Young kitty and comics lovers will be right at home.
The kitten siblings are finally old enough to help Mom make magical spring cakes.
Orange kitten Ginger, calico kitten Cinnamon, and gray kitten Nutmeg wake up excited on the first day of spring, because that means spring cakes! Mom gives them a list of special ingredients, and they hurry through their breakfast porridge. They will need to collect: flour, silver honey, blue eggs, wild strawberries, and magical roses from the witch’s garden. They buy flour from the goat at the old mill, and from a bovine beekeeper, they buy pretty, silver honey made from the pollen of winter-blooming flowers. All goes smoothly until they go to pick the wild strawberries, when a purple bear claims them (a bit scarily). The bear says in exchange for the promise of a spring cake, the kittens can take a few. Only the magical roses are left, but the witch lives in the haunted woods! After that second scary venture, the kittens return home to make cakes with mother and, of course, share them with everyone. The panels in Harmon’s bright graphic novel in this entry in the new I Like To Read Comics series are big and friendly, and they are neatly filled with dynamic, eye-catching, colorful art. Appropriately, the language in the speech bubbles (and the few narrative boxes) is simple and straightforward. The only thing missing is a recipe!
Young kitty and comics lovers will be right at home. (Graphic fantasy/early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4753-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures.
Pippa conquers a fear of the creatures that emerge from her storybooks at night.
Pippa’s “wonderfully wild imagination” can sometimes run “a little TOO wild.” During the day, she wears her “armor” and is a force to be reckoned with. But in bed at night, Pippa worries about “villains and monsters and beasts.” Sharp-toothed and -taloned shadows, dragons, and pirates emerge from her storybooks like genies from a bottle, just to scare her. Pippa flees to her parents’ room only to be brought back time and again. Finally, Pippa decides that she “needs a plan” to “get rid of them once and for all.” She decides to slip a written invitation into every book, and that night, they all come out. She tries subduing them with a lasso, an eye patch, and a sombrero, but she is defeated. Next, she tries “sashes and sequins and bows,” throwing the fashion pieces on the monsters, who…“begin to pose and primp and preen.” After that success, their fashion show becomes a nightly ritual. Clever Pippa’s transformation from scared victim of her own imagination to leader of the monster pack feels fairly sudden, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. The cartoony illustrations effectively use dynamic strokes, shadow, and light to capture action on the page and the feeling of Pippa's fears taking over her real space. Pippa and her parents are brown-skinned with curls of various textures.
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9300-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
This beautiful celebration of the importance of family will also spur young readers to reflect on history.
An African American grandfather and grandson take a time-traveling journey through U.S. history in this mystical and heartwarming picture book.
When his grandson announces that he does not want to go to school, Big Papa takes action. Sweeping him up in his time machine (which looks a lot like a 1950s-era automobile), the pair visit Little Rock and Chicago in the ’40s through the ’80s, the places where Big Papa grew to manhood. In recounting his struggles with dangerous jobs and working conditions and his trepidation at marriage and impending fatherhood, Big Papa gives his grandson a lesson in developing bravery while also teaching him the importance of getting an education. Love and reverence for history and family radiate from Bernstorm’s words. Backmatter indicates that the story is inspired by the author’s family, and he couldn’t have penned a more moving testament to their dignity and endurance. Evans’ whimsical, sunny-hued illustrations have a dreamlike quality that nicely maintains balance between the fantasy of time travel and the heaviness of some of the subject matter. This is particularly evident in the vignette set in the Arkansas cotton fields, where a fellow African American tells Big Papa to give up school because “work, that’s all you ever gonna do.”
This beautiful celebration of the importance of family will also spur young readers to reflect on history. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-246331-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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