Lighthearted entertainment just right for storytime.
After the aquarium closes for the night, an adventurous octopus pushes out of its tank to visit neighbors, leaving the guard to clean up its mess.
This engaging, anthropomorphic fantasy includes a short afterword referring not only to the relatively recent octopus escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand, but to one in England in the 1870s and adding interesting facts about these aquarium stars. While on the lam, the titular Octopus (no gender) playfully threatens crabs and fish, splashes with penguins, steals the otters’ ball to bowl at the approaching guard, is almost caught by a shark, inks, hides, and hurries back to safe shelter in its tank before morning. The simple text (two or three words on a page) relies on cleverly chosen vocabulary, onomatopoeia, and rhyming active verbs—“Octopus peeks. / Octopus streaks. // Octopus smoosh! / Octopus whoosh!”—with other sound effects incorporated into the pictures. Dormer’s engaging illustrations, done in ink with digital color, employ a simple black line. Human skin tones vary; the guard has a greenish yellow face. The octopus’s eyes are correctly placed in its midsection along with an (imagined) expressive smile. Other sea creatures include a sea turtle parent and child who find the octopus antics as amusing as young readers and listeners will.
Lighthearted entertainment just right for storytime. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58089-795-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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