A warm and funny tale that delivers a simple message about how significant differences can inspire lifelong passions.
A little girl’s record-breaking, ear-splitting voice leads her to a rewarding path in this debut picture book.
Juliet is born “tiny and sweet with 10 wiggly toes on her little brown feet”—and with lungs so powerful that her scream knocks birds out of the trees (eyes bulge, feathers fly) and curls the hair of the alarmed hospital nurses. The sound waves that Juliet generates as she grows up bounce around the solar system with such force that “far, far above Earth, in a ship just arriving, three alien Zorks said, ‘Let’s just keep on driving!’ ” A time-out in the corner, a slip on a slide, even a trip to the store can result in hair-raising screams that stun and alarm. But at age 9, Juliet delights in a new vocal outlet and passion: opera. Now Juliet sings “instead of crying/ and shouting/ and yowling/ and screaming,” and her voice, despite losing no volume, becomes “sweeter with each passing day.” Her proud mother eventually allows Juliet to sing in opera productions: “All over the world from Hong Kong to New Hampshire, / crowds came to see her and to listen in rapture / to a beautiful voice that could reach the back row/ that had started out loud and continued to grow.” Woodson demonstrates an appealing ability to balance humor and heart as she takes Juliet into adulthood and crafts a triumphant conclusion that serves as a gentle lesson for readers about the value of exploring the gifts that make them unique (even if those gifts can, for a time, give parents pause). In this uplifting, comical book’s attractive layout, the simple rhyming text and the illustrations occupy separate pages. The black type pops in a white background with decorative scalloped borders set against a filigreed design rendered in a palette alternating among green, peach, aqua, apricot, rose, red, lavender, gold, and burgundy. In contrast, the well-conceived, full-color illustrations by Lorena S. entertain with cartoon exaggeration (a nurse’s teeth-clenching grimace and the fleeing aliens are especially amusing), and then, with a deft touch, complement the author’s smooth tonal shift as the story eschews slapstick for a sense of celebration and dignity.
A warm and funny tale that delivers a simple message about how significant differences can inspire lifelong passions.Pub Date: March 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4776-5779-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Gooney Bird Greene (with a silent E) is not your average second grader. She arrives in Mrs. Pidgeon’s class announcing: “I’m your new student and I just moved here from China. I want a desk right smack in the middle of the room, because I like to be right smack in the middle of everything.” Everything about her is unusual and mysterious—her clothes, hairstyles, even her lunches. Since the second graders have never met anyone like Gooney Bird, they want to hear more about her. Mrs. Pidgeon has been talking to the class about what makes a good story, so it stands to reason that Gooney will get her chance. She tells a series of stories that explain her name, how she came from China on a flying carpet, how she got diamond earrings at the prince’s palace, and why she was late for school (because she was directing a symphony orchestra). And her stories are “absolutely true.” Actually, they are explainable and mesh precisely with the teacher’s lesson, more important, they are a clever device that exemplify the elements of good storytelling and writing and also demonstrate how everyone can turn everyday events into stories. Savvy teachers should take note and add this to their shelf of “how a story is made” titles. Gooney Bird’s stories are printed in larger type than the narrative and the black-and-white drawings add the right touch of sauciness (only the cover is in color). A hybrid of Harriet, Blossom, and Anastasia, irrepressible Gooney Bird is that rare bird in children’s fiction: one that instantly becomes an amusing and popular favorite. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-23848-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
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