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Sophia's Red Hat

Name: Sophia's Red Hat
Author: Patricia Nichvolodoff
ISBN: 978-1-4907-6560-0

by Patricia Nichvolodoff illustrated by Shannen Marie Paradero ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2015

A fun, simple tale with a memorable theme.

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When a little girl pays an act of kindness forward, love multiplies and an entire town dances for joy in Nichvolodoff’s (Cleo’s Treasure Hunt, 2016, etc.) children’s book, with illustrations by Paradero.

Young fans of spontaneous dancing will enjoy reading this wiggle-inducing story of a twirling girl named Sophia. One day, she sees a red, knit cap caught in the branches of a tree, so she uses a long stick to knock it down. Unable to locate the cap’s owner, Sophia wears it proudly until a strong wind blows it away. She’s sad to have lost her newfound treasure, so the inventive girl asks Grandmother to help her learn how to knit another one. Grandmother complies, and Sophia is thrilled to get another beautiful red hat. She wants to spread the joy, so she makes a second cap for her grandmother. When Sophia’s mother sees them both wearing their new headgear, she requests—and receives—one of her own. Pretty soon, Sophia, Grandmother, and Mother knit more caps to share with neighbors, and they, in turn, make them for other townspeople. As the process goes on, more people—and even some dogs and cats—dance, twirl, and play musical instruments in Sophia’s ever-increasing red hat parade. Paradero’s brightly colored illustrations complement this pleasant tale. The images feature old-fashioned characters wearing 19th-century-style clothing (such as long dresses and high collars), but there’s minimal diversity of skin tone. Although the narrative isn’t exceptionally imaginative, it flows easily and offers effective repetition: “Everyone was so thrilled with their new red hats they twirled right and twirled left. They twirled down the road into town and twirled with their drums and their horns and their tambourines.” The moralistic story ends with a declaration that “kindness begets kindness.” Additionally, it poses a thought-provoking math question: “How many hats were knit for people?” It’s a bit tricky to figure out the exact number who received hats, so adults will probably need to offer guidance to help kids answer the question. Some parents may cringe at the idea of a child putting a stranger’s unwashed cap on his or her head, but many others will like the book’s emphasis on thoughtfulness.

A fun, simple tale with a memorable theme.

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6560-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Trafford

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
Joey Visits Grandpa
by Patricia Nichvolodoff illustrated by Shannen Marie Paradero

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

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The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE DEAF MUSICIANS
by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

- BOOK REVIEW
SOME FRIENDS TO FEED
by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays

- BOOK REVIEW
TURN! TURN! TURN!
adapted by Pete Seeger & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

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CORALINE

by Neil Gaiman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...

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A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.

Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)