!”). Dog and pitcher then head to the ballpark. In the locker room, Decoy high-paws Shohei’s teammates. It’s nearly time! But as Shohei prepares to warm up, Decoy realizes that he’s forgotten something important: his lucky ball. Without it, there will be “no championships, no parades, and no hot dogs!” Back home he goes, returning just in time. With Shohei at the plate, Decoy runs from the mound to his owner, rolling the ball into Shohei’s mitt for a “Striiiiike!” Related from a dog’s point of view, Ohtani and Blank’s energetic text lends the tale a sense of urgency and suspense. Liem’s illustrations capture the excitement of the first day of baseball season and the joys of locker room camaraderie, as well as Shohei and Decoy’s mutual affection—even when the ball is drenched in slobber, Shohei’s love for his pet shines through, and clearly, Decoy is focused when it matters.
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063460775
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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