A one-trick pony—and the trick’s not all that great.
The Norwegian illustrator of My Father’s Arms Are a Boat (2013) pokes a pencil-sized hole through both covers and all 64 pages of this outing—but then doesn’t do much with it.
In very plain, nearly wordless line drawings with pale monochromatic highlights, Torseter depicts a cartoon figure (a lanky creature with a face like a hippo) who spots the hole in the wall of his new apartment. He chases it as it “moves” through various rooms and then plunks it in a box. He proceeds to “carry” it through a long sequence of city scenes—it does duty as sign lettering, wheels, eyes, lights and other items—to a laboratory, where it’s shoved into a drawer. The figure then walks obliviously home as the hole follows through the sky and ends up back in its original position on the apartment wall. Though the hole may take a moment to spot in some scenes, it is too small to have any significant visual impact. Nor, in contrast to the one in Hervé Tullet’s The Book with a Hole (2011) and other similarly pierced titles, is it placed or decorated in ways that will spark imaginative play or lead viewers to fresh considerations of their own surroundings.
A one-trick pony—and the trick’s not all that great. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59270-143-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson.
After a visit, an African-American grandfather and grandson say farewell under a big yellow moon. Granpa tells Max it is the same moon he will see when he gets home.
This gently told story uses Max’s fascination with the moon’s ability to “tag along” where his family’s car goes as a metaphor for his grandfather’s constant love. Separating the two relatives is “a swervy-curvy road” that travels up and down hills, over a bridge, “past a field of sleeping cows,” around a small town and through a tunnel. No matter where Max travels, the moon is always there, waiting around a curve or peeking through the trees. But then “[d]ark clouds tumbled across the night sky.” No stars, no nightingales and no moon are to be found. Max frets: “Granpa said it would always shine for me.” Disappointed, Max climbs into bed, missing both the moon and his granpa. In a dramatic double-page spread, readers see Max’s excitement as “[s]lowly, very slowly, Max’s bedroom began to fill with a soft yellow glow.” Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape—sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle’s mirror—and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story’s lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece.
A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-23342-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
A young naturalist’s delight.
A child longs to be a tree.
Eve, a young Black girl, lives on the edge of a forest in an unnamed African country where she can see baobab trees in the distance. She tells her parents she’d like to be a baobab tree, and when they reply that being a tree means being patient and taking care of animals and people, she insists that she’s up for the job—indeed she dubs herself Eco Girl as she sets out seed for the birds, looking after them the way the baobab does. To celebrate Eve’s birthday the next day, the family leaves to visit Grandma, who lives in the forest. On the big day, Eve welcomes a rainstorm, arms outstretched like a tree. When the rain stops, she and her family walk further into the forest while her Grandma leads, carrying a wrapped baobab seedling for Eve to plant in a very special place. This is a charming story that captures children’s curiosity about the natural world and their eagerness to be old enough to do the things they want to do. Illustrations drawn in thick black lines with beautiful washes of greens and punches of yellow, blue, and brown make for a warm and affectionate depiction of nature; readers will close this book eager to follow Eve’s worthy example. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A young naturalist’s delight. (information on baobab and other trees) (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2809-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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