by Oliver Jeffers ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2016
A clever concept book from beginning to end.
Hooray! Jeffers’ Hueys return—not in a story, but in a concept book about opposites.
It opens with two Hueys failing to determine the opposite of “the beginning” but then succeeding in naming those for other words like “up,” “high,” “cold,” and so on. Jeffers deftly exploits interdependence of art and text as illustrations present the opposing concepts with humor and panache. For example, the text reading “And the opposite of high…” is accompanied by a picture of a cat in a tree exclaiming “UH-oh!” while one Huey gazes up in concern, his coffee cup on the ground before him, and another strides toward the tree with a handsaw. The facing page resolves the opposite with the phrase “is low” and shows the felled tree and the cat sitting on a stump licking its paw. “Thanks,” it says—but that’s not all that’s happening on this page: the other Huey now stands bereft while gazing at his smashed coffee cup on the ground under the tree. Such humor punctuates many spreads, but some scenarios are a bit harder to read than others (the happy/sad juxtaposition requires a fair amount of sophistication, for instance). The conclusion, finally naming the opposite of the beginning as “the end,” is crystal clear and funny to boot.
A clever concept book from beginning to end. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-25770-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
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by Jimmy Fallon ; illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015
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
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SEEN & HEARD
by George Shannon ; illustrated by Blanca Gómez ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2015
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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