Choose this book for the art, as the dream Hank recounts doesn’t make for much of a plot.
Little bear Hank dreams away, watched over by his hummingbird friend.
This setup is on the title page. When he awakes, the tiny bear excitedly tells his friend, “Last night I dreamed I flew!” The double-page spreads then show Hank telling his friend of his adventures on the left-hand pages, while the right-hand illustrations, vignettes inside ovals of dark, starry sky, show Hank’s dream. In a nice touch of design consistency, his postures echo across the gutter. On the left, he’s seated on a plank bridge across a gorge; the right shows him seated on the side of his hot air balloon basket, suspended over the sea. Cleverly, the scenes also echo left to right. As Hank describes flying far away and out past the trees, he re-creates the scene for his friend, using a rope swing to swing out over a hill and past the trees on it; in his balloon, he’s holding the basket’s rope in his paws. The artwork is what makes Hank’s story shine. Made from paper, fabric, stone and other objects, the dioramas are meticulously crafted, posed and photographed, creating scenes that are full of texture and feature both in-focus and soft-focus layers.
Choose this book for the art, as the dream Hank recounts doesn’t make for much of a plot. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4413-1572-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peter Pauper Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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