A rib-tickling variant on a tale not often enough retold
Gerstein tones down the violence and ramps up the humor in this reworked version of an old tale: A year after the king “borrows” his prizewinning jelly beans, Duck the gardener marches off to get them back.
Singing as he goes—“Quack, quack, quack! / Quack, quack, quack! / I’m off to get my jelly beans back!”—Duck picks up Dog, Lady Ladder, Babbling Brook and a nest of wasps along the way. And don’t they come in handy when the king, depicted in Gerstein’s buoyant cartoon illustrations as an ill-tempered little brat, plops Duck down amid a crowd of hostile turkeys, then into a well, then into a hot oven! When the wasps at last drive the king and his equally surly mother away, a search of the castle turns up not jelly beans (as “of course the king had eaten them”), but only a lot of unwanted precious gems. However, disappointed Duck arrives back home to find the king waiting with a tearful apology and an entire pink dump truck full of jelly beans. May he stay for lunch? Of course (see title). A mixture of blocks of text and dialogue balloons carries the action along with verve. A note cites “Drakestail,” from a 19th-century French collection, as the story’s source.
A rib-tickling variant on a tale not often enough retold . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2393-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers.
Actor and author Greenfield’s latest picture book follows a child kept awake by anxieties.
The pajama-clad narrator huddles in bed among the blue shadows of a bedroom at night. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m afraid of all the scary stuff I see.” Bright, candy-hued clouds of cartoon images surround the child, lively, disruptive depictions of the what-ifs and exaggerated disasters that crowd out sleep: war (we see the world pop “into a piece of popcorn”), kidnapping (pirates carry away the child’s teddy bear), falling “up” into the sun, tarantulas in the toilet, and a menacing-looking dentist. These outsize insomnia inducers may help readers put their own unvoiced concerns into perspective; after all, what frightens one person might seem silly but understandable to another. Our narrator tries to replace the unsettling thoughts with happy ones—hugging a baby panda, being serenaded by a choir of doughnuts, and “all the people who love me holding hands and wearing every piece of clothing that they own.” But sleep is still elusive. Finally, remembering that there’s a difference between reality and an overactive imagination, the child relaxes a bit: “Right now, everything is okay. And so am I.” Reassuring, though not exactly sedate, this tale will spark daytime discussions about how difficult it can be to quiet unsettling thoughts. The child has dark hair and blue-tinged skin, reflecting the darkness of the bedroom.
Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593697894
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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