Newborn Émile surely surprises big sister Malaika, but the warm, culturally attuned storytelling here meets all expectations.
Once again, Malaika’s life is changing, but Hohn and Luxbacher remain consistent in delivering an intimate and culturally rich picture book.
There’s a new girl in the neighborhood, and Malaika’s mother is pregnant, but readers first find Malaika and her stepsister, Adèle, dressed in familiar favorites—ornate masks and colorful capes—and ready for traditional West Indian carnival-inspired play. Like Malaika, readers will love the vibrant and glistening costumes that Luxbacher’s gouaches and pastels continue to enliven. Still, the blend of colors and found paper collage notably highlights the blended “brown and pink family” developing around Caribbean-born Malaika: her Afro-Caribbean mother, her White French-Canadian father, her rosy-cheeked White stepsister, and her soon-to-arrive biracial baby brother. In this third series outing, Hohn is firmly in her element, continuing the story of the little girl from the Caribbean acclimating to her new home in Canada, but the introduction of another little brown girl, Malayka M., who is also “from a far place” and whom our Malaika quickly befriends, explores new avenues of cultural and linguistic plurality. A brief glossary in the frontmatter provides an overview of key French, Caribbean, and Arabic terms readers will encounter throughout the story, which is endearingly narrated in Malaika’s own patois-inflected voice. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Newborn Émile surely surprises big sister Malaika, but the warm, culturally attuned storytelling here meets all expectations. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77306-264-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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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
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