An engaging animal tale that’s sweetly illustrated.
In this children’s book, Kenyan villagers concoct different plans to stop a sleepwalking elephant from eating all their cabbages.
Illustrated in the graphic style of animated films, Williams’ story takes place in a Kenyan village of dark-skinned humans and anthropomorphic animals. One of the animals is Elephant, a hard worker whose hunger unfortunately sends him sleepwalking at night to devour more and more cabbages (“While still in a deep sleep, with his eyes still shut, Elephant got up, walked out of his hut and lumbered towards the cabbage field. He ate one cabbage and returned to his hut—all with his eyes still shut!”). The tale’s prose lacks punch and the repetition of Elephant sleepwalking each night and the other animals making doomed plans to stop him is more tiresome than inviting (“The next morning, no one—not even Elephant—noticed that one cabbage was missing from the field” and later: “No one—not even Elephant—noticed that two cabbages were missing from the field”). But Williams and illustrator Ezeokeke have worked cleverly to integrate the words and pictures and catch readers’ eyes, as in the page-splitting transition from night to day and the squeezing of text into the shape of a baobab tree. Ezeokeke employs orange, earthy colors to capture the haze of mythology and the spirit of the African savanna. The humans, while playing little part in the action, are colorfully portrayed in traditional dress. The animals generally lack personality (Elephant is a passive character and the Queen Bee’s attempts to be heard come across as anemic) but the tale is given a boost by the revelation that it has a factual basis. Young readers will enjoy this story about the escapades of a “mighty, sleep-eating Elephant.”
An engaging animal tale that’s sweetly illustrated.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8986696720
Page Count: 36
Publisher: The Hip Hop Homestead Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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