A delightful story of love and hope.
Families are formed everywhere—including large metropolitan mass-transit systems!
Baby Kevin, initially known as “Danny ACE Doe,” was found in the New York City’s 14th Street subway station, which serves the A-C-E lines, by one of his future fathers, Danny. Kevin’s other father, Pete (author Mercurio), serves as the narrator, explaining how the two men came to add the newborn to their family. Readers are given an abridged version of the story from Danny and Pete’s point of view as they work to formally adopt Kevin and bring him home in time for Christmas. The story excels at highlighting the determination of loving fathers while still including realistic moments of hesitation, doubt, and fear that occur for new and soon-to-be parents. The language is mindful of its audience (for example using “piggy banks” instead of “bank accounts” to discuss finances) while never patronizing young readers. Espinosa’s posterlike artwork—which presents the cleanest New York readers are ever likely to see—extends the text and makes use of unexpected angles to heighten emotional scenes and moments of urgency. The diversity of skin tones, ages, and faces (Danny and Pete both present white, and Kevin has light brown skin) befits the Big Apple. Family snapshots and a closing author’s note emphasize that the most important thing in any family is love. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.3-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 43% of actual size.)
A delightful story of love and hope. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-42754-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
With this ode to music and mermaids, McShane deftly uses old stories to create a lyrical, satisfying new one. (author’s note)
A contemporary Irish seanchaí, or storyteller, uses a bit of historical text from 558 C.E.—the Annals of the Four Masters—to fashion a story about a wondrous creature from the sea.
In this story, Brother Declan finds an unconscious boy on the rugged shore of Belfast Lough near Bangor Abbey, an early monastic community in Ireland. When the kind monks treat Rónán, he tells them of his rescue from the sea by “the lady with the golden hair.” He explains that “she sang to me till we reached the shore,” gave him the silver ring he was found clutching, marked with an L, and “told me that one day I would help her.” As Rónán recovers, Brother Declan tells him ancient stories about selkies and singing mermaids, including Líban, who “roamed the lonesome seas” for three centuries. When the boy’s health is fully restored, he works alongside the monks, but he is enchanted by music. Wise Brother Declan makes him a harp, and Rónán becomes a musician. Fishing one day, he plays his harp, and “a lonesome song came in reply.” Líban surfaces and asks to be taken to the abbey, to be blessed by the abbot, who christens the mermaid Muirgen, “born of the sea.” The painterly illustrations, with their natural browns, greens, and blues, are somber but fit well with the traditional tone of the story. All characters appear to be white.
With this ode to music and mermaids, McShane deftly uses old stories to create a lyrical, satisfying new one. (author’s note)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0022-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Visually striking and unusual, this picture book makes the myth of Sasquatch come alive.
With imaginative language and humorous imagery, this picture book takes readers deep into the life of a friendly and contemplative sasquatch who ponders why he is such a curiosity to humans. Young readers will marvel as he grows from 9 feet to 12. When he emerges from a swim in the river, his hair is dripping with water, and he leaves a puddle big enough for humans to swim in! He grooms himself, fishes and bathes in the river, and wanders a great cedar forest. He lives peacefully with bears, leaving enormous footsteps behind him as he goes. After hibernating in a cave, he meets a female sasquatch; they fall in love and have a child. The mother sasquatch weaves cedar basket after cedar basket, strong and watertight, which they leave all over the forest to gather rainwater. When another forest fire occurs, these baskets of rainwater save the whole family. The book uses composite images: photos of natural landscapes populated by two-dimensional sasquatch figures that look like make-believe cutouts filled with a wood-grain effect and marked with the iconic designs of the Pacific Northwest Native peoples. The collages give the book a funny, make-believe feel. Both author and illustrator are #ownvoices creators, the former of the Kwantlen First Nation and the latter of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation.
Visually striking and unusual, this picture book makes the myth of Sasquatch come alive. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-88971-376-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nightwood Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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