Simple and sweet.
Even though he can’t change colors like the rest of his family, a young chameleon learns that he has other innate gifts.
His brothers and sisters blend easily into the forest by changing colors, but Colin’s burnished red never changes. The other chameleons decide that it’s not safe to be near him, so he travels alone and friendless. While they hunt for insects and leaves to eat, Colin hides all day under a branch. The juiciest insects are across the road, but no chameleon dares make that crossing, because it isn’t safe—the tire prints and tiny bones make that clear. One day, Colin is leaning too far from his branch and falls—right into the middle of the road. A driver sees him right away and yells, “Stop!” and cars traveling in both directions do just that. Waving a leaf, Colin calls all the other chameleons to cross the road with him, and they parade across to a juicy reward. Now, that part of the road is known as the chameleon crossing, and Colin is a hero. Each two-page spread in Quarry’s gentle story is also an opportunity for little readers to find the chameleons. Her illustrations, which look like prints, employ multiple shades of green, brown, and yellow to great effect; bright Colin stands out!
Simple and sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-76036-047-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Delightful and engaging.
Preschoolers can follow a little brown mouse on its traveling adventures in this engaging color concept book.
As the book starts, a little mouse can be seen packing up her equally itty-bitty suitcase. Rhyming text with a wonderful read-aloud rhythm introduces readers to the little mouse’s street: “Red house / Blue house / Green house / Tree house! / See the tiny mouse / in her little brown house?” Clean-lined, colorful illustrations in Gómez’s signature style lead readers along: into a flower-filled garden; on a ride on a red city bus; in a potted windowsill plant attended by a child; on the curb where a group of people wait to cross a street; in an underwater scene with “one gigantic whale!”; and on a jolly ride that employs a string of vehicles. The little mouse is not mentioned again, making it easy for readers to forget it as they get caught up in the myriad delightful details of each illustration. No problem there. The book ends with “and did you spot that mouse?” This should send children back to the beginning, this time in earnest search of the little mouse and her itty-bitty suitcase. Should children need further enticement to read the book again, travel patches on the endpapers invite readers to match them to the relevant part in the story. The people depicted are diverse both racially as well as in physical ability.
Delightful and engaging. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55381-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre.
A bear cub gets a load of lyrical loving from a lumbering parent in this nature walk.
Expressed in stumbling rhyme—“I love you more than trees / love to change with every season. / I love you more than anything. / I cannot name just one reason”—Benson’s perfervid sentiments accompany scenes of bear and cub strolling through stands of birch, splashing into a river to watch (just watch) fish, and, in a final moonlit scene, cuddling beneath starry skies. Foxes, otters, and other animal parents and offspring, likewise adoring, make foreground cameos along the way in Lambert’s neatly composed paper-collage–style illustrations. Since the bears are obvious stand-ins for humans (the cub even points at things and in most views is posed on two legs), the gender ambiguity in both writing and art allow human readers some latitude in drawing personal connections, but that’s not enough to distinguish this uninspired effort among the teeming swarm of “I Love You This Much!” titles.
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68010-022-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
