A whimsical equine tale that emphasizes courage, exploration, and adventure.
A horse becomes bolder and colorful when trying new things in Anastasia and Saunders’ rhyming picture book.
After a narrator implores a “brand new” white horse to “follow your heart,” the creature searches for adventures. The horse befriends a white mouse, and each time the two embark on a new endeavor, a colorful splotch manifests on their fur. When they’re unsure how to evade a tall wall, they don’t “give up hope”; instead the horse magically grow wings. The horse soars over the wall toward “the moon, the stars, and the sun.” The mouse doesn’t join because of a fear of heights, but the book reassures children that it’s OK sometimes to be afraid. Now multicolored, the horse keeps exploring the world and encourages a small white horse “lost in the darkness, alone without light.” The colorful horse explains: “You’ll soon have your very own spot of new, too.” Through its whimsical protagonist, the book shows how courage and connecting with others fosters growth, though when the horse and mouse bravely try berries on a tree, it doesn’t warn that some berries can be toxic. Anastasia’s spirited rhymes (“glisten and gleam…Sparkle and beam,” etc.) are engaging, and Saunders’ softly focused digital illustrations of a sweet-looking horse and mouse may encourage children to get out their markers or crayons and start filling in a page to color at the end.
A whimsical equine tale that emphasizes courage, exploration, and adventure.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-952425-03-5
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Jackal Moon Press
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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