by Petr Horáček ; illustrated by Petr Horáček ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 13, 2016
Sweet.
Shunned by the other penguins, the titular penguin’s days are filled with loneliness and his nights with dreams.
“Far away, near the South Pole,” a blue penguin hatches, “not something you see every day.” The other penguins decide that he’s “not like us” and wander away. Blue Penguin is left all alone. His days are “filled with emptiness,” but he dreams at night of being rescued from loneliness by a beautiful white whale. Blue Penguin makes up a song about the whale and sings it every morning, attracting the attention of a little black-and-white penguin. She asks him to teach it to her. The duo plays together, and each day Blue Penguin teaches her more of the song. When Blue Penguin begins teaching Little Penguin a new song, it’s “so magical” that all the other penguins come close and ask to learn it. As they gather round, who should come up but the white whale, summoned by the song; but now that Blue Penguin has friends, he no longer needs rescue. Though children may struggle to understand its metaphor, at its most basic level, the message of Horácek’s timeless story of friendship and community is clear. Its elliptical telling suits the mixed-media illustrations, which emphasize Blue Penguin’s loneliness and isolation with broad swathes of highly textured whites and introduce color as much as the Antarctic landscape allows as friendship develops.
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9251-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
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by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance.
A boy with wings learns to be himself and inspires others like him to soar, too.
Norman, a “perfectly normal” boy, never dreamed he might grow wings. Afraid of what his parents might say, he hides his new wings under a big, stuffy coat. Although the coat hides his wings from the world, Norman no longer finds joy in bathtime, playing at the park, swimming, or birthday parties. With the gentle encouragement of his parents, who see his sadness, Norman finds the courage to come out of hiding and soar. Percival (The Magic Looking Glass, 2017, etc.) depicts Norman with light skin and dark hair. Black-and-white illustrations show his father with dark skin and hair and his mother as white. The contrast of black-and-white illustrations with splashes of bright color complements the story’s theme. While Norman tries to be “normal,” the world and people around him look black and gray, but his coat stands out in yellow. Birds pop from the page in pink, green, and blue, emphasizing the joy and beauty of flying free. The final spread, full of bright color and multiracial children in flight, sets the mood for Norman’s realization on the last page that there is “no such thing as perfectly normal,” but he can be “perfectly Norman.”
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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by Sam McBratney ; illustrated by Anita Jeram ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2020
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back.
Little Nutbrown Hare ventures out into the wide world and comes back with a new companion in this sequel to Guess How Much I Love You (1994).
Big Nutbrown Hare is too busy, so after asking permission, Little Nutbrown Hare scampers off over the rolling meadow to play by himself. After discovering that neither his shadow nor his reflection make satisfactory playmates (“You’re only another me!”), Little Nutbrown comes to Cloudy Mountain…and meets “Someone real!” It’s a white bunny who introduces herself as Tipps. But a wonderful round of digging and building and chasing about reaches an unexpected end with a game of hide-and-seek, because both hares hide! After waiting a long time to be found, Little Nutbrown Hare hops on home in disappointment, wondering whether he’ll ever see Tipps again. As it turns out, it doesn’t take long to find out, since she has followed him. “Now, where on earth did she come from?” wonders Big Nutbrown. “Her name is Tipps,” Little Nutbrown proudly replies, “and she’s my friend.” Jeram’s spacious, pale-toned, naturalistic outdoor scenes create a properly idyllic setting for this cozy development in a tender child-caregiver relationship—which hasn’t lost a bit of its appealing intimacy in the more than 25 years since its first appearance. As in the first, Big Nutbrown Hare is ungendered, facilitating pleasingly flexible readings.
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1747-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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