Wallace’s art is wonderful: fancy- and found-paper collage, markers and pencil make Minna’s bunny family and classroom glow with pattern and shape. The text in this one, though, is a little goopy. Minna’s teacher reads them the Aesop fable of the Lion and the Mouse (the essence of which is recounted and illustrated). The class decides to practice kindness, and Mrs. Bloom says they will celebrate with a “Kindness Project.” Minna finds kindness in her family’s helping in Community Clean-Up Day, in sharing soup with a neighboring family, in reading to her little brother. She makes a series of pictures about these acts and pieces them together. Mrs. Bloom puts all of the class’s pictures of kindness on the bulletin board and makes a kindness quilt, which grows and grows. The philosophy gets a little slippery, too: Is it kindness to do your chores without being asked? If you do a kind thing so you can make a picture of it, is it still kind? Possibly too much burden for a pretty package. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7614-5313-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
Sweet as cake.
Can this birthday be saved?
Beaver is an exacting sort, and he’s planned the perfect birthday cake for his upcoming celebration. Unlike a certain little red hen, from the start he’d prefer to do it himself, but his enthusiastic friends—Tortoise, Bird, Rabbit, and Squirrel—are determined to help bake the cake. A series of mishaps on the parts of these well-intentioned pals makes for a result that is less than perfect according to Beaver’s perfectionist point of view. In a rage, he tells everyone to leave and then starts all over, following the complicated recipe to the letter and into the night. This time, the cake is perfect, but when Beaver digs into a slice, he also begins to sob with loneliness and regret. His friends overhear his cries and graciously return to his side and comfort him, resolving to celebrate the next day after everyone’s had a good night’s sleep. When they do celebrate, they use the original cake (what becomes of the “perfect” one is unclear), and all’s well that ends well. Throughout, Hudson’s accompanying illustrations use a nice balance of spot and full-page compositions to support pacing and offer faithful depictions of the characters and events in the story. A good sense of movement and expression animates the anthropomorphic characters, adding humor to the telling.
Sweet as cake. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68446-037-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
An object lesson in the value of patience as well as a droll introduction to meta-what-now.
Not every caterpillar gets the memo—or is, for that matter, temperamentally suited to spending two weeks immobilized in a chrysalis.
Seeing everyone headed up a tree (“We’re going to metamorphosize.” “Meta-WHAT-now?”) a clueless caterpillar hurries to follow. Despite the promise of a dazzling transformation, every step in the natural process, from spinning a chrysalis on, is an occasion for histrionic dismay (“It’s STILL Day 1?” “This is taking FOR-EV-ER!”). Gradually, though, the pop-eyed pupa’s kvetching quiets, the moans and groans turn to meditation (“Be one with the chrysalis”), and two weeks later: “I did it! I’m a BUTTERFLY!” Burach chronicles this miracle of nature in cartoon scenes as loud as the rapid patter, culminating in a migratory flight of butterflies and a final “ARE WE THERE YET?!” that hints at a character transformation that’s perhaps less complete than the physical one. It won’t be just adults chuckling at the interactions between the title character and its patiently pupating companions; all the characters speak in dialogue balloons, the protagonist’s green with purple text to match its chrysalis.
An object lesson in the value of patience as well as a droll introduction to meta-what-now. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-28941-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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