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WHAT COULD IT BE?

From the Curious Sameer series

A big blue box is waiting for Sameer when he returns home from school, and he tries to guess what’s inside.

In Sameer’s second outing (What Will I Be?, 2014), the boy and his mother, dressed in a blue shalwar kameez (tunic and pants worn in South Asia), play a guessing game in patterned sentences. The highlighted words appear in the text as in the first work but only in Sameer’s sentences. As the boy uses his senses and wits to figure out the contents of the package, his mother assures him that he can do everything that he wants to do with the objects in the box. She keeps telling him that he hasn’t guessed yet, but occasionally she does give him a clue. When he queries: “Could it be a puzzle?…Is it something I can piece together and form a picture?” Amma responds: “You’ll form pictures, but it isn’t a puzzle.” Other guesses include a book that will let him “enter a whole new world,” a magic set that will help him “make things appear and disappear” and blocks you can use to “make tall buildings and bridges.” When the gift is finally revealed, children will understand Amma’s cryptic answers. The wonderful relationship between mother and son is visualized in intense colors, striking perspectives and imagery straight out of children’s creative moments. A guessing game that spurs imagination. (Picture book. 3-6)

 

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2014

ISBN: 978-8-181-90285-6

Page Count: 28

Publisher: Karadi Tales

Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013

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THERE'S A ROCK CONCERT IN MY BEDROOM

Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.

Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.

Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: March 29, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin

Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022

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ONE FAMILY

A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.

A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.

Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”

A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: May 26, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015

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