Young Owen has a thing for dragons, arranging a tableau of them around his morning oatmeal. He even wears a big green dragon head (with drooping red tongue) “almost always.” One morning, Owen nudges his mom, Bea, out of bed and discovers she’s turned into a big pink dragon (the same bright pink as her housecoat). Since she’s forgotten everything she knows, roles get reversed as Owen prepares breakfast and decides to take the bewildered Bea to the hospital. On the way, they stop at the zoo, where they get into a fracas with a reptile house worker. More problems ensue at the park and at the ice cream truck, Mom breathing fire and eating bugs all the while. Finally, Owen takes mom to see grandma, who has a long gray braid and peace sign earrings. She calmly advises that it’ll probably wear off in a few days . . . and it does. Mischievous touches in Lindenbaum’s watercolor illustrations perfectly match her shrewd fable, which seems to spring from the mind of her young hero. Some moms will understand perfectly. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 91-29-66548-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: R&S/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Joyful exuberance abounds in this mother-son collaboration that celebrates family ties and the joys of eating peanut-butter fudge. Mother leaves her three children in the care of Nana with a long list of virtuous instructions (lunch: peas, carrot sticks, fish fingers) that seems imperiled by a grandmother who wears high-top red sneakers. And in danger they are. To a playfully rhyming text, the whole crew starts out with a nap, followed by a story, a potato-sack hop, a yummy lunch (biscuits and ham; no carrot sticks visible), dancing, games and finally the fudge recipe, which is a “family secret.” Mother returns and—thank goodness—memories (in misty black and white) of preparing that same recipe quickly erase her horror. Cepeda’s brightly rendered oil paints in hot shades of green, pink, blue and yellow can barely contain the mayhem and mess. A fast-paced read-aloud that celebrates intergenerational love with a mixing-bowl–ful of humor and just a teaspoon of irreverence. Fudge recipe included. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8332-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A soothing and appreciative ode to family, the moon, and winter’s welcoming embrace.
Two young Indigenous cousins share a magical, moonlit adventure in this wintry bedtime story that celebrates Tlingit culture and light found on the darkest of nights.
After the children scout for deer by “a rosy dawn,” fish for salmon “by a radiant sunset,” and clam “beneath a twinkling sky,” the day ends as generations “gather by the hearth in the warm glow of home.” At bedtime, one of the children, nervous about the dark, asks for a story, and the other—the book’s narrator—launches into a cozy and vivid tale, set in a snow-blanketed forest. Concise, descriptive language tracks the cousins’ imaginary jaunt through dark woods as Moon sings to them: “Slip under spruce, slink past cedar, delve deep into a velvety hush.” Watercolor and mixed-media illustrations in luxuriant jewel tones depict gently sweeping, dreamy scenes dotted with wildlife and illuminated by moonlight sparkling between thick trees, with the northern lights dancing overhead. Refrains of “Come! Haagú!” draw them onward, and “Daa sáyú? What could it be?” invites readers to pause and wonder alongside the curious nighttime explorers before the story of Moon’s song brings them peacefully home. Caldecott Medalist Goade reverentially shares elements of her Tlingit heritage through joyful language and symbolism-rich imagery.
A soothing and appreciative ode to family, the moon, and winter’s welcoming embrace. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780316461634
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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