by Pep Montserrat & illustrated by Pep Montserrat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 2006
Both written and illustrated in a highly stylized, fashion-conscious way, this valentine celebrates the way true love looks beneath surface irregularities. Because she’s the Bearded Lady in a traveling circus, no one notices Ms. Rubenstein’s beautiful eyes, or “the delicate harmony of her pretty hands when they move, or the special grace that her small feet give to the way she walks.” No one, that is, until Mr. Pavlov sits next to her on a park bench. In the illustrations, two slender, elegantly dressed, gracefully posed figures obliquely take note of each other’s finer qualities, then, joining hands, stroll through the park, oblivious to the stares of passersby. Montserrat saves a surprise for the end: Mr. Pavlov too works in a circus, and that heavy striped wrap around his neck only seems to be a muffler. Adults will be charmed; children may be amused. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2006
ISBN: 1-4027-3063-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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adapted by Eric A. Kimmel & illustrated by Pep Montserrat
by David Shannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999
The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-48087-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon
BOOK REVIEW
by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon
BOOK REVIEW
by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon
by Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu ; illustrated by Rafael López ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2022
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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