Suzy Goose looks like all the other geese, but she wishes she could be different. “If I was a bat, I could hang upside down and FLAP my wings.” “If I was a penguin, I could slip and SLIDE.” For each creature that she wishes she could be—toucan, giraffe (vertical spread), elephant, ostrich, seal—she mimics its characteristic action or sound. When she ROARHONKS at a cranky lion, he doesn’t like it and chases her. Suzy isn’t totally silly. She uses all of the movement styles of the animals she’s met—running, splashing, sliding—and gets back just in time to the flock—where she’s camouflaged by all the other geese. Attractive mixed-media illustrations, and a well-designed cover, utilize bright colors, textures and size contrasts to energize the spare shapes. A wry twist on the familiar theme of wanting to be different, Suzy isn’t such a silly goose after all, though it would have been nice if the text had used the subjunctive properly. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3040-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
More cozy family bonding from the creators of Guess How Much I Love You (1995). When three cubs want to know which is their parents’ favorite, Mama and Papa Bear provide inclusive but satisfying answers. The bears, sporting a subtext-engendering array of hues and markings, pose closely together in various ursine or human postures amid minimal natural settings; Mama and Papa are plainly inseparable, and the young ones, though aware of their physical differences, hold paws on the cover and are, throughout, poster “children” for sibling harmony. McBratney and Jeram again combine to address a common childhood anxiety in a relaxed, irresistibly soothing way, and the competitiveness that mars their bestselling earlier title is much reduced here. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7636-2442-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Beckoned by a moonlit stillness, a polar-bear cub wakes up and sets out for the sky, sea, and ice. She passes sleeping walruses, seals, and whales and keeps walking and listening until she comes to a mountain of snow and then waits. The moon waits with her; suddenly a star shower falls down like snowflakes, lighting up all the mammals and the cub’s snug den and sleeping mother. As the stars stop falling, shining as they too sleep, little polar bear is also ready for sleep and returns home. The broad-shaped linocuts in striking shades of nighttime blues, dark greens, and blacks are graphically enlivening and exciting. The simplicity in the art, text, and plot belie the deft craftsmanship, like carving an ice sculpture. This bedtime story will captivate young listeners; it sparkles just like ice crystals on a moonlit night. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-49524-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
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